Posted on 05/08/2013 6:48:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Washington Post offered a splashy profile of freshman Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday, and the most surprising thing about it was a lack of venom. The reporter described "the self-assured, nonstop talker who won national debate championships as an undergraduate at Princeton."
Cruz "honed his reputation early in his career as a dazzling Supreme Court advocate" and now "has bashed into the national conversation," most notably in attacking establishment Republicans, who've called him and other young Senate conservatives "wacko birds."
This story, however, wasn't as surprising as James Carville's declaration on ABC's "This Week." He was typically blunt -- but in a wholly unexpected direction. "I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I've seen in the last 30 years."
Carville accurately described the conservative view: "'If we only got someone who was articulate and was for what we were for, we would win elections. And we get these John McCains and these Mitt Romneys and these squishy guys that can't do anything.'" Carville added: "Well, there's one thing this guy is not -- he ain't squishy, not in the least."
The more typical take from the Left came from the same program, when former Gov. Bill Richardson insisted that the words Hispanic and conservatives cannot go together in the same sentence: "He's anti-immigration. Almost every Hispanic in the country wants to see immigration reform.
"I don't think he should be defined as a Hispanic. He's a politician from Texas. A conservative state." In the Richardson calculus, "pro-immigration" Marco Rubio is a Hispanic, while "anti-immigration" Ted Cruz is a politician from Texas.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is so tired of Cruz and his objections already that he has denounced him to his face as a "schoolyard bully." (To which Cruz shot back: "I wasn't aware we were in a schoolyard.")
Few people try to paint Ted Cruz as a lightweight -- except the lightweights. Haters at the Daily Kos blog have risibly jeered he couldn't be considered as qualified to be "pool boy." Chris Matthews bashed Cruz as "another one of these well-educated right wingers like Pat Robertson. It's like they flush out their high educations when they get out of school for political purposes."
David Letterman recently named Cruz as a "Stooge of the Night" for failing to vote Letterman's way on gun control. But the segment was so listless and unfunny it almost made you miss that other gray-haired liberal guy with the glasses -- remember that guy? -- who did that "Worst Person in the World" segment.
It's clear that Cruz's intelligence is marking him for media harassment. Former Newsweek Washington bureau chief Evan Thomas spoke for the journalistic masses: "You need to watch this guy, because there are a lot of demagogues out there, but not that many who are that smart. He is really, really smart, and that makes him potentially dangerous."
Liberals are far more comfortable with Republican leaders they can define as dimwits -- like that Harvard MBA, George W. Bush. They champion liberal politicians with mediocre college grades like Al Gore with honorifics, such as "The Thinking Man's Thinking Man." Ted Cruz upsets their liberals-are-smarter apple cart.
The media's Republicans In Name Only aren't fans, either. The New York Times columnist David Brooks -- the pseudo-conservative who fraudulently purports to represent the Right on both PBS and NPR -- declared that when you mention Cruz to other senators, "you just get titanic oceans of eye-rolling, because you're a freshman, you don't go in and take over hearings." Cruz is supposed to go along to get along, learn his place, "grow in office" and join the establishment. Brooks strangely added: "It doesn't help that he has a face that looks a little like Joe McCarthy actually."
Liberals have repeatedly linked Cruz to McCarthy after the New Yorker savaged Cruz because he said in a 2010 speech to a conservative crowd that Barack Obama "would have made a perfect president of Harvard Law School" because "there were fewer declared Republicans in the faculty when we were there than communists! There was one Republican. But there were 12 who would say they were Marxists."
The New Yorker's star witness against Cruz was "Republican" Harvard Law professor Charles Fried, who claimed he was one of four "out" Republicans on staff. Fried is an Obama supporter who recently donated $250 to elect liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Despite the media harassment, Ted Cruz is kicking tail and taking names. The Washington Post notes that his reaction to all the criticism can be summed up as "Lovin' it!" He is one member of Congress I'd like every other Republican to emulate. How crazy could that make the media elite?
Yes!
And thank you, people of Texas!
Wanted to make sure you see this. :)
I like Cruz
Ted Cruz/2016!!!
You’re welcome!
I am so proud that we have Sen. Cruz representing TX in the US Senate. I’m convinced that he is the “real deal”.
There’s a reason I don’t endorse Sarah Palin now - well, three. Ted Cruz is one of them. Another is that I don’t know what Rick Perry might do and the third is I don’t know if Sarah is going to run.
Did anyone hear Mark Levin say that he hopes his friend Cruz does decide to run in 2016? Mark loves Sarah Palin. Sarah announced she was not running in 2012 by calling Mark to tell him on air. So Mark is not opposed to her. What he is, is thinking that the legal knowledge and communication skills of a Ted Cruz are what is needed to save the country.
Mark’s working on a project. Studying, writing, thinking, and soon he will put the results out there. I believe his conclusion will be that a candidate in 2016 must run on a platform explaining to Americans that liberals, leftists, Democrats (backed by the Media) are dead set on destroying the Constitution. And RINO Republicans are aiding and abetting them, knowingly or not.
Ted Cruz is uniquely prepared to run on that platform and carry that banner.
I should have added /sarc
You're quite welcome! I had the pleasure of voting for Ted three times.
Primary...runoff...general... ;)
Flack is the greatest when your right over the target so he must be doing everything RIGHT. Love the replacement for Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Thanks Texas!!!
Ted Cruz is The Man.
While I agree that such a conclusion has a lot of validity, I am convinced that the first order of business is to explain to Americans why the Constitution even matters.
We have fallen that far.
I think the next presidential candidate needs to aggressively define the election as a battle between liberty and tyranny -- two words, unfortunately, which have been expunged from the modern American political lexicon by the media, academia and our political culture.
I was out of the country for an extended period during the runoff. To get my ballot, I had some major hassles. Then there was getting it into the overnight courier. Bottom line, it cost me about two days labor and $85 to make sure that I voted Cruz in the runoff.
That is why he won. hundreds of thousands of people were willing to walk across whatever broken glass was in their path in order to cast their Cruz vote.
That part of it will be included.
Anyone as smart and informed as Mark Levin and Ted Cruz would not put that out there and fail to explain why the Constitution matters.
Count on it.
I believe that is probably why Texas sent him.
I am proud of Texas for having elected him. Now, why don't you folks talk some Texan to him and get him to stay in the Senate?
This Cruz could become one of the great Americans. Unfortunately, the circumstances of his birth prevent him from running for President.
If The SCOTUS defines 'NBC' for Presidential Candidates and he fits the description, I'll vote for him. But right now, according to me, he is not eligible under Article II. And unless you and the other Cruz-ers are cashing SCOTUS paychecks, my opinion is as good as anyone's.
Cruz could impress me further by forthrightly addressing the issue and demanding that The SCOTUS do its gd job!
I think you are right and a ticket with Palin and Cruz in either order would be fantastic. Hopefully, neither will be corrupted by that prospect. I only say that because it seems that when you whisper "president" in some ones ear, they start getting whacked out ideas of what they need to do to win. Take Rubio and Paul for example. I hope Cruz is solid enough to resist. I suspect he is.
inelligible
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