Posted on 02/15/2013 6:32:33 PM PST by reaganaut1
WHEN a Vesuvius like John McCain tells you that you belch too much smoke and spew too much fire, you know you’ve got a problem.
And Ted Cruz, a Republican freshman in the Senate who has been front and center in his party’s effort to squash Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense, has a problem. He’s an ornery, swaggering piece of work. Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are.
He sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and during its final meeting on Tuesday about Hagel’s nomination, he made such nefarious and hectoring insinuations about Hagel’s possible corruption by foreign influences that McCain, who’d gleefully raked Hagel over the coals himself, more or less told Cruz to cool it. It was an unforgettable moment, and one that Republicans shouldn’t soon forget, because Cruz, 42, isn’t simply the latest overeager beaver to start gnawing his way through the halls of Congress. He’s a prime illustration of what plagues the Republican Party and holds it back.
A fascinating illustration, too. On the surface, he should be part of the solution: young, Latino, with a hardscrabble family story including his father’s imprisonment in Cuba and escape to the United States. But Republicans who look to him and see any kind of savior overlook much of what drags the party down, which isn’t merely or even principally the genealogy of their candidates. It’s the intransigent social conservatism, the whiff of meanness and the showy eruptions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Can you imagine the onslaught if he had taken an inopportune moment to have a sip of water??? They’d probably still be warming up the tar and getting the bags of feathers ready...
Awwwwwwwwwwww the New York Slimes don’t like Ted Cruz..somewhere Cruz is thinking to himself “Thank God” anyone loved by the Slimes is not someone I would support..Thank God for Ted Cruz this country needs more Cruz’s to defeat the RINOS in the GOP
“a Vesuvius like John McCain”
Ha. More like Pompeii.
If you think there is any hope for Sanity, those hopes will be dashed after you read the Comments following the Story.
Along with the usual Libtard whining, there more than a few of the fictional “Lifelong Republican” Posters who hate Cruz. Of course the McCarthy slander is a big part of their argument.
ONLY three senators voted against Kerry’s confirmation as secretary of state. Cruz was among them.
He has an affinity for opposing, a yen for obstructing. He belonged to the minority of 22 senators who voted against the Violence Against Women Act, which passed with 78 votes. He also voted against suspending the debt ceiling for three months and against aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
He has already flagged his disagreement with the immigration reform proposal by a bipartisan panel of senators. He has already indicated antipathy to the new push for meaningful gun control. During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” when he was twice asked about the broadly reviled National Rifle Association ad that brought the president’s daughters into the debate on guns, he more or less defended it.
He’s been quick to seize spotlights like the one presented by “Meet the Press,” and while newly minted senators often keep a relatively low profile, he reportedly holds forth in Senate conferences at great and off-putting length. And he’s drawing unusual admonitions from senior Republicans.
“I think he’s got unlimited potential,” Senator Lindsey Graham told Politico. “But the one thing I will say to any new senator — you’re going to be respected if you can throw a punch but you also have to prove you can do a deal.”
Indeed, the challenge for Republicans now — a challenge that, to limited and varying degrees, Rubio and even Eric Cantor are beginning to grasp — is to be seen and to act as a constructive force, as a party that’s for things, that wants to be inclusive and that operates with a generosity of spirit, not an overflow of spite. With his votes and his vitriol, Cruz undermines that. He brings himself plenty of attention. He’ll bring Republicans nothing but grief.
It appears that Frank "blue boy" Bruni believes himself to be quite the little concern troll. He is a fine example of standing on your head, screaming at the world that they are the ones that are upside down.
.
When "the first openly gay op-ed writer" at the New York Times loathes you with that special, special loathing, you know you're doing something right.
Gotta like him !
He’s apparently in the sweet spot over the target.
Reprise: Just look at the resume of Cruz. He’s a genius compared to Obama. Probably the smartest man in the federal government. The only ones above him in the entire country are Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell (Blacks to the future).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
I doubt that Senator Cruz will back down over the likes of this butt-monkey from the NYT.
These people really do not know what he is going to bring down on them.
The man is a WARRIOR!
Ted Cruz is speaking for the people who elected him to speak for him.
As one of those voters, I am offended by the term “freshman” . The Senate is NOT high school.
We did not send Cruz there to become the cool, popular guy with the Senior class...we sent him there to REPLACE them.
Here’s a copy of Gene Autrey singing “Deep in the Heart of Texas’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ASGoZWgKVI
Haha, well that explains it. I can just see Frankie all pouty and limp-wristed calling Sen. Cruz a meanie. Why it’s just not fair, is it Frankie Pooh?
That list right there explains why the country is in such a mess.
Oh, I don’t know, KittenClaws....
From the responses of the RINOs and the thumb-sucking bed-wetters, I’m thinking that Senator Cruz is one COOL DUDE!
Cornyn had best be updating his resume’!
The more an author like you, under certain death penalty from God for your behavior, don't like someone like Ted Cruz, the more I like him. Keep it up big boy.
Thanks, basil!
Having grown up with Gene Autrey, that brings back some nice memories.
Joe McCarthy knew there was a group of filthy ,freedom-hating Communists manipulating America ,and he tried hard to root them out.But most of America didn’t want to belive the enemy had got inside the gates ,and the commies in the media stopped McCarthy from finishing his work.
I don’t know why,but newspapermen mostly hate traditional Judeo-Christian values.
Yeah, well it looks like the GOP handlers sabotaged his response to Obama's SOU speech the other night. First, he should have been standing behind a podium with the glass of water in an inconspicuous place nearby. Worse, the whole camera angle was wrong causing his response to appear amateurish. The lurch for the glass of water was just the icing on the cake. I believe his imaged suffered some real damage because of the poor production quality. I thought the whole thing was odd.
Clearly opinions vary. I’ve only seen Cruz in action twice. Both times he was the best thing I’d ever seen coming from DC.
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