Posted on 02/15/2013 6:32:33 PM PST by reaganaut1
WHEN a Vesuvius like John McCain tells you that you belch too much smoke and spew too much fire, you know you’ve got a problem.
And Ted Cruz, a Republican freshman in the Senate who has been front and center in his party’s effort to squash Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense, has a problem. He’s an ornery, swaggering piece of work. Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are.
He sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and during its final meeting on Tuesday about Hagel’s nomination, he made such nefarious and hectoring insinuations about Hagel’s possible corruption by foreign influences that McCain, who’d gleefully raked Hagel over the coals himself, more or less told Cruz to cool it. It was an unforgettable moment, and one that Republicans shouldn’t soon forget, because Cruz, 42, isn’t simply the latest overeager beaver to start gnawing his way through the halls of Congress. He’s a prime illustration of what plagues the Republican Party and holds it back.
A fascinating illustration, too. On the surface, he should be part of the solution: young, Latino, with a hardscrabble family story including his father’s imprisonment in Cuba and escape to the United States. But Republicans who look to him and see any kind of savior overlook much of what drags the party down, which isn’t merely or even principally the genealogy of their candidates. It’s the intransigent social conservatism, the whiff of meanness and the showy eruptions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
John McCain as Vesuvius? Only in the sense that both produce mostly gas. I’m loving Cruz more and more.
Indeed, indeed. GOP needs more Cruzes and less McCains and Grahams.
As an anti-Commie he was great but on spending he was kind of a Rino. In his early politics he was a New Deal Democrat. He was known as a porker in the Senate. .
a badge of honor
Ted is doing his job-—he is representing the people who elected him—something few in congress are doing so it seems.
Because they have never grown out of the juvenile state and they are still rebelling against their parents’ values in order to assert themselves. Their dichotomy is they want to be treated as adults while they are unwilling to assume any responsibilities for their own actions and their own support.
I’m from Texas. I voted for Ted Cruz.
Mr. Bruni, your tears are sweet like candy to me.
To the rest of you: you’re welcome.
“and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are.”
That line right there made me want to barf up my breakfast and I haven’t eaten breakfast yet. LOL
Sacrificed more is right. Those senior lawbreakers have sacrificed our liberty and our money. They deserve NO courtesy at all! I don’t respect those senoir lawmakers because they think they rule instead of serving the public.
“Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy.”
Interpretation
Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, He already stands out for his hard work, standing up for those who elected him, making more senior lawmakers look lazy, who have sacrificed more of their morals, ethics, and campaign promises, and deserve a least an iota of pity.
You are 100% right on target, WVNan!
We all need to make certain that Senator Cruz knows that he has our full support! He sure is doing a great job of supporting US and our freedom!
Being “smeared” by the NYT is a badge of honor. If the Republican Party is to survive, they need to find more people like Ted Cruz and stand on principle. The old RINOs need to be replaced by true conservatives.
Same here. He got two votes from our household. I think he won our precinct by 80 - 20 margin.
The New York Times is truly a bunch of slimes. When would they every permit such an article against a new democrat?
(I know, boring, everyone knows that.)
And the squeaky wheel gets their slime — their anti-grooming slime.
We Texans elected Senator Cruz, and we want him to do his job just like he is doing it.
Our Senators have every right and responsibility to immediately aggressively represent their views in Congress. That is why we elected them. They do not have to wait years before they say or do anything. We the People do NOT play games with “seniority.” There is no such thing as a “Senior Senator.”
Texas Senators and Representatives will not defer to those from other states because of the CHILDHOOD game of seniority. All are equal. Rules in the Senate and House should change to reflect that. (So stop electing McCain, Arizona, hint-hint.)
If FRANK BRUNI and “The New York Slimes” has a problem with Senator Cruz, then it has a problem with the sovereign duty of the State of Texas to work aggressively in Congress during these dark times. And it makes him and the slimes wrongheaded ELITISTS.
But they don’t care that they are elitists or wrong. They probably don’t even believe what they publish. This is all part of the standard Alinsky “anti-grooming” that they conduct all the time on behalf of “the regime.”
And it is certainly a sign of Senator Cruz’s effectiveness that his squeaky wheel gets their anti-grooming slime.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.