From ‘Tingle’ to Bulge: Chris Matthews Says Rand Paul, Ted Cruz Have ‘Declared War On Each Other’

As this year’s CPAC came to a close, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) came away winning the conservative conference’s coveted straw poll. And in the days since, Paul and his Republican colleague Texas Senator Ted Cruz have traded barbs. The recent rift between the two junior Senators centers around what they believe the Republican Party’s foreign policy framework should be.

“I don’t claim to be the next Ronald Reagan nor do I attempt to disparage fellow Republicans as not being sufficiently Reaganesque,” Paul wrote in a recent op-ed. “I will remind anyone who thinks we will win elections by trashing previous Republican nominees or holding oneself out as some paragon in the mold of Reagan, that splintering the party is not the route to victory.”

Enter Chris Matthews. Under a chyron that read “Fight on the Right,” Chris Matthews ranted last night “Paul and Cruz, two red-hots angling for the pry’s nomination in 2016, have officially declared war on each other.”

Although Paul and Cruz are potential presidential party nominee rivals, the two tea party luminaries are not waging war on each other.

But, of course, that won’t stop Chris Matthews and his tingle from fantasizing about it.