Pat Caddell broke into the Big Time with his contributions to Jimmy Carter’s victorious 1976 Presidential campaign. This not only defeated an incumbent President but equally remarkably tore the nomination away from the national Democratic elite, in favor of an outsider from the despised South - much to their fury. He is worth listening to.

I think Pat Caddell: GOP Establishment ‘Using Cruz as Cats-Paw’ to ‘Nominate an Establishment Figure’ by John Hayward Breitbart 31 Mar 2016 represents the best thinking on the likely course of the GOP contest this year.

Caddell said he believes the GOP Establishment is “using Cruz as a cats-paw.”

“Look, you don’t really think that Jeb Bush, and Lindsay Graham, and some of those who have endorsed  Sen. Marco Rubio … you don’t really think they want Ted Cruz, do you?” Caddell asked.  “They’re using him to stop Trump.”

He laid out the mechanism:

… If Trump can’t …get the delegates he needs, Caddell thought Senator Cruz would likely find himself discarded after the first ballot at the convention, his usefulness to the Party bosses at an end.

“If they can stop Trump, then Cruz will pick up some more on the second ballot… but I don’t think they’re gonna nominate him,” he explained.  “I think they will then move to nominate, to try to nominate an Establishment figure, someone who hasn’t run.  I think that will blow the Republican Party up.”

He apparently suggested Paul Ryan as their choice.

Caddell understands the motive

…the GOP Establishment is “terrified of Trump,” and also opposed to Cruz, because “they are worried about their arrangements being broken up, their power.”

And the price they are willing to pay

He said these Establishment politicians would “absolutely” rather lose the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton than win with Trump or Cruz. (VDARE.com emphasis)

Trump has a difficult but not impossible task getting a first ballot victory. The Cruz task is impossible: he needs to win over 4 out of 5 of the remaining delegates.

A vote for Ted Cruz in these circumstances is a vote to let the GOP Establishment choose their own minion. And if you think this year’s voting will influence them you have forgotten how they ignored the Eric Cantor demolition.

Caddell has appeared on VDARE.com before because of his luminous insights. In 2013 I posted CPAC: If Ann Coulter's Speech #1, Pat Caddell's #2 – And Top On $$$$ Influence which quoted Caddell

“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.” Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they're interested in winning elections.

And last year there was Nofziger’s Third Party Expectation Vindicated! Caddell Sees Lethal Split Between GOP Establishment And Base with a Caddell quote

The GOP leadership, the lawyers, the lobbyists, the consultant class of the Republican party, and all the big donors don’t understand that these people are angry. … I’ve never seen anything like this in the base of a party. And that is why the analogy to the Whigs is not so far-fetched.

Sadly, the way the cards have fallen a vote for Ted Cruz re-empowers these parasites.