Posted on 03/06/2014 9:50:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz is running late. In a quickly crowding hallway in the middle of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., a yellow-shirted CPAC volunteer is trying to keep control of a metastasizing line of conference attendees waiting for a Cruz meet ‘n’ greet.
“His speech went long,” she tells me.
With the possible exception of Sarah Palin, Cruz has to be the most in-demand CPAC star. The Texas senator has been a grassroots darling from Jump Street. So his appearance at the mother of all conservative events means hallways will be clogged, iPhones will be hoisted, reporters will be mashed into each other, and the Texas senator will have a chance to prove his hand-shaking mettle. He seems game.
The senator emerges from the speakers’ area in conversation with Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Cameras swarm about the pair, and the senator gets through to the green room for One America News, an oasis of water bottles and elbow room where he sits down for an interview about the IRS and the 2010 election.
Cruz’s tardiness makes sense. He can’t not get into conversations. On the way out of the green room, he bumps into Diana Cardenas, whose husband Al chairs the American Conservative Union, which sponsors CPAC. The two talk for a minute before the senator is swept out and into an on-camera interview with a Fox reporter. A host of other reporters circle the interview, cameras and recorders hoisted, and only scraps of conversation are audible — “We’ve got a hashtag, Make D.C. Listen,” “The president should have stood up just like Ronald Reagan did” – and after the interview wraps, the senator and his aides duck to a back hallway so they can get to the next stop on his CPAC tour without causing a stampede. There’s a problem, though.
“They threw away my coffee?” Cruz asks, laughing and a touch incredulous. One of the aides has coffee, but it’s cold. Can’t be helped.
From there, it’s on to the meet ‘n’ greet — the line for this event has been growing out down the hall for the last twenty minutes or so — where the senator smiles and poses for a picture with dozens of supporters.
“Are you a groupie?” one of the greeters asks me after getting his photo with Cruz. I explain that I’m not, and ask if he is. He nods. It’s a joke, but not really.
Cruz seems to genuinely enjoy the process. Harry Reid has called for votes at 11:00 a.m. today, which has made Cruz’s schedule for the morning a total mess. At about five after 10:00, his staff starts trying to shuffle him out for a 10:15 press avail. But there’s still a lengthy line of people waiting to get pictures with him, and he isn’t ready to leave.
“There’s nothing more important than the folks who have been waiting in line,” he tells aides.
“Catherine, it drives you crazy,” he continues, addressing his press secretary, “but these folks are more important than our friends in the press.”
So he sticks it out till the last picture is taken. Then it’s on to pushing through the crowd by Radio Row to get to the belated press avail. That, predictably, takes forever. One middle-aged man gets a selfie with him. Another locks eyes with him and says, “You are my hero.” Cruz takes his time.
Thanks 2DV.
I do think we’re looking at the next Ronald Reagan.
Man of the Year.
Ted Cruz Ping!
If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!
Considering where CPAC is going with phonies like McConnell and his rifle on the stage, Cruz brings real conservatism to an event stuffed with fake conservatism.
This was great,, thank you.
Gives one hope.
But when he becomes scary to the left, they will turn up the ridicule full volume. And they will Alinsky him, Palinize him. Only Reagan really rose higher for enough of the country to win elections.
I hope Cruz has a WAR TEAM for the ridicule that will come.
Cruz attended high school at Faith West Academy in Katy, Texas,[26] and later graduated from Second Baptist High School in Houston as valedictorian in 1988.[11] During high school, Cruz participated in a Houston-based group called the Free Market Education Foundation where Cruz learned about free-market economic philosophers such as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Frédéric Bastiat and Ludwig von Mises.[20] The program was run by Rolland Storey and Cruz entered the program at the age of 13.[18]
Cruz graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992.[2][5] While at Princeton, he competed for the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s Debate Panel and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship.[27] In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year and Team of the Year (with his debate partner, David Panton).[27] Cruz was also a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship, making him Princeton’s highest-ranked debater at the championship.[28][29] Princeton’s debate team later named their annual novice championship after Cruz.[28]
Cruz’s senior thesis on the separation of powers, titled “Clipping the Wings of Angels,” draws its inspiration from a passage attributed to President James Madison: “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Cruz argued that the drafters of the Constitution intended to protect the rights of their constituents, and the last two items in the Bill of Rights offered an explicit stop against an all-powerful state. Cruz wrote: “They simply do so from different directions. The Tenth stops new powers, and the Ninth fortifies all other rights, or non-powers.”[24][30]
After graduating from Princeton, Cruz attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1995 with a Juris Doctor.[2][31] While at Harvard Law, Cruz was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review.[5] Referring to Cruz’s time as a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said, “Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant.”[12][32][33][34][35][36] At Harvard Law, Cruz was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.[37]
Cruz currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Texas Review of Law and Politics.[37][38]
-—snip-—
Cruz joined the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 1999 as a domestic policy adviser, advising then-Governor George W. Bush on a wide range of policy and legal matters, including civil justice, criminal justice, constitutional law, immigration, and government reform.[40]
Cruz assisted in assembling the Bush legal team, devise strategy, and draft pleadings for filing with the Supreme Court of Florida and U.S. Supreme Court, the specific case being Bush v. Gore, during the 2000 Florida presidential recounts, leading to two successful decisions for the Bush team.[37][42]
-—snip-—
Cruz has authored more than 80 United States Supreme Court briefs and presented 43 oral arguments, including nine before the United States Supreme Court.[4][12][22] Cruz’s record of having argued before the Supreme Court nine times is more than any practicing lawyer in Texas or any current member of Congress.[44] Cruz has commented on his nine cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court: “We ended up year after year arguing some of the biggest cases in the country. There was a degree of serendipity in that, but there was also a concerted effort to seek out and lead conservative fights.”[44]
In the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, Cruz drafted the amicus brief signed by attorneys general of 31 states, which said that the D.C. handgun ban should be struck down as infringing upon the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.[22][45] Cruz also presented oral argument for the amici states in the companion case to Heller before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[22][46]
In addition to his success in Heller, Cruz has successfully defended the constitutionality of Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds before the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 5-4 in Van Orden v. Perry.[12][22][37]
In 2004, Cruz was involved in another high-profile case, which was Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow.[12][37] In Newdow, Cruz wrote a U.S. Supreme Court brief on behalf of all 50 states which argued that a non-custodial parent does not have standing in court to sue to stop a public school from requiring its students to recite of the Pledge of Allegiance.[12][37] The Supreme Court upheld the position of Cruz’s brief in a 9-0 decision.
Cruz served as lead counsel for the state and successfully defended the multiple litigation challenges to the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan in state and federal district courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 5-4 in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry.[37][47]
Cruz also successfully defended, in Medellin v. Texas, the State of Texas against an attempt by the International Court of Justice to re-open the criminal convictions of 51 murderers on death row throughout the United States.[4][12][22][37]
Cruz has been named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America,[43][48] by The National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America,[49][50] and by Texas Lawyer as one of the 25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century.[51][52]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
The left won't need to.
The GOPe will ensure that Cruz gets nowhere near the nomination.
CPAC has gone progressive. They have no room for social conservatives and are not including panels on our issues.
Cardenas chairs American Conservative Union, which sponsors CPAC. He made a speech calling for amnesty because, “Latinos are the new Reagan democrats.”
Regardless of what the GOPe does, Ted Cruz is already running for president. They’re just too stupid to recognize it.
Does anybody know if his speech from yesterday is available somewhere?
CCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Of course FOX claiming the star is Fatty Cristie.
CPAC is non interesting.
Yes, Ted will need an able, agile team of Spin Doctors, a team of lawyers to keep the IRS, CIA, and frivolous lawsuits at bay. Most importantly, Ted needs a privately operated security system for his family and himself. The Obama White House operates using old fashioned Union Tactics.
The fatal error there (among many) is the fact that the illegals have refused to integrate into our society, which is one of the key features of the lawful immigration process (learn about our culture, our ways, our constitution, our history, etc.). Instead, the illegals stay in their cultural and linguistic bubble, and keep the mores and mindsets of their home countries, which were socialistic. So when they come here, they expect the same. As a result, even though they may be culturally conservative, who do you think they're going to gravitate towards if given the vote?
Cardenas and the GOPe are a bunch of idealistic morons.
“But when he becomes scary to the left, they will turn up the ridicule full volume. And they will Alinsky him, Palinize him.”
2nd Division Vet beat me to it. He is dead on. Cruz is now the demodummies REAL THREAT.
He has his priorities 100% right....
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