True, but with Bush it was a last-minute hit on a much more serious (thanks to a couple decades of MADD) subject.
This is much more minor and out a lot earlier. It invites ridicule (or the newspaper) which will overwhelm any attempt to gain substantive political traction on it.
It not only reinforces our case that Cruz and other Conservatives are held to different and much higher standards, it gives us plenty of time to make that case.
The point is that Nothing is minor. The content of the charge does not matter, only the intensity with which it is made. This one is a tiny trial balloon. It is too early to do the indignity song and dance but it is a warning of what is to come. If a conservative candidate can ignore these things and not react to or comment on them but continue being optimistic like Reagan and talk about the future rather than on how bad Obama has been, then the effect will be minimized. Just as surely as a candidate, Cruz maybe, stops to "explain" or protest or deny or apologize he is finished, no matter how trivial the charge. When the candidate reacts in any way then the voters begin to believe that the charges are serious, whatever their content. It is an exceedingly rare Republican who can refrain from reacting.