Washington Post: Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props

Washington Post ^ | December 22, 2015 | Ann Telnaes

[Isara]

There is an unspoken rule in editorial cartooning that a politician's children are off-limits. People don't get to choose their family members so obviously it's unfair to ridicule kids for their parent's behavior while in office or on the campaign trail- besides, they're children. There are plenty of adults in the political world who act childish, so there is no need for an editorial cartoonist to target actual children.

I've kept to that rule, except when the children are adults themselves or choose to indulge in grown-up activities (as the Bush twins did during the George W Bush presidency). But when a politician uses his children as political props, as Ted Cruz recently did in his Christmas parody video in which his eldest daughter read (with her father's dramatic flourish) a passage of an edited Christmas classic, then I figure they are fair game.

Ann Telnaes is an....

[HarleyLady27]

http://www.factcheck.org/

Obama and Cruz Clash on Immigration

By D’Angelo Gore
Posted on November 21, 2014

164

President Obama and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made seemingly conflicting statements about public opinion on the president’s plan to address immigration issues in the U.S.

Obama claimed that “most Americans support the types of reforms I’ve talked about tonight,” in a Nov. 20 address to the nation. Cruz, meanwhile, claimed that “this last election was a referendum on amnesty” and that voters had sent a clear message opposing it.

Obama is right that opinion polls show a majority of Americans support allowing immigrants now living in the country illegally to stay. But fewer Americans support using executive action to accomplish that.

Cruz, on the other hand, is wrong to say that the 2014 election results show that Americans rejected “amnesty” — at least how Cruz defines it. He considers “amnesty” to mean providing a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Exit poll data show exactly the opposite.

Obama Right, Mostly

Obama’s announced immigration plan would allow parents who have lived in the U.S. illegally for at least five years, and who also have children who are citizens or legal permanent residents, to remain in the country temporarily, for three years, without threat of deportation, if they pay taxes and pass a background check. The executive action would not apply to anyone who came to the U.S. recently, or who comes in the future, and it would not allow individuals to remain in the country permanently, or grant them citizenship or other benefits reserved for citizens.

A number of opinion polls support Obama’s claim that “most Americans support the types of reforms I’ve talked about tonight.”

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17 found that 57 percent of respondents either strongly favored or somewhat favored allowing “foreigners staying illegally in the United States the opportunity to eventually become legal American citizens.” The level of support rose to 74 percent if those people had to “pay a fine, any back taxes, pass a security background check, and take other required steps” to gain citizenship. Obama’s plan doesn’t even go that far.

Likewise, a Pew Research Center poll conducted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 20 found that 71 percent of respondents said that people currently living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed to stay “if certain requirements are met.”

That’s in addition to a CBS News/New York Times poll from Sept. 12 to Sept. 15 that showed 63 percent of those surveyed said that illegal U.S. residents should be allowed to remain in the country.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The Pew Research Center poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. And the CBS News/New York Times poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Republican leaders, such as House Speaker John Boehner, have countered that Obama is “ignoring the will of the American people.” And there’s a little something to that as well.

That’s because while polls show majority support for allowing those here illegally to stay, they show less public support for Obama taking executive action to address immigration issues without Congress.

The same NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll cited earlier found that 48 percent of respondents disapproved of Obama taking executive action, or leaned that way, while 38 percent approved of executive action or leaned in that direction.

Similarly, a USA Today poll conducted from Nov. 13 to Nov. 16, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, showed that 46 percent of those asked said Obama should wait for the new Congress in January to pass immigration legislation. On the flip side, 42 percent said that the president should act alone this year to deal with immigration. Another 10 percent of respondents were unsure and 2 percent refused to answer.

The CBS News/New York Times poll from September did find that 51 percent thought Obama should take action if Congress did not. But that may or may not represent “most Americans,” since the poll’s margin of error was 3 percent.

Cruz Wrong

Cruz, during an interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, more than once said that “this last election was a referendum on amnesty” and that the clear message was “we don’t want amnesty.” It wasn’t, according to exit poll results.

Election voters, by a margin of 57 percent to 39 percent, said those living in the U.S. illegally but working should be offered legal status, according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, a consortium of news organizations. The gap is also greater than the margin of error of 3 percentage points to 4 percentage points.

Plus, just 14 percent of voters polled said that illegal immigration was “the most important” issue facing the country today, which also undercuts Cruz’s claim. Voters were given only four choices, and immigration ranked third behind the economy (45 percent) and health care (25 percent).

[Steve_Seattle]

Just as an aside, I noticed that the WP is currently featuring a story on “the quiet impact of Obama’s Christian faith.” I am not among those who think Obama is a Muslim - I’m convinced he’s an atheist - but this story is nonetheless quite the howler. Since when do the media applaud a Christian for bringing his faith into the political arena? Only when the “Christian” takes a stand in opposition to traditional, Biblical, Christian values.

[HarleyLady27]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ted-cruz

Ted Cruz co-opts Trump’s immigration stance in play for outsider status

Republican presidential candidate’s plan includes wall along US-Mexico border, ending birthright citizenship and halt to legal immigration increases

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Friday took a sharp turn to the right by laying out a plan that would place new limits on legal immigration, increase deportations of undocumented immigrants, end birthright citizenship and build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

The Texas senator unveiled his proposal at a fiery campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, where he echoed the hardline immigration rhetoric of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. While Cruz has been a vocal opponent of comprehensive immigration reform, the senator has until now supported measures to expand legal immigration to the United States.

But in recent days, he has been locked in a war of words with Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who like Cruz has steadily risen in the Republican presidential polls. Cruz’s latest move marks an attempt by the senator to seize Trump’s followers and claim the mantle of the outsider candidate during a primary driven in no insignificant part by divisions over immigration.

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Under his new plan, Cruz pledged to “build a wall that works” and triple the number of patrol agents along the Mexican border. Most notably, he proposed to halt increases to legal immigration “so long as workforce participation rates remain below historical averages”, an undisputed about-face from policies Cruz has previously championed.

Cruz has previously backed a five-fold expansion of the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers, a position he frequently touted before pro-business audiences. One amendment introduced by Cruz in 2013, during an immigration reform debate in the Senate, would have increased the number of H-1B visas to 325,000 from 65,000 annually for high-skilled workers.

On Friday, Cruz also said the H-1B visa program should be suspended for 180 days to probe reports of abuse.

“Legal immigration needs to be structured so that it serves America’s needs,” Cruz said. “We welcome people from all over the world, but we shouldn’t welcome people defying and gaming our laws.”

Cruz also declared that it was “well past time to end birthright citizenship”, echoing his recent support for an amendment to the US constitution and an idea pushed heavily by Trump over the summer.

Although Cruz said months ago that he held a similar view, the Texas senator said as recently as August that it would be “difficult to achieve”. And in 2011, Cruz argued that it was “a mistake” for conservatives to try and fight the constitution’s protection of birthright citizenship.

Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father and held dual citizenship until last year. But as questions surfaced over the legality of a potential presidential bid on his part, Cruz formally renounced his Canadian citizenship.

Cruz also said he would immediately repeal Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration, which provide deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants – including those brought to the country as children and the parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents. Rubio has also vowed to phase out Obama’s immigration programs, although he has not committed to doing so right away.

Cruz and Rubio are the only two Latino candidates on either side of the 2016 field, and both have benefited in recent weeks after registering strong performances in consecutive debates. Speculation has risen that the Republican primary could boil down to the two first-term, 44-year-old senators, and Cruz began to hint earlier this week at how he would approach a battle with Rubio.

Cruz initially dubbed Rubio as a “moderate” who would compete in the establishment lane, a veiled jab in a primary dominated by outsiders and deep-rooted frustration with Washington.

After the fourth Republican presidential debate, Cruz quickly picked a fight with Rubio over his work on a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013 and likened Rubio’s support for the legislation as being in favor of “amnesty”.

Although Rubio has long distanced himself from the bill, it continues to be seen as his main liability in the primary – especially with figures like Trump and Cruz looking to further incite conservative anger over the issue with sharp anti-immigration rhetoric.

Rubio hit back by highlighting Cruz’s own support for legalizing undocumented immigrants. During the same immigration debate in 2013, Cruz offered an amendment to Rubio’s bill that would guarantee legal status but bar any pathway to citizenship.

“On the immigration front … I’m puzzled and quite frankly surprised by Ted’s attacks since Ted’s position on immigration is not much different than mine,” Rubio told reporters Friday after addressing a Republican conference in Orlando, where Cruz also spoke. “He is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally.

“If he’s changed that position, he certainly has a right to change his position on that issue, but he should be clear about that.”

Cruz laughed off Rubio’s comments in his own interview Friday, calling it a “truly stunning” statement.

“That’s like Obama saying my position is the same as his on Obamacare,” Cruz said. “That’s like Ayatollah Khamenei saying my position is the same as his on the Iranian nuclear deal.”

Cruz’s campaign has insisted the legalization measure was designed to kill the broader immigration reform efforts. As his aides put it, Cruz’s goal was to expose that Democrats would settle for nothing less than citizenship in the hopes that Republicans might rescind their support for the comprehensive bill – but it passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote anyway.

Even so, several clips and interviews with Cruz reveal he advocated in favor of legalization – which were fervently circulated by Rubio’s campaign over the past two days on social media and in press releases.

Cruz’s new immigration plan did not address the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants. Whereas Trump has said he would deport them all, Cruz proposed simply to “increase deportations” and multiple attempts by reporters on Friday to get more specificity were ignored.

In his remarks on Friday, Cruz launched into a lengthy rant against “amnesty” in a bid to portray it as counter to conservative ideals.

“If you’re supporting amnesty, you’re supporting the Obama-Clinton abandoning of the nation of Israel,” Cruz said. “If you’re supporting amnesty, you’re supporting the Ayatollah Khomeini having nuclear weapons in Iran.”

[caver]

I’ve never seen Ted’s kids until “Ann” here brought it up.

[subterfuge]

My wife’s family does skits and roasts of family members for their birthdays and other milestones. It’s really sweet.

They included me on a birthday for my father in law before we were married. It was a Hee Haw skit theme and they filmed it. We still watch it occasionally. It’s a hoot.

Years later for my birthday the in laws dressed up as the band Kiss, which was so out of their realm it was painfully funny.

I imagine the Cruz family is close like that. My own fam really wasn’t.

[Steve_Seattle]

It is very common to see photos of very young children of liberals holding up signs in favor of some liberal cause of which the children probably haven’t the slightest clue as to its pros-and-cons, or its ramifications. Yet that is never commented on in a negative way by the MSM, or used as a justification for mocking the children, OR their parents.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Wrong thread for copy/paste spam.
The Guardian? Really?

[kcvl]

Ann Telnaes must have missed the Clinton’s prop (to this day) Chelsea Clinton!

******

Brent Bozell
Twitter - BrentBozell
Obamas using kids in Christmas “prop” mode on the WashPost at the same time as Ann Telnaes-animated hate: ow.ly/Wfptn
41 mins ago - Twitter

[cripplecreek]

If the kids weren’t there they would call him an absentee father.

(BTW the cartoon has been removed)

[HarleyLady27]

Then so is this one:

In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Washington Post: Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props, CatherineofAragon wrote:

Sorry, but Cruz was proposing a wall in 2011, when your boyfriend was hosting a reality TV show.

Looks like he copied Cruz.

[kcvl]

Ann Carolyn Telnaes (born 1960 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an editorial cartoonist. She studied with the Character Animation program at California Institute of the Arts.

Her cartoons tend to be quite liberal in tone and have a special focus on women’s issues, such as burkas, third world pregnancy and abortion rights. A former animator at Disney, her cartoons are easily recognizable for their fluid lines and bright (often spot) colors.

[gov_bean_ counter]

This thread was about the WoPl comments on Cruz’s children. Not real bright, are you?

[CatherineofAragon]

You can dig up all the crap you like, but the fact remains that Cruz was out in front on the issues while your boy was hosting a TV show.

BTW, you know that isn’t Trump’s real signature on that card, don’t you?

[Fundamentally Fair]

The border wall was Trump’s idea?

You’re going with that?

[CatherineofAragon]

"(BTW the cartoon has been removed)"

Good.

[cripplecreek]

I believe it was 2013 when congress voted to build a border wall but Obama has refused to sign off on it. All it needs is the signature of the president.

[RginTN]

Can you imagine how he’s laughed at by heads of state with that face? What an embarrassment.

---

no wonder Putin struts around bare chested!

[CatherineofAragon]

Ugh...KGB thugs and puffy-faced freaks.

I want a return to normal people.

[Unmarked Package]

I imagine the Cruz family is close like that.

Caroline and Catherine are natural and comfortable in Cruz Christmas Classics because Ted loves to read to them in real life. Heidi has mentioned before that he is very animated as he reads to them to make it extra fun for the girls.

The video link below is cued to a segment where Heidi describes the bond between Ted and his precious daughters.

The Story of Ted Cruz (produced by Make DC Listen PAC)