| Ted Cruz is so hot right now. He's on the Sunday shows, he's being discussed as a potential presidential candidate in 2016 (so is his eligibility), and his views on the issues of the day are widely shared.
They're also completely crazy.
Last week, Cruz went on Fox News Sunday and said that he considers all gun control to be unconstitutional. That is factually incorrect. Joe Scarborough, of all people, pointed out that as a former Solicitor General who has argued before the Supreme Court, Cruz damn well should have read District of Columbia v. Heller, which establishes gun control as constitutional. Scarborough went on to accuse Cruz of being scared to appear on Morning Joe: "Some people get scared, they don't like them coming on because you don't ask them three minutes' worth of questions. It's not an easy give and take," said Scarborough.
On Wednesday, Cruz shared his views on Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice for Secretary of Defense: "You look at Chuck Hagel's record and it places him on the outer fringe in terms of his views on national security...[H]is views are not in the mainstream, and I don't think they'd serve this nation well leading the Department of Defense." As Crooks and Liars points out, Cruz's own views are certifiably insane: from his worries about Sharia law in the United States to a secret UN conspiracy to eliminate golf courses. And you know what's extreme? Cruz' and both parties' endless support for anything Israel does because it's Israel, even when it harms U.S. interests and violates human rights. Unconditional support harms Israel, it doesn't help it, nor does it help the wider peace process in the region. Cruz' view is not on the fringe of sanity; it's far from the whole institution.
Earlier in the month, Cruz wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post furthering his strategy suggestions for the GOP. He argues that Republicans' problem is language, that they routinely misrepresent the alleged opportunities offered by conservatism by appearing to favor only the wealthy. The problem is this: the Republican Party's policies verifiably, unquestionably, categorically favor the wealthy. Ted Cruz thinks Americans are dumb enough to be tricked by flourishing rhetoric, but he's wrong, and he's only getting wronger as the years go by and Americans keep voting in candidates who run on progressive agendas.
And, a telling note: Ted Cruz sent an email to Sarah Palin's SarahPAC email list this weekend thanking them and Palin for all their work on his campaign:
The Governor's vision and the support of patriots like you helped transform my long-shot candidacy into victory on election night...Thank you. While federal law prohibited any coordination between SarahPAC and my campaign, none of this success would have been possible without the outpouring of financial support, hard work, and word of mouth from conservative fighters like you. The Governor's support and your constant encouragement played a critical part in our triumph.
Tea Partier dolt. Only 8% of Americans call themselves members of the Tea Party, and that mention of federal law prohibiting campaign-PAC coordination could not have been more suspicious. Clearly, Ted Cruz' real strategy is to court some of the craziest, least numerous people in the country. That's reflected every time he comes on television and spouts these insane views. And BOR will be here to chronicle them, so that it is very hard to ever forget what Ted Cruz actually stands for. |
