South Carolina Law on Disrupting School Faces Legal Challenge

I read this entire piece and there wasn't a single word on whether using a cell phone is class is okay, or whether there should be consequences for students who not only disrupt class, but who defy their teachers.

That's why the police have to come take the students away. They've literally taken over the classroom and teachers are overwhelmed and can't teach.

Following-up from last year, "White Police Officer is Seen Flipping Black Female High School Student on Her Back (VIDEO)," and "South Carolina School Arrest Controversy Proves America's Classrooms Are Out of Control."

At NYT:

She was arrested and charged for disrupting class. Now she's challenging South Carolina's "disturbing schools" law. https://t.co/Zg83lHiIcO

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 11, 2016

So, she's pushing for a right to disrupt class? https://t.co/DjT4vsHDeN

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 11, 2016

The New Shape of the Republican Race

From Ronald Brownstein, at the Atlantic (via Memeorandum):

After his solid, broadly based victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Donald Trump now holds a commanding position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

But Trump still faces two “known unknowns,” to borrow the memorable phrase from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq War that Trump now excoriates. One is whether Trump has a ceiling of support. The second is whether, even if he does, any of his remaining rivals can unify enough of the voters resistant to him to beat him.

So far the evidence suggests the answers are: maybe, and not yet. Indeed over the first three contests, Trump’s two principal remaining opponents have shown mirror-image weaknesses. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has assembled a coalition of support that is too narrow; Florida Senator Marco Rubio is building a coalition that is too shallow.

As in his New Hampshire win earlier this month, Trump’s support in South Carolina transcended many of the usual fissures in Republican politics, according to exit poll results posted by CNN. The one big exception remained education: In each of the first three contests, including the Iowa caucus, Trump has not run as well among voters with a college degree as with those lacking advanced education. But because those white-collar voters have fragmented among many choices, none of Trump’s rivals is consolidating enough of them to overcome the New Yorker’s dominant position among voters without a college degree. The simple equation that Trump has consolidated blue-collar Republicans while the party’s white collar wing remains divided remains the most powerful dynamic in the race, even as Trump has failed to exceed 35 percent of the vote in any of the initial contests.

More.

But actually, I like this passage from this last weekend's Los Angeles Times:

...two factors could conspire to give Trump the nomination.

First, his challengers continue to find reasons to remain in the race, and the longer the field remains crowded, the harder it is for any one of them to attract more voters than Trump in a given state. In fact, one of Rubio’s main arguments is that “the longer this goes on, the worse it’s going to be,” and therefore he is the candidate who can unify the party. A Bush aide said he dropped out in part to help the party unite behind an alternative.

Trump himself mocked pundits for saying his opponents’ votes combined could defeat him if some of them drop out.

“These geniuses,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “They don’t understand that as people drop out, I’m going to get a lot of those votes also. You don’t just add them together.”

Second, polls show an increasing number of Republicans have become comfortable with Trump leading the party’s ticket in the November general election. In the Fox poll, 74% of Republicans said they would be at least somewhat satisfied with Trump as president. That number was far smaller (43%) among all voters.

To beat back Trump, Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses, will need to pick up wins in a slew of Southern state primaries held March 1, and hope other contenders drop out. But the Texas senator ultimately will have to persuade more voters to embrace his pure form of conservatism and reject Trump as a phony, a case he has been trying to make for weeks.

“If you are conservative, this is where you belong,” Cruz told supporters Saturday. “Because only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race.”

Rubio, who may have been helped by his endorsement this week from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, has a different challenge. The Florida senator will have to begin winning states and hope that a majority of Republicans decide they want a more mainstream candidate, despite polls showing voters are looking to back those who have not served in government.

Rubio did well among GOP primary voters who said they wanted to vote for the best general election candidate, but only about 15% of South Carolina voters said that was a priority.

“If it is God’s will that we should win this election,” Rubio said Saturday night, “then history will say, on this night in South Carolina, we took the first step forward to the beginning of a new American century.”

Donald Trump to Hold Campaign Events in Las Vegas Today (VIDEO)

Following-up from previously, "Donald Trump's Momentum (VIDEO)."

At KTNV News 13 Las Vegas:

Donald Trump's Momentum (VIDEO)

At the New York Post, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump leads polls in 10 of next 14 voting states."

And at the New York Times, "Donald Trump's Victory Spurs Renewed Scrambling Among Republicans."

The Party of Bush Yields to a New Face (VIDEO)

Heh.

"Yield" is putting it nicely. Jebbie got the freakin' boot!

At the New York Times, "The Party of Bush Yields, Warily, to a New Face: Donald Trump":

In his emotional seven-minute farewell to a Republican Party that elevated his father and brother to the White House, there were two words that a choked-up Jeb Bush could not bring himself to utter: “Donald Trump.”

Mr. Bush, the former governor of Florida, had been soundly rejected by an electorate he no longer recognized, hobbling his campaign and leaving him little choice but to withdraw from the presidential race.

“The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken,” Mr. Bush said, holding back tears. “And I really respect their decision.”

It was a stunning turn for the man who a year ago embodied all the qualities that his party’s elders imagined Republican voters wanted in a president: civility, experience, pedigree and tolerance.

They were wrong.

The party of Prescott Bush, George Bush and George W. Bush is, for the moment, the party of Donald J. Trump.

For the past year, party leaders who had pleaded with Mr. Bush to run and armed his campaign with a record-shattering war chest of $100 million had consoled themselves with assurances that Mr. Trump’s popularity in the polls would never translate into victory at the ballot box.

Mr. Trump, it turned out, knew their voters better than they did.

Mr. Trump’s commanding back-to-back primary wins in two disparate regions of the country have forcefully shaken the Republican firmament out of a prolonged state of self-denial.

“It’s an enormous moment,” said Steve Schmidt, a top Republican strategist on John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008 and George W Bush’s in 2004. Unless further rivals immediately quit the race, “it’s very difficult to see how he is stopped on his way to the nomination.”

Keep reading.

Bob Schieffer on the State of the GOP Race (VIDEO)

Schieffer's excellent home-spun political analysis.

Nothing to disagree with, frankly.

From this morning's "Face the Nation":

'Since the South Carolina contest moved up on the political calendar in 1980, no Republican has carried both New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination...'

A great piece, from Susan Page, at USA Today, "First Take: History is now on Donald Trump's side."

Why Ted Cruz is South Carolina’s Biggest Loser (VIDEO)

Yeah, Cruz is not cruising to the nomination. He couldn't even win SC's evangelicals.

See Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Why Cruz is SC’s Biggest Loser":

There’s no question that the main story coming out of the South Carolina primary is another big win for Donald Trump. His double-digit margin over his nearest competitors was very much along the lines of his impressive victory in New Hampshire and looked to have won him all of the state’s delegates. Trump proved that nothing he could say — whether it was repeating far-left talking points about George W. Bush, endorsing the ObamaCare personal mandate or opposing entitlement reform — could alienate his supporters. With one third of GOP primary voters solidly in his pocket, it’s possible to argue that he has a clear path to the Republican nomination so long as he is facing two or more competitors in the remaining states, especially once most of the contests become winner-take-all affairs.

But if Trump is the big winner in South Carolina, Ted Cruz is the big loser....

Cruz’s assumption was that once other candidates that appealed to social conservatives like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum dropped out, he could count on a united evangelical vote. But what Trump showed us in South Carolina is that there is no such thing as a united bloc of religious conservatives. Or even of Tea Party voters that should, in theory, also be flocking to Cruz. What’s killing Cruz is that a lot of people who ought not to be voting for someone with Trump’s record are doing so. Cruz is right that he is the principled conservative that represents the beliefs of these voters. But they are still voting for Trump.

Trump may be hitting a ceiling at about one third of the vote. But that bloc is largely composed of the Tea Party and evangelicals that Cruz assumed would never stick with the frontrunner. If this pattern is repeated in the SEC states, Cruz will lose them. And once you get past that point in the calendar, the GOP race moves to northern, Midwestern and southern states where Cruz’s brand of conservatism has even less of a constituency. Trump may triumph there too, especially if Rubio is forced to compete with Kasich. But whatever happens in those states, the least likely outcome there would be victories for Cruz...

More.

And ICYMI, "Donald Trump Wins South Carolina Primary (VIDEO)."

Donald Trump Wins South Carolina Primary (VIDEO)

He's practically cruising to the nomination at this point.

We'll see what happens in Nevada, but no matter. If he sweeps a majority of the contests on March 1st, Super Tuesday, it's a done deal.

At LAT, "Trump wins South Carolina primary; Cruz and Rubio battle for second as Bush quits the race":

Donald Trump rode a week of insults directed at a popular pope and a GOP president to trounce his opponents in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary Saturday, the most convincing evidence to date that his establishment-smashing campaign is on track to win the nomination.

None of Trump's rivals came close to knocking him off Saturday, despite – or perhaps because of – his position at the center of one of the most polarizing campaign weeks in recent history.

“There’s nothing easy about running for president, I can tell you,” Trump told a cheering crowd in Spartanburg, S.C., late Saturday. "It’s tough. It’s nasty. It’s mean. It’s vicious. It’s beautiful. When you win, it’s beautiful, and we are going to start winning for our country.”

On the other end of the spectrum was the night's biggest casualty, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who quit the race after months of limping along in Trump's shadow and as the target of much of Trump's derision.

"I'm proud of the campaign we've run," Bush told supporters. "But the people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken."

With about one-third of the ballots counted, Trump had about 33% of the vote. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, also running as a party agitator, was running just barely ahead of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for second place.

Many figures in the party elite have viewed Rubio as the last man standing between traditional GOP values and the restive forces that have come to upend them in the 2016 campaign. So far, however, he has not won a contest.

Trump's victory was sweeping. He won among veterans and nonveterans, moderates and conservatives, evangelicals and nonevangelicals, women and men, according to the results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the major television networks.

As he has throughout the campaign, Trump dominated the vote of Republicans without a college education and those with incomes below $100,000. College graduates were closely divided among backers of Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Those with incomes above $100,000 split their vote between Trump and Rubio, the exit poll indicated.

Almost the only significant demographic group that did not go for Trump were those who called themselves "very conservative," who sided with Cruz...

Still more.

And at Memeorandum.

Jeb Bush Quits 2016 Presidential Campaign (VIDEO)

Obviously, there's lots of news tonight, but this bit on Jeb Bush really rates, heh.

 At USA Today, "Jeb Bush drops out of Republican presidential race."

Our long national nightmare is over - #JebBush suspends presidential campaign. #SouthCarolina #SCPrimary #SouthCarolinaPrimary #GOPprimary

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 21, 2016

Polls Tighten on Eve of Heated South Carolina Republican Primary

It's going to be interesting.

If Donald Trump wins it'll be the beginning of a dash to the nomination. He'll have so much momentum he'll be unstoppable.

But the race is apparently tightening in the Palmetto State, so we'll see. We'll see.

At the New York Times, "Republicans Speed Across South Carolina as Race Tightens":

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates hurtled across South Carolina on Friday to make their final, frantic pitch one day before the state’s primary, as polls showed the race tightening here after a volatile and often nasty week of campaigning.

The vote on Saturday, a critical test of organization and strength for much of the field, comes as the candidates are closing in on Donald J. Trump, who until now has held comfortable leads in the polls here. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Mr. Trump just five points ahead, down from his 16-point lead in the state a month ago.

The poll had Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in second with 23 percent, and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, vying for third and fourth place, with 15 and 13 percent, respectively. Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio each had 9 percent.

As the Republican field winnows, nearly all of the remaining contenders need to deliver strong performances. A big victory by Mr. Trump would give him a jolt of momentum that could add a sheen of inevitability to his candidacy heading into the crucial March 1 contests, when 12 states vote, many of them in the South...

Keep reading.

Ted Cruz Overtakes Donald Trump in Latest Nationwide GOP Presidential Poll (VIDEO)

A huge deal is being made about this poll, but it's only 28 to 26 percent in favor of Ted Cruz, well within the margin of error. Besides, Quinnipiac's out with a new national survey as well, and Donald Trump's way out front, with a 2-1 lead. NBC/WSJ could be an outlier?

In any case, at NBC News, "Surprise: Trump Falls Behind Cruz in National NBC/WSJ Poll":

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has fallen behind Ted Cruz in the national GOP horserace, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

In the poll, Cruz is the first choice of 28 percent of Republican primary voters, while Trump gets 26 percent. They're followed by Marco Rubio at 17 percent, John Kasich at 11 percent, Ben Carson at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 4 percent.

The results from the poll — conducted after Trump's victory in New Hampshire and Saturday's GOP debate in South Carolina — are a significant reversal from last month, when Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz, 33 percent to 20 percent.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his firm Hart Research Associates, says Trump's drop could signal being "right on top of a shift in the campaign."

"When you see a number this different, it means you might be right on top of a shift in the campaign. What you don't know yet is if the change is going to take place or if it is a momentary 'pause' before the numbers snap back into place," he said.

McInturff added, "So, one poll post-Saturday debate can only reflect there may have been a 'pause' as Republican voters take another look at Trump. This happened earlier this summer and he bounced back stronger. We will have to wait this time and see what voters decide."

This poll comes after other surveys -- both nationally and in South Carolina, the site of Saturday's next Republican contest -- show Trump with a commanding lead. But some of those weren't conducted entirely after the last debate like the NBC/WSJ poll.

Another possible explanation for Trump's decline in the new NBC/WSJ poll is an increase in "very conservative" Republican voters from January's sample...

More.

Also at Hot Air, "Whoa: WSJ/NBC national poll shows Cruz climbing past Trump to lead, 28/26: I want to believe. But I don’t."

Donald Trump Goes Ballistic on Ted Cruz in South Carolina (VIDEO)

Donald Trump just finished up a lengthy press conference, and it was vintage Trump.

He attacked Ted Cruz as a "basket case" and called him the "most dishonest person."

There's brief video at the link, and I'll update with longer segments later.

That once-hyped Trump-Cruz bromance has been nuked, heh.

At CNN, "Trump: Cruz is the most 'dishonest' politician, says Iowa win should be reversed":

Washington (CNN) Donald Trump continued lighting into Ted Cruz Monday, calling him the most "dishonest person I've ever met in politics" and saying the Texas senator's win in Iowa should be disqualified.

"I've been in a business where you know, it's pretty sharp. You meet sharp people, I don't mean sharp like sharp, although they're that also. But you meet people that really go to the edge," Trump told a small crowd in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. "I've never met people like politicians, they are the most dishonest people I've ever met ... I think Jeb (Bush) is just Jeb. But this guy Ted Cruz is the most dishonest person I've ever met in politics."

He then complained that Cruz effectively stole the Iowa caucuses from him by having staff tell Ben Carson supporters that the retired neurosurgeon was dropping out of the race -- which was not true.

"He apologized to Carson after the event, he should have apologized to me," Trump said. "If Iowa had any guts, the people from the Republican Party, they should disqualify him from winning Iowa. I really mean it. Because what he did was a fraud."

Trump has repeatedly called Cruz a "liar" in recent weeks, but he amped up that message Monday, with just five days left before the South Carolina primary...

More.

Donald Trump 'Rips Open' Republican Wounds, as Rivals Say He's Declared 'War' on the Party

What a bunch of crybabies.

At the Washington Post, "Debate rips open GOP wounds, and party risks tearing itself apart":

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In an election that Republicans have long seen as a chance to put forward new stars with a fresh and broadly appealing conservative vision, the GOP is instead at risk of tearing itself apart over its past as it heads into the thick of the primary season.

A day after a debate marked by a series of personal, petty exchanges — and a day before former president George W. Bush was set to make a high-profile return to the national scene — Republicans were grappling with their core beliefs on a host of issues, as well as the image they were broadcasting to the country.

The infighting was ignited at the debate Saturday night by front-runner Donald Trump, who was unrelenting in his criticism of both how well the 43rd president kept America safe before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and of the hawkish Republican worldview in general.

The foreign policy fracas is only the latest row among 2016 candidates over many of the basic tenets that have guided Republican and conservative thinking since the Reagan years, from free trade to the extent to which the federal government should be involved in providing health care for its poorest citizens.

Trump reiterated threats to use tariffs on imported goods to punish corporations that leave the United States, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich defended his decision to accept an expansion of Medicaid in his state as a humane step in line with conservative goals.

The increasingly harsh discussions of these and other issues amount to an existential crisis within the Republican Party and reflect the growing influence of non-ideological, populist voters who have flocked in particular to Trump’s nationalist “Make America Great Again” message...

"Existential" is a strong word. Call me skeptical. "Rejuvenating" is more appropriate, and not a moment too soon.

Keep reading, in any case.

Donald Trump Clears Up His Comments About George W. Bush and 9/11 (VIDEO)

Like I said, I'll be surprised if Trump's comments on 9/11 make any difference at this point. No one's relitigating the Iraq war. Well, Bernie Sanders is, since his vote against the war is his sole foreign policy credential. But most GOP voters are worried about jobs and the economy, immigration, to say nothing of current problems in the Middle, not whether Bush 43 cooked the books.

Here's Trump with John Dickerson on this morning's Face the Nation. It's good, vintage Trump:

AoSHQ: Why Trump Damaged Himself Tonight

Here's Ace with the analysis, "The Ego Has Landed: Why Trump Damaged Himself Tonight":

The "ego" in the headline doesn't actually refer to Trump's ego, for once. Rather, it refers to the voters' egos.

I think Trump hurt himself badly tonight, enough to knock him out of his first-place standing in most states. Oh he won't completely disappear -- but 2nd Place Trump is not the same thing as Frontrunner Trump.

Trump damaged himself with his claim that Bush lied us into war in Iraq. Not botched the intelligence, not read too much into thin intelligence.

Most Republicans, I think, would agree that that.

No, Trump claimed that Bush deliberately lied us into war.

First, this is alarming because it once again demonstrates that Trump has a conspiratorial mind. It's not enough for the conspiracist to say someone was wrong -- no, they have unrealistically black/white minds, and if you made a bad call, you must have lied.

That conspiracism was always present in his claims about Obama's birth certificate. But that bit of fantasy was about Obama, someone the average Republican voter isn't exactly eager to man the battlements for.

This corker -- this Al Gore roar of quote -- is about George W. Bush, someone still looked upon with affection by most of the party.

Which brings us to the second problem.

If Donald Trump is right, and George W. Bush deliberately schemed with his neo-con advisers to "lie" us into a phony war with Iraq, what does that say about the average Republican voter who supported Bush from 1999, voted for him, defended him through the recount, cried with him on 9/11, agreed with him on Iraq, defended him from ceaseless liberal attacks on him during the war, defended him from Obama's never-expiring "Blame Bush" blame-shifting, etc.?

If Trump is right, then we're not just wrong to have supported him. If Trump's right, we're goddamned rubes and fools to have defended this Actual Hitler-Level Monster for going on 17 years now...

Well, like I said earlier, Trump's comments didn't go over very well with me, although I doubt they're going to have much of an impact on his support. Frankly, who's to say voters are interested in relitigating the Iraq war? I just don't see it. There's so many more current issues facing the electorate, things to which Trump's campaign has nailed down perfectly.

Donald Trump Towers 22-Points Ahead of Ted Cruz in New South Carolina GOP Poll (VIDEO)

The poll was conducted before last night's debate, and with the huge military presence in the Palmetto State, Trump's number's could take a dive. But considering all that's happened so far in this campaign, I doubt it.

At CBS News, "Poll: South Carolina still solidly for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton." (Via Memeorandum.)

And watch, at Face the Nation, "Trump, Clinton lead in latest CBS News poll of South CarolinaFace the Nation on CBS."

How Conservative is Donald Trump?

Here's the panel on "Face the Nation" this morning:

Donald Trump Forces Republicans to Relitigate the Iraq War

So, Trump nailed down the Code Pink constituency last night:

Code Pink is ecstatic with Trump's performance during last night's debate https://t.co/WaNv7QGLLh

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) February 14, 2016

“I watched the debate last night and LOVED IT — @medeabenjamin on Donald Trump. https://t.co/WaNv7QGLLh

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) February 14, 2016

Dennis Kucinich said he was heartened to hear Trump’s position on the Iraq War https://t.co/WaNv7QGLLh

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) February 14, 2016

And from Byron York, at the Washington Examiner, "Trump forces GOP to take uncomfortable look at Iraq War":

So once again, Trump has gambled. Maybe his frankness will allow other Republicans to loosen up and admit their doubts about the Iraq war...

— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 14, 2016

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates met in debate just hours after learning of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Beyond that, the debate came at a time when the entire world economy has the jitters; when yet another attempt to bring peace to Syria is in tatters; and when the Republican establishment is more nervous than ever about the continued strength of Donald Trump. And with all of that going on, the most passionate exchange of the entire event was about … relitigating the Iraq War.

It's not shocking that George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq would come up nearly 13 years after the fact; it pops up in Democratic debates these days, too. But the exchange between Trump and Jeb Bush over Iraq Saturday night wasn't just a passing reference. It was in some ways the debate Republicans mostly didn't have back in 2004, when Democrats were consumed with the war. And here in Greenville, as has happened elsewhere in this campaign, the candidate named Bush had a hard time dealing with the subject.

The back-and-forth started when moderator John Dickerson brought up a 2008 interview with CNN in which Trump said he was surprised that Democrats had not impeached George W. Bush over the war, and that it would be "a wonderful thing" if they had.

On stage Saturday, Trump would not repeat what he said about impeachment — there are apparently limits even for Trump. But he did not hesitate to talk about Iraq. "Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake, all right?" Trump said. "We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don't even have it. Iran has taken over Iraq with the second-largest oil reserves in the world."

"George Bush made a mistake," Trump continued. "We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East."

And finally: "They lied," Trump said of the Bush administration. "They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction."

I love Trump, but he's losing me here. And if you think back, earlier in the campaign he's said he oblititerate the terrorists and we'd win the war on terror, so he's not too consistent in his ideological positions.

Oh well, at least he's once again dominating the debate, although perhaps not in the direction I'd prefer.

Still more.

More at Memeorandum.

'Jeb is so wrong!' — Donald Trump and Jeb Bush Clash at #GOPDebate in South Carolina (VIDEO)

The stacked crowd was out of control.

Lame.

At Politico, "Trump: Boos coming from pro-Bush 'lobbyists'.



Also, "Trump: Jeb 'so wrong' on ISIS," and "Trump blames George W. Bush for 9/11."

And see, "Trump bludgeoned in nastiest GOP debate yet":

An all-out brawl broke out on Saturday night’s debate stage, as the GOP candidates viciously tried to wound each other ahead of next weekend’s South Carolina primary.

Donald Trump skewered Jeb Bush for standing by his brother and the Iraq War. Bush slammed John Kasich for supporting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Marco Rubio and Trump called Ted Cruz a serial liar, and Cruz bit back, retorting that Rubio is weak on undocumented immigrants and Trump would nominate liberal judges.

The barbs were often indiscriminate and unrestrained, drowning out CBS’s moderators and egged on by a vocal audience that booed Trump and Cruz.

“You are the single biggest liar,” Trump growled at Cruz, after Cruz suggested he’s an unreliable conservative.

The melee was the unmasking of dynamics that have largely played out by press release or in one-off one-liners on the campaign trail. It’s a sign of the rising stakes in South Carolina, which could define the contours of the race over the next few months as a three-way contest among Trump, Cruz and an establishment-backed candidate like Rubio, Bush or Kasich. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has trailed in polls, is also hoping the squabbling helps lift his soft-spoken brand, though he had few opportunities to stand out during the debate...