Ted Cruz smoked pot as a young man, so he’d better switch over to the Democrats, right?

Hotair ^ | 02/04/2015 | Jazz Shaw

[SeekAndFind]

So I suppose Ted Cruz is toast, right? (Or should that be toasted…) In the more bored and rudderless sections of the mediasphere, an article from the Daily Mail issued a triumphant cry when they received confirmation from the Texas Senator that he had smoked pot as a young man. This was part of a roundup where nearly every Republican even suspected of considering a run for the White House was asked about their history with the evil weed. (The answers range from sheepish affirmatives to defiant denials, a few who hedge on it and at least three who refused to answer at all. And yes, we’re looking at you, Governor Christie.)

The Left, who find Ted Cruz to be perhaps the most hated figure in the political world right now, probably couldn’t wait to pounce. Wouldn’t the Tea Party have to abandon him now? They can’t have some pot smoking hippie wandering around running for the presidency, can they? (And let’s not forget… he’s from Canada. You know how they are.) So this is the end, right?

Paula Bolyard at PJ Media thinks the obituaries might be a tad premature.

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…

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).

Paula is correct, I suppose, but I would take it one step further than that. Even reading the frequent comments of conservatives here and at other sites who oppose the casual legalization of marijuana and see it as undesirable in a productive society, the vast majority just don’t see it as the end of the world, particularly when it’s in the distant past. As long as elected officials or law enforcement officers aren’t doing it while they are in place and guarding democracy, it simply doesn’t seem like the definition of a person’s character. I can imagine a number of people who won’t be doing cartwheels over the news, but it’s equally difficult to imagine that this one self-professed nugget is going to make them walk away. Obviously I don’t care, being a bit too libertarian for that to bother me one way or the other.

I did notice that the list of individuals who were contacted for this survey was notably missing one person… Hillary Clinton. She has been on the record as saying, “I didn’t do it when I was young, I’m not going to start now,” so I guess that’s all she wrote, eh? I mean, sure.. she was in a college class shortly before the summer of love with all sorts of people who did, and she was hanging out with a future husband who failed to inhale but at least tried it. But what does that mean? Why would anyone doubt her?

So now I suppose we can all move on to the next witch hunt. And if anyone has a picture of Donald Trump with a bong from the 70s, the address to contact is tips@hotair.com

[skeeter]

Hillary is making up for all that pot not smoked as a teenager by drinking everything in sight as an old lady, if reports are to be believed.

[OneWingedShark]

So should we just give a pass to someone who committed murder as a young man? What other crimes should we overlook?

By what right is it a crime?

[TigersEye]

If you believe Hitchens.

That could be difficult. But I have no idea what the in thing was or is in Merry Olde England. For all I know pot gives them uncontrollable cravings for fried eel and warm beer. lol

[OneWingedShark]

Hypocrisy is insisting on living right now by one set of rules while you make everyone else live by another—like 0bama.

Or the congress.

[Future Snake Eater]

Well as long as you’re not building ridiculous strawman arguments...

[OneWingedShark]

For all I know pot gives them uncontrollable cravings for fried eel and warm beer.

This just in Domino's, Cheetos, and Anheuser-Busch have entered into a strategic alliance, promoting marijuana growth and distribution in Colorado…

[central_va]

The left has such immature pundits.

[Ken H]

There's a rule that on every pot thread, an abysmally stupid statement must be made on behalf of the prohibitionist side.

It looked like no one was going to step up, so I did the honors.

[gundog]

I think jellied eel is more popular. A warm Guinness wouldn’t upset me, though.

[Pajamajan]

"What other crimes should we overlook?"

Well, I heard he leaves the cap off the toothpaste.
Clutch the pearls!

[Politicalkiddo]

No. He is disqualified by the fact that he hadn’t had bath house trysts with several men and hasn’t preformed an abortion in the back of an alley.

[OneWingedShark]

There's a rule that on every pot thread, an abysmally stupid statement must be made on behalf of the prohibitionist side.
It looked like no one was going to step up, so I did the honors.

It's funny how quickly a by what authority? chain of questions causes their head to explode.
(Especially when you hold them to the precedent of the 18th Amendment.)

[SamuraiScot]

Hypocrisy is insisting on living right now by one set of rules while you make everyone else live by another—like 0bama.

Or the congress.

Egg-zackly.

[OneWingedShark]

No. He is disqualified by the fact that he hadn’t had bath house trysts with several men and hasn’t preformed an abortion in the back of an alley.

But what if he truthfully claims that he's performed back-alley abortions on every man that he's had a bathohouse tryst with?

[TigersEye]

I think jellied eel is more popular.

OooKay! I'm kidding around, in truth I'll try almost anything once. I thought mint-Jalapeno jelly sounded like a terrible idea ... until I tried it.

[CrazyIvan]

“Idon’t remember much of the 60s so that means......”

Oh crap. The rest of us were counting on you to remember.

[grania]

I don’t understand your response to what I stated. I’m saying that Ted Cruz exceeds our expectations, because he is not being hypocritical about portraying himself.

[SamuraiScot]

Ted Cruz again meets our expectations in a politician.

I’m saying that Ted Cruz exceeds our expectations

Sorry! Cynical me thought you were being cynical about what we expect from politicians—that we expect hypocrisy from them.

I agree with you that Cruz again meets our expectations in a good way.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I used a pot to cook in, so what does that make me in the eyes of the left, a pot-user?

If they tax me anymore, I’ll going to be using that pot to piss in, before they take it, in which case, I won’t have a pot to pee in.

The best way to describe the leftists regarding “pot” is that they are all a bunch of drug-using “crock pots”, or “cracked pots” as we say in the real world.

[SierraWasp]

When all the politics of personal destruction is over and all else is said and done... I'm reminded that Christ told the lady that was caught in the act of adultery by the hypocritical Jewish leaders to "Go and sin no more!"

This when they tried to trip Him up by confronting Him with her obvious guilt to get His reaction so they could smear and discredit Him.