Posted on 02/07/2016 1:20:52 PM PST by GodGunsGuts
HOUSTON, TX (KTRK) -- Long before he was the Senator from Texas or Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, he was a hometown boy carving a path in life. Those who were there for the journey spoke to Eyewitness News.
Much has been made about Cruz having been born in Canada. Four years later, he and his family moved to Houston and like many young boys, Ted Cruz could be mischievous and playful. At Clay Road Baptist Church, his first church home in Houston, he was sometimes a prankster.
"He would get down and rummage around underneath the seats. In fact I heard he re-arranged women's shoes so they got the wrong shoes one time but I don't know if that was the gospel truth," said Billye Joyce Stanley with a laugh.
Stanley, 83, remembers Cruz and his parents from when they were members at the church. She taught him in Bible school and then at camp when he was older. Cruz, an only child, was nicknamed "Felito" or "Little Raphael" after his father, Raphael Cruz.
At the time, the family's home was in the Champions area of Northwest Harris County. They would make the 12-mile drive to the church.
"He was very smart," added Stanley. "I'm very proud of him. You know, it's humbling to think we taught him as a child."
The 45-year-old husband to Heidi Cruz and father of two girls calls Houston home which sometimes surprises people. He often keeps a low profile, by design, says conservative talk show host and friend of 20 years, Michael Berry.
"He's not a socialite. He's not a guy who's thrilled about seeing and being seen. That's not who he is," explained Berry. "I don't think a lot of Houstonians know...this is the local guy because for so much of his professional career he was the Solicitor General for the State of Texas. He went off to school but there are a lot of us who know him personally and have for a long time."
Cruz attended a private, Christian school in Katy and then transferred to Second Baptist School his junior year in high school.
"He was an ideal student. I couldn't ask for more," said Elsa Jean Looser, his former Advanced Placement English teacher and college preparation counselor. She says Cruz was driven and self-directed.
"You know, I turned to my husband this morning and said, 'you know, I've never had a student who's won the Iowa Caucus.' That was a whole new thing," Looser said with a smile.
The retired teacher showed Eyewitness News the classroom where she taught Cruz and the seat in the back corner where he sat. That was 28 years ago. The two still keep in touch.
Last week, a video from his high school days surfaced. He jokes about 'world domination.'
His classmates didn't think a run for president was that ludicrous. One wrote about Cruz "as president" in his junior yearbook.
"None of this surprise me," Looser said.
During his time at Second Baptist, he was a star debater, active in the drama club and on the speech team. Looser helped him prepare his application for Princeton and says his faith has always been front and center.
"He gets criticized for supposedly being an evangelical but this is nothing new for him," Looser said. She plans to "just keep watching" especially heading into the New Hampshire Primary.
"It's exciting," he added.
Once you have the stench of sleaze, there is just no shaking it. cruz is done, not just in the POTUS race, but he will never be able to get elected to anything ever again. At least not on the conservative side.
Whut?!
Such news stories are the corner stone of the press, the reason for the 1st amendment!
Yup.
I won’t get sucked up into any debate as I know what is going to be said, and I know it’s bullshit.
Too many ride off on somebody else’s horse not realizing they are being taken to someone else’s barn.
The only sleaze is coming from the sleaze factory that have become your posts. You have become just like your candidate, Donald Trump.
It’s no wonder his negatives are the highest in the history of polling for negatives. And they will only get worse if he makes it to the general.
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/188936/trump-negative-image.aspx
And let’s not forget the RCP average in a head to head of Trump vs. Clinton:
RCP Average Clinton +4.0
Or how about the RCP average in a head to head of Trump vs. Sanders:
RCP Average Sanders +7.7
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!
ping!
Moses murdered someone and David was an adulterer. Both repented and asked God for forgiveness. Moses was permitted to see the back of God because he was the most humble man ever born.
Nebuchadnezzar is another king that comes to mind. Read Daniel chapter 4 if you don’t know about him.
Who in their right mind thinks a sitting Senator from Texas could have even gotten on the ballot to run for the Senate in the first place were they not preaching the oil producers desire to get rid of the ethanol mandate?
I'm no fan of ethanol and see no reason for there to be a Federal mandate to add it to gasoline. I just don't see how Ted being against ethanol is anything other than Ted supporting the Texas producers desires. Nothing principled about it, really. Especially when his solution is a five year phase out that first has to get through Congress in any form, and then is in theory a five year program that puts the final elimination of the mandate neatly beyond the end of his current term in the Senate and were he to be elected, neatly beyond his first term as President.
Typical solution from a lawyer. A plan to take away the apple but to leave it around for five years so there are plenty of chances to take another bite or bargain a way to keep the apple around. Years to dicker over extending the phase out, ending ethanol as opposed to mandating it only for metropolitan areas, require it only where some air quality problem exists (with plenty of horse trading on what the definition of air quality is in various places), and so on. One thing for sure about lawyers, they're never going to do anything in a way that doesn't expand the opportunities for lawyers to make deals.
Ending the ethanol mandate is ending it, not phasing it out. Either the ethanol guys have already ripped us off enough and deserve whatever losses they take or they are special and deserve special consideration the rest of us aren't entitled to. A phase out is a cop out. Just a typical lawyer solution that tries to do what the sitting Senator from Texas has to do while not really shutting off the money tap for ethanol interests and selling that compromise in a way that makes goodie points with the gullible.
JMHo
You applying this to Cruz or the guy Cruz supporters say is beyond change or redemption Trump?
National polls mean nothing at this point in the primary season, if they did we’d have had President McCain and President Algore.
The Daily Beast....... Titans and Icons in journalism (100 X /s)
Yes, so called Trump supporter, he is indeed evil and should be in jail. There are so many Dems masquerading here it makes me sick. I should maybe there would be a way to keep them off Freep but guess not.
Hey,my nickname in college was Colonel Lingus. We all have our choices. :)
And here’s another look at “hometown” Cruz:
How about a teeny tiny taste of what the dems will do to the Donald if he makes it to the general (just imagine all the stuff they could have put in there if they wanted to devote a little more time...they will turn him into a laughing stock in no time):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3390733/posts
Your going to Canada for your sources, how ironic is that? I don’t understand your objections here. Cruz stabbed all of us in the back when he not only voted for, but actually pushed TPA trough congress. His corker bill vote, or his embarrassing episode of reading Dr. Suess on the senate floor should have made it clear what cruz was all about back then. But now we have him actively lying to voters in an effort to gain their votes under false premises. Not to mention the out right lies he has been spewing about other candidates positions. You can pull off this kind of sleaziness in the short term, bet eventually people are going to figure you out. Just ask the clintons.
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