Ted Cruz Learns from Trump

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ted Cruz Learns from Trump

 

Nobody can say Cruz doesn't stand for what he believes. However, some people, me included, have been a bit dismayed at his timidity in calling out Republicans who are everything he opposes.

 

It looks like those days are about to be behind us.

 

I imagine Cruz, who is highly intelligent, is looking at what Trump has been doing in blasting old-boy-club Republicans and sees that it is an effective way--at this moment in history--to fight the corrupt Republican machine without committing political suicide.

 

Lesson learned.

 

Ted Cruz just called Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. He didn't use the word "liar," but he didn't use a euphemism, either (misunderstanding, error, etc). He said McConnell told a "flat-out lie" and "a simple lie." And he said, “Like St. Peter he repeated it three times.”

 

 

It's about time.

 

Michael

[Selene]

As Allan Drury and Ayn believed integrity matters.

Drury called it "Capable of Honor,"

At the convention in San Francisco, extreme elements of the Left and Right combine to support Jason, and there are several violent incidents, including one in which Knox's daughter-in-law is brutally attacked. When it becomes clear that the convention is split down the middle in fights over the platform, Jason challenges Hudson for the Majority Party's nomination (the novels never use the proper names "Republican" or "Democrat" but the descriptions of Majority Party corresponds strongly to the Democrats of the 1960s). The media, meantime, spins merrily away, filtering what the country is allowed to see and hear from San Francisco.

Ceil Jason, the Governor's wife, leaves him when her husband's lack of principle and willingness to tolerate the violence sinks in to her. Hudson wins narrowly, and Jason expects the Vice Presidential nomination since he commands the support of almost half the convention. Hudson seems amenable, and places Jason on the dais as he makes his acceptance speech. Hudson humiliates Jason by making it clear that he considers Jason a panderer, and states he will accept Knox, and only Knox, as his running mate.

The convention duly nominates Knox, but almost half its delegates walk out, to the pleasure of the media commentators, who predict a third-party convention from among the disaffected delegates.

Sound familiar?

A...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capable_of_Honor

[Peter]

From The Federalist, The Not Trump Not Bush Republican Primary by Robert Tracinski, September 11, 2015. . . . Let’s put it this way. If you want the Republican Party to stand for something, and not for someone, who is your candidate? Let’s run down the possibilities.

. . . . . Ted Cruz: The Thinking Man’s Radical
If Donald Trump seems unprepared and often inarticulate and ungrammatical—and if his supporters back him by proclaiming how great it is not to have a wimpy book nerd running for office—the candidate who seems most unlike him in that respect is Ted Cruz. A Harvard graduate and college debate champ, Cruz is a book nerd par excellence, and his greatest strength is his ability to be smoothly articulate under fire.

Cruz doesn’t whine about “gotcha questions,” he shoots them down.

He doesn’t whine about “gotcha questions,” he shoots them down with sharp, thoughtful answers. Check out his response to a pair of activists trying to ambush him on global warming. If Trump seems to be in a war against the right-leaning punditry, Cruz is the one who makes a lot of us happy by giving the intelligent explanations we hope we could come up with if we ran for office.

And yet, there is a question about Cruz’s character. He is undeniably an ideological candidate whose platform is a smorgasbord of red meat for the right, but on top of that ideology is an element of naked personal ambition.

We can see this in his response to Donald Trump. He has suddenly discovered that it is bad etiquette to criticize other Republican candidates—something that never stopped him before—once that meant criticizing Trump. He even went so far as to join forces with Trump in headlining a rally in New York against the Iran deal. Obviously, his strategy is to position himself as the next best option for Trump’s supporters if and when Trump leaves the race.

However shrewd that calculation is, it raises the question of whether Cruz is willing to place his personal ambition above principle—which he will most certainly have to do if he wants to stay in Trump’s ideologically erratic wake.

[Selene]

...He even went so far as to join forces with Trump in headlining a rally in New York against the Iran deal.

The event was in Washington DC on the West side of the capital, I believe...

[Peter]

I think Ted Cruz would be a better choice than Donald Trump for President. I suppose a Cruz for Prez thread could be started but I am content with this one. Perhaps after the polls change or after the first four primaries? I like the idea of accumulating backers with each contest.

Peter

From my inbox. A New Truck built by a company we didn't bail OUT. I got a new Ford F250 Tri-Flex Fuel Truck. Go figure, it runs on either hydrogen, gasoline, or E85. I returned it to the dealer yesterday.... Because I couldn't get the radio to work. The service technician explained that the radio was voice activated.

'Nelson,' the technician said to the radio.

The radio replied, 'Ricky or Willie?'

'Willie!' he continued and 'On The Road Again' Came from the speakers.

Then he said, 'Ray Charles!', and in an instant ' Georgia On My Mind' replaced Willie Nelson.

I drove away happy, and for the next few days, Every time I'd say, 'Beethoven,'

I'd get beautiful classical music, and if I said, 'Beach Boys,' I'd get one of their awesome songs. This afternoon, some guy ran a red light and nearly creamed my new truck, but I swerved in time to avoid him.

I yelled, 'Ass Hole!'

Immediately the radio responded with, "Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the United States."

Damn I love this truck....