Ted Cruz, In the Line of Fire

I occasionally like to cite the old saying, “If you’re not getting flak, you’re not over the target.” Applicable in so many situations, it can now be applied to Ted Cruz’s recent announcement that he’s running for president. At this early stage of the game, I’m not so interested in his platform, or his political record. But watching the criticism from the Democrats alongside the skepticism and tepid reception from the Republican establishment is the sort of thing that always gets my attention.

You can always tell how much of a threat your opponents consider you to be by the amount of hysteria they generate. And the bigger the threat, the more irrational their criticism. When Cruz mentioned that he was going to apply for Obamacare, in face of the fact that he’s pledged to repeal it, the news sent critics into a raving spin. What blatant hypocrisy, they said.

Yet nobody has yet noticed that Cruz also wants to eliminate the IRS, even though he must certainly be submitting his tax forms every year. Apparently you’re obligated to defy and ignore any law that you want to change. What if Cruz wants to raise the national speed limit to 65 mph? Does that mean he has to drive over the maximum speed limit to maintain his credibility?

Here was my thought: I like a candidate with a sense of humor. As a regular consumer of Obamacare, Ted Cruz can be our boots-on-the-ground correspondent reporting to us on how well his state-mandated health plan is meeting his needs, and how much it’s costing him.

And there lies the true source of all the hysteria. If Cruz follows through, he’ll likely be reporting to us whether we wants to or not. News outlets and their pundits are already locked in to the Cruz/Obamacare gambit, and it’s too late for them to back off now. They’re going to have to finish what they started. And they may be opening a can of worms—something they neither intended nor foreseen.

Imagine getting a play-by-play report on the actual mechanics of Obamacare in action. Sure the media will try to spin the whole mess into a Democrat happy meal, but their melodramatic histrionics could be just as telling as anything Ted Cruz reveals. But however this plays out, I approve of any politician who can irritate their detractors with this much ease.

TED CRUZ - MORE THAN QUALIFIED TO BE POTUS - 2016
http://www.tedcruz.org/

Pretty impressive...
• Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 - May 2008, Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in the entire country, not to mention the longest tenure in Texas history.
• Partner at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice.
• Cruz has authored 80+ SCOTUS briefs and presented 40+ oral arguments before The Court
• Cruz served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States
• Described as a ‘superb’ constitutional lawyer, the man’s considerable skills and laser-like focus were on display for all when he took oily reptile Eric Holder by the neck and made him
answer the damn question.
• In the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, Cruz assembled a coalition of 31 states in defense of the principle that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.
• Cruz 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.
• In addition to his victory in Heller, Cruz has successfully defended the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools and the majority of the 2003 Texas redistricting plan. 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.
• Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission
• Domestic Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.
• Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation
• Ted Cruz is currently junior US Senator from Texas. In order to win the 2012 Republican nomination for the Senate seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cruz had to defeat Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst -heavily favored/backed by the DC old-guard GOP- in the Republican primary runoff. In the event, TEA Party favorite Cruz crushed Dewhurst, 57-43%...
he then beat Democrat Paul Sadler in the general election by a similar margin, 56-41. Cruz is also endorsed by the Tea Party Movement and the Republican Liberty Caucus.
• AWARDS: “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business,” Chambers USA (2009 & 2010) “50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America,” National Law Journal (2008) “25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century,” Texas Lawyer (2010) “20 Young Hispanic Americans on the Rise,” Newsweek (1999) Traphagen Distinguished Alumnus, Harvard Law School
• On November 14, 2012, Cruz was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He is now spearheading efforts in the Senate to have root-and-branch...
Godspeed, Senator Cruz- I’m all in.

http://freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2015/03/ted-cruz-to-declare-presidential.html

[Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas. That is very Democratic Party]

Office of Solicitor General

As the chief appellate lawyer for the State of Texas, the Solicitor General supervises all appellate litigation on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. The Office of Solicitor General (OSG) approves all civil and criminal appeals in state and federal courts involving the state, its agencies and its officials. OSG also directly handles those appeals determined to be most significant to Texas and to the development of federal and state jurisprudence and appears on occasion in federal and state trial courts on matters implicating the state’s most critical interests. In addition, OSG regularly authors amicus curiae briefs for submission to the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts across the nation.

The Solicitor General is the state’s chief litigator in the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court. In addition, as a member of the Attorney General’s executive leadership team, the Solicitor General serves as a top legal advisor to the Attorney General and advises other agency lawyers and state officials on complex constitutional and other legal matters.

Established in January 1999, the Texas OSG is expressly modeled after the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal OSG was created through the Statutory Authorization Act of June 22, 1870, which provides that “[t]here shall be in the Department of Justice an officer learned in the law, to assist the Attorney General in the performance of his duties, to be called the Solicitor General.”

The Texas OSG appears regularly before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the intermediate state courts of appeals. Since 1999, OSG attorneys have presented 15 oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, 74 in the Texas Supreme Court, and hundreds in other federal and state appellate and trial courts, including arguments before every intermediate court of appeals in Texas as well as three en banc arguments before the Fifth Circuit. OSG has won eight Best Brief Awards from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) for briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Solicitor General of Texas is supported by two deputies, over a dozen assistant solicitors general and a highly dedicated support staff.

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