For those of you who aren’t gamers, let me introduce you to Leeroy Jenkins.

Via Know Your Meme:
Leeroy Jenkins is the name of a World of Warcraft character that is known for screaming out his name before ignorantly charging headlong into battle, killing everyone in his party. Though the video may have been staged, Leeroy Jenkins was embraced by Blizzard, making several appearances in World of Warcraft products.

Here’s the video clip that started it all;  NSFW language warning.

The latest attacks on Ted Cruz by the Rubio campaign seem to be invoking the Leeroy Jenkins strategy. That is to say, rushing into things before really thinking it through.

Look, I like Rubio. If it were down to him and Hillary — yeah, I vote Rubio. I think he’s a serious guy.  I just am not discounting Cruz as being the nominee.

I think a Cruz/Rubio ticket would be very interesting and formidable. Let’s face it, these two when let loose can eviscerate people when debating. So let’s be clear here, this is not a hit piece on Rubio type article. This is a ‘pointing out a stupid ass line of attack’ type article.

First, Rubio’s camp tried to paint the picture that Cruz was somehow pro-amnesty or ‘did a 180 on legal immigration’.

Yes, this narrative is coming from ‘Gang of 8’ Rubio.

Yeah, ummm no.

In a nutshell:

Cruz introduced amendments specifically designed to expose the fact all Gang of 8 cared about was path to citizenship.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015

Then, the Rubio camp seems to be trying to say Cruz isn’t a good friend to Israel but gee, Rubio has always been Israel’s friend. Also apparently Cruz is now pals with Chuck Schumer. I lol’d.

What Rubio is really doing here is attacking Cruz’s voting record, in particular on military spending items.  Continue reading. This is a poo flinging strategy.

At the same time as this ‘no friend to Israel’ narrative was launched, the Rubio camp has
flung poo at Cruz on his overall voting record, claiming Cruz has missed a lot of votes.

Both of them have missed more votes recently, one can easily chalk that up in part to campaigning. However, in general  it isn’t wise for people in glass houses shouldn’t throw poo. It’s just messy.

Cruz’s vote data only goes back to 2013, so we will compare starting there.

From Jan 2013 to march 2015, Cruz has missed 120 votes. During that same time period, Rubio missed 155 votes.

Rubio’s data goes back to January 2011. Total overall votes missed since then is 184. The trend line of his missed votes shows a steady increase, where are Cruz’s has fluxed up and down.

Conservatives, Moderates, Rabble Rabble…
In recent days, we’ve seen the narrative that ‘Rubio is a moderate’ being played out on Twitter. Let me say clearly, I believe Rubio is conservative.

However, in my opinion, Cruz is more conservative; I can’t help but get an establishment vibe off of Rubio.  His camps latest attacks on Cruz are giving me flashbacks to the 2012 race which was heavy in Establishment assaults on Tea  Party candidates.

But I digress.

Let’s look at some rankings and ratings.

Heritage Foundation’s most recent Scorecard ranked Cruz at 100% (lifetime score 98%), Rubio at 93% (lifetime score 90%).

American Conservative Union’s rating has strong rating for both of them. Their rating has Cruz at 100% and Rubio at 98%.

Project Vote Smart also has profiles for Cruz and Rubio. You can filter by different issues to see what they’ve done and where they stand.  You can also filter their profiles by ‘Data Type’. I encourage people to use that functionality to sort for “ratings/endorsements” and see the timeline of how the two have scored over the years according to various right and left leaning organizations.

Numbers USA, which focuses almost totally Immigration issues,  has created a 2016 Candidate scorecard.  Some of the results for Cruz and Rubio are below, but explore on your own.  Numbers USA gives Rubio an overall D and Cruz an A-.

Numbers USA  Career Scorecard
Cruz   A+
Rubio D+

Numbers USA Immigration Report Card
Cruz  B “Usually supports less immigration, less population growth, less foreign labor.”
Rubio  C-  “Leans toward higher immigration, population growth, foreign labor.”