Maybe the author has a different opinion on the span of time “recent” means.
I happen to like both Cruz and Palin a lot. It's pretty awesome that Sarah ruffles the feathers of the GOPe, but she has been doing that as a private citizen since she came onto the public national platform.
I completely respect Sarah and would gladly vote for her on any ballot.
However, what Cruz is doing is on an entirely different (and higher in my opinion) level than what she does. He is making all of this noise as a currently sitting US Senator. The amount of flack that he has to take from the democrats is one thing, but to have to continually receive it from fellow "republicans" is another.
Ted Cruz is the man we need these days in Washington. He turns on the lights and the roaches scatter.