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.
5 more days of this bull crap ...
He seems to have really liked that movie “American President.” He used quotes from it to attack Trump.
Good descriptive label for Ted:
*Ted Cruz: Alone, In Bad Company. *
So I watched the video - twice. He said he watched the video with Sandra Day O’Connor, not his daughters. Did you post the wrong excerpt? Or do you think his daughters are named Sandra and O’Connor?
What I took away that pertained to ‘teacher’ Ted was that he spent tune talking about Ted and not instructing students. Have had profs like that. They are insufferable because they never get it is not about them.
Cruz pushed for Roberts. Roberts betrayed all of America
Don’t try to white wash it
Cruz pushed for Roberts. Roberts betrayed all of America
Don’t try to white wash it
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When Cruz was tasked with assembling the legal team for Bush v. Gore, the second guy he called and signed on was John Roberts. They have been friends for decades, and now he acts as if he barely knows him and denies his obvious and open support for Roberts being nominated to the court.
Cruz is a great lawyer (that is true) but he is a weak candidate, he is uninspiring, he has now aligned with Bush, Graham, Romney and the rest. If he succeeds in taking the nomination he will get wiped out in the general election. No one likes him, including his own supporters. He can’t gin up excitement, and never could. He is great when addressing an appellate panel, lousy when talking to average Americans.
He told the story at the family town hall where his daughters were sitting in the front row.
Not too complicated.
Isn’t Solicitor General still an elected political office?
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No. It’s an appointed position.
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