Posted on 02/04/2015 6:36:11 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I suppose it’s better that this GOP laundry is being aired now, a year out from the first Republican presidential primary. Better now than an October Surprise by a malicious Democrat hack two weeks out from the presidential election.
The Daily Mail’s David Martosko asked 10 potential GOP candidates about their past use of marijuana:
Rick Perry, Donald Trump and John Bolton say they have never smoked pot; Rand Paul hints that he ‘wasn’t a choirboy’ – but won’t answer directly. Marco Rubio refuses to answer, saying no one will believe him if the answer is ‘no’; Carly Fiorina will only say she opposes legalizing weed. Spokesmen for Govs. Scott Walker and Gov. Chris Christie, and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, ignored questions entirely.
The biggest headline was reserved for Sen. Ted Cruz:
EXCLUSIVE: Top Republican contender Ted Cruz ‘foolishly experimented with marijuana,’ his campaign admits after Bush confesses to high-school pot use.
“Teenagers are often known for their lack of judgment, and Sen. Cruz was no exception,” a Cruz spokesperson told The Daily Mail. “When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he’s never tried it since.”
Cruz’s admission comes less than a week after Jeb Bush admitted to the Boston Globe that he smoked weed at the elite prep school he attended as a teenager.
Again, it’s good that these revelations are surfacing now. No candidate wants to worry that his high school football buddies (or debate teammates) are going to get a call from a reporter asking about that epic party in 1988.
Also included in the Daily Mail article is this comment from an anonymous congressional staffer:
But Cruz’s conservative political base may not look kindly on the news. An aide to a Democratic senator told Daily Mail Online: “Just wait until the tea party gets its hooks in this. I mean, we all have skeletons and even moral crusaders eventually topple of their own weight, right?”
You can practically hear the breathless staffer gleefully panting this into his cell phone from a dark corner of his office as he rubs his hands together, fantasizing about the (literal) lynching that will be visited upon Ted Cruz on the steps of the Capitol, courtesy of the tea party.
The anonymous aide is correct on one point. We all have skeletons.
Most people — tea party supporters included — understand that teenagers sometimes make poor decisions. But teenagers change. Most grow up and learn from their mistakes. People are usually willing to forgive youthful indiscretions when an individual shows over time that he has changed his ways and is sincere about repudiating the past behavior.
People tend to be less forgiving of individuals like President Obama, who wrote nostalgically — almost fondly — of his high school pot and cocaine use in Dreams From My Father. Obama wrote that being high, “could at least help you to laugh at the world’s ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullsh** and cheap moralism.” He also boasted several times on the campaign trail, “I inhaled…frequently! That was the point!” Sides-splitting stuff there.
Parents tend to get a little irritated when their elected officials make comments that put drug use in a positive light. And voters — at least those on the right — don’t particularly like politicians who say, “Don’t do drugs” with wink and a smile.
Considering that the revelations about Cruz are for something that happened some 30-years in the past and given his words of contrition about behavior he calls “foolish” and a “mistake,” this skeleton is not going to “topple” Cruz. He will not be thrown under the tea party bus and no one will care about this in a month (except for that anonymous Dem staffer who will still be trying to figure out how on earth this did not turn into the biggest scandal since Watergate).
One Ohio tea party leader put it in perspective, saying that Cruz should be judged on his current record rather than on decisions he made in his teen years.
“While I don’t condone the use of pot, I’m not going to judge his qualifications based on a poor choice he made in his teen years,” said Amy Brighton, co-coordinator of Medina Tea Party Patriots. “A constitutional scholar and an ardent supporter of conservatism – obviously, he has matured since then. Like all the presidential hopefuls, I’m going to judge him based on whether he has fought – both in words and actions – to restore personal and economic freedom.”
Oh, I forgot to mention- my hometown in Illinois, is getting a marijuana distribution facility (Cresco Labs) with an Illinois State Police substation on premise. The City Council approved of the facility. The County Board, comprised of city and county residents just denied a permit to construct a portion of approximately 73 wind generating turbines within the county borders. My oh my how the times have changed.
These are jobs that are not disappearing. Your analogy is wrong headed.
"Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Friday criticized President Barack Obama for not arresting people in Colorado who violated federal law by using marijuana."
Or was he merely pointing out the regime's hypocrisy?
Depends what kind of Social Work you do. Drug abuse counseling are for those just out of school. More specialized jobs are in Medical, or Nursing Home Care. Private practice can be lucrative as well.
Perhaps, but if I was in a field being “flooded with scabs” I’d look around for a niche not being filled, a similar field with little or no H1Bs, starting my own company or getting into something else. If the game is rigged against you, you move to another table and play a different game.
Ditto for degrees from abroad.
Many of the college graduates I’ve interviewed over the years were functionally illiterate and/or borderline retarded.
Were many of them holders of STEM degrees?
0bama dealt crack and cocaine. it wasn’t an issue.
0bama has released enemy commanders back into field. didn’t seem to matter.
he’s delivered $5 BILLION into their hands to get back a traitor. no one cared.
he’s handed them more then 400 shoulder launched missiles. and no one cared.
yet, a claim of an opposing party candidate smoking pot in high school is supposed to count for something?
are you kidding?!
I wasn't even allowed to train the Chinese guy I had to deal with - I was required to do the task for him.
Sure, among other things. I’ve probably interviewed people with about every degree imaginable and unless they were older or higher-level school graduates, they didn’t have the knowledge that a 9th grader had when we were in school. To think how much they’re charging these kids in tuition, it has to be the biggest racket I’ve ever seen.
“...but the classes are full and there’s a waiting list. Why is that?”
Women are going to college in record numbers. They are not going into science and engineering fields. Their numbers in those fields have remained flat for two decades, but their overall numbers have increased dramatically. That’s why.
Wow go to college and study really hard, have no fun and develop skills and be told just move along we will import cheap replacements as you are not important. Go sell shoes.
F Cruz then, if you are one of his supporters then he is clueless. Screw it.
You also do what you can to end the rigging.
I am somewhat puzzled by STEM degrees. Some of their disciplines sound like “imagineering”. OTOH, in comparison to crap degrees like Transgender Asian Studies being pushed out now, it makes them look competent.
I didn’t think you’d take that very well as I was writing it, but it’s the truth as I see it. But where the %#@& did I tell you to “go sell shoes” Al Bundy? Do you think Scott Walker, Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush are going to eliminate H1Bs and bring all those jobs back to America? Please!
“When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he’s never tried it since.”
Sounds much better than, “I didn’t inhale” or “did drugs enthusiastically.”
Even with those two, every kid makes mistakes, it’s a big part of how we learn. Some learn better and more quickly than others.
Food abuse is a big health care problem too. At least Michelle O. is trying to do something there, though sounding like the huge nanny she is.
Our true help won’t be found in banning “items that perish with use” (biblical terminology) but in accepting God again. People abuse all manner of things in an attempt to fill up the hole that is left by rejecting God. A higher gospel awareness is a chief reason that bans of “items that perish with use” were not considered needed until the 20th century.
Since I am being told to shut up maybe I just won’t vote.
I did it twice in my early twenties, and once in my mid thirties while vacationing in Mexico. I don’t get it. Pot made me paranoid all 3 times. I never felt Euphoric or any of the positive things I hear people say about it.
But I don’t think it changes your abilities unless you do it everyday (Willie Nelson) who I can’t even watch an interview with him anymore.
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