Posted on 04/14/2016 12:51:34 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Though Donald Trump is still the front-runner, Senator Ted Cruz has gained momentum in the race to be the Republican nominee as he adds to his delegate count and brings in more and more endorsements (some from politicians who seem to truly support him, some from politicians who are simply #NeverTrump). Cruz made a name for himself with his efforts to shut down the government in 2013, and he's known for his conservative stances: He believes in limited government, opposes abortion and gun control legislation, wants to build a wall along the border of Mexico (yes, him too), and opposes same-sex marriage.
But here's a fun fact: From 2004 to 2009, Cruz taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. What was he like at the head of a classroom? Cosmopolitan.com caught up with his former 2L student in 2008, Jason Steed, whose political affiliations lean Democratic, to find out.
It was a small seminar course on Supreme Court litigation. I would guess there were around 15 students, maybe 20 at the most. Every class day was just sitting around with the tables arranged in a circle and we just discussed various aspects of Supreme Court litigation. A lot of it was Ted Cruz sort of telling more stories about his days as a clerk for Chief Justice Rehnquist, his experiences of handling different cases at the Supreme Court.
As I recall, the main assignment was to take a case that was currently before the court. I think it was the Heller gun rights case, and we wrote a brief and had a mock argument where we took a side in the case and he provided feedback.
He was definitely approachable in the sense that you could walk up and talk to him and he was open to that. But there was also definitely a very strong sense of self. Occasionally the stories [he would tell] had value in terms of seeing how the court works, how justices think, and how to think through your own cases. But I wouldn't say that was overtly the focus of the stories. I think he likes to tell stories about himself, and sometimes they were helpful, and other times it was just story time about Ted Cruz. Other professors used their experiences for sure, but most did so deliberately to convey a point. In Ted Cruz's class, it was more accidentally useful. Or maybe he meant for it to be useful but that wasn't clear. It just came off as stories about Ted Cruz.
I remember at the time — in fact if I could dig it up, I could find my class notes where I wrote this stuff — that I was struck by the strong sense that he would run for political office. Even before he was actually running for office, he carried himself in a way and spoke in a way that sort of smacked of running for office. He wanted people to be impressed with him and his accomplishments. He was sort of trying to attract supporters and attract admiration in a way you'd expect from a politician. That was sort of his demeanor all the time. That switch was always on. He was always playing that role.
He didn't really talk about his family life. He and I chatted after class a couple times, but even then we never really got very personal or anything like that. The first time was probably the first or second week of class, when I was basically just introducing myself. We realized we were roughly the same age, but he was Texas's solicitor general and I was only a law student. Becoming a lawyer was a second career for me; I was previously an English professor. I don't recall the content of the other chats, but I assume it was always about something related to the class.
I don't think he played favorites — not that I can recall. I remember something — maybe it was rumor — about how he would only give one A, and the best anyone else could get was an A minus, though I have no idea if it's true or not. At the very beginning, on the very first day of class, he went around the circle and asked each student who their favorite justice on the Supreme Court was. I remember this being — again, I probably wrote this in my notes at the time — a fairly transparent way of trying to gauge the political leanings of each student. I felt that he was sort of fishing where each student stood in terms of their ideology or political leanings.
I also remember that he made it clear that his favorite justice on the current Supreme Court was Chief Justice Roberts. He liked to talk a lot about how he worked with John Roberts on the Bush 2000 campaign, the vote counting, the Bush v. Gore case. He liked to make it seem he knew Justice Roberts really well. That's why recently when he criticized or attacked Chief Justice Roberts as a traitor, it struck me a little bit because I remember feeling like he was saying Roberts was his favorite.
As far as the course and what I got out of it, the thing that was most impressive about him was his strategic thinking and emphasis on it. That was a big thing for him, thinking in advance about how to win, which I think is a big reason he's successful as a politician. I'm an appellate lawyer now, and the thing that he emphasized — I'll butcher the quote now — I think it's from The Art of War, is "He who chooses the terrain will win the battle." It was probably Cruz's own phrasing that he adapted from Sun Tzu to make the point he was trying to make. It was his way of talking about the importance of framing the issue in a way that works to your advantage. On appeal, you're asking the court to answer a legal question. You can do a lot to get the answer that you want by strategically wording the question that you're asking. That was the point Cruz was trying to make with his reference to Sun Tzu. And you can see how he does this in the debates too, by the way. When he's asked a question, he'll quickly reframe it so he's saying something that works to his advantage. All politicians try to do this, of course — but it's usually clear that they're just dodging or refusing to answer the question. Cruz is better at it. He can make it seem like he answered the question, even when he didn't. Or he can make you think it was the wrong question to begin with.
At the time he was the solicitor general of Texas, but so clearly a politician in the way he spoke and interacted with others. He just really smacked of being a politician the whole semester that I spent with him. When he ran for office shortly thereafter, I wasn't surprised, and when he did well during the presidential campaign, I wasn't surprised. Because he's such a thorough politician and such a good strategic thinker and planner, I was predicting he'd be contending for the nomination back in June because I knew that he would be thinking three steps ahead of people.
Not very flattering
Short version is Ted talked about himself almost without purpose, left the impression he would run for public office, and his favorite justice at SCOTUS was Roberts.
Exactly the same self centered DC political class politician we have seen on the campaign trail
.Ted Cruz talks about watching hardcore porn with his daughters in the audience .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6lpDP8c20
“A prominent aide to George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign could barely contain himself when we asked him to discuss Cruz, who worked in the campaign’s policy shop. This person described Cruz as hyper-arrogant and widely despised, and he emphasized—over and over—that the pervasive dislike of Cruz within the Bush ranks had nothing to do with ideology. (Cruz, he noted, never objected to Bush’s call for compassionate conservatism, immigration reform, and national education standards, and no one on the campaign regarded him as an ideologue.) The problem was simple: his personality.”
“That’s exactly what he was: a big a$$hole,” says a campaign veteran who worked with Cruz.
“Ted thought he was an expert on everything,” says this campaign veteran, who asked not to be named. “He was a smart and talented guy, but completely taken with himself and his own ideas. He would offer up opinions on everything, even matters outside his portfolio. He was a policy guy, but he would push his ideas on campaign strategy. He would send memos on everything to everyone. He would come to meetings where he wasn’t invited—and wasn’t wanted.” In fact, this Bush alum recalls, “the quickest way for a meeting to end would be for Ted to come in. People would want out of that meeting. People wouldn’t go to a meeting if they knew he would be there. It was his inability to be part of the team. That’s exactly what he was: a big a$$hole.” by Tim Murphy & David Korn -MJ
Ted Cruz would no doubt agree with much of your post:
“I was a young man in my 20s, and I had enjoyed a lot of success,” Cruz said, “Almost everything I’d laid my hands to had gone well. And I was far too cocky for my own good.”
At the end of the successful campaign, he said, “I desperately wanted to have a senior job in the White House. Frankly, I wanted to be … Michael J. Fox’s character in ‘The American President,’ a young, idealistic staffer in the Oval Office, saying, ‘Mr. President, do the right thing.’”
“And that didn’t happen, and it became clear it wasn’t going to happen because I had burned too many bridges,” Cruz continued. He went on to say that in retrospect, he is grateful he didn’t get the job, because he never would have been able to run his grassroots 2012 Senate campaign if he hadn’t learned a little humility. “You can’t run a grassroots campaign if you’re an arrogant little snob,” he said. “I needed to get my teeth kicked in.”
...and his favorite justice at SCOTUS was Roberts.
**************************************
At the time, Cruz was Solicitor General of Texas and was arguing cases before SCOTUS. He was not yet a politician.
Your above comment ties in nicely with the rest of the story:
“The Bush vet goes on: “I don’t know anyone who had a decent relationship with Cruz.” And when Bush became president, his top campaign aides agreed Cruz should not be offered a job in the White House. “No one wanted to work with him,” this source remembers. “George W. Bush couldn’t stand the guy.” This person adds, “It’s a real quandary for Bush campaign people: Trump versus Cruz, who to vote for? And it would be a big quandary even if it’s Cruz versus Hillary Clinton. That’s how much they cannot stand him.”
Isn’t Solicitor General still an elected political office?
1. Go to a town hall
2. Tell your porn story
3. ????
4. President
/lol underwear gnomes
And Bush still hates him. Probably more so when Bush wanted to hand that Mexican killer (Mendelin or something) back to Mexico for trial. But Cruz stood up to Bush and stood up for the sovereignty of Texas and of the United States and won in the Supreme Court. Texas executed Mendelin.
It seems Trump is always criticized for his ego by Cruz supporters, but you are correct who running for high office doesn’t have an ego. No insecure wall flower would run.
No kidding. What a contrast to the Trump family town hall.
FULL Interview: Donald Trump & Family at CNN Town Hall, Anderson Cooper, April 12, 2016
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3420377/posts
That didn't take long - a former student recalling what kind of teacher a REPUBLICAN candidate was in the classroom. We have yet to hear about what kind of teacher the Obama was. Never heard from anyone who even went to school with him, EVER!
You a Cosmo girl?
Ted sCruz is NOT surging in the polls, unless you include he is dropping as a surge in reverse. He will surge to 3rd place in the next 6 primaries.
A lot of Bush people are actively working on the Cruz campaign.
And I know why: they want Hillary to be president. They surre don’t want Ted.
“Johnny Come Lately” Cruz now wants to build a wall along the border of Mexico (yes, him too)”....
As we all know the “wall” was Trump’s idea, Cruz see’s how popular the idea is and jumped on the wagon supporting it. What he has NOT said is who is going to pay for that wall. I’m listening.
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