Monthly Archives: September 2018

State news

How does Cruz embrace Trump … and vice versa?

I cannot get past the news that Donald John Trump plans to stage a h-u-u-u-u-ge campaign rally on behalf of a guy he used to call Lyin’ Ted.

Trump says he is coming to Texas to campaign for Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. senator who once challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.

The campaign got really nasty, man.

Trump hung the Lyin’ Ted nickname on Cruz. Then he insulted Heidi Cruz, the senator’s wife. Oh, and then the future president thought to link the senator’s father to possible complicity in President Kennedy’s murder.

The insult to Mrs. Cruz and the idiotic “fake news” lie about the elder Cruz was too much for the senator. He called Trump “amoral,” a “narcissist,” a “pathological liar” with no sense of decency.

Now he welcomes the president to Texas to campaign for him as he seeks to fend off a challenge from Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke?

Give me a break.

Trump already has tweeted disparaging comments about Cruz’s service to Texas in the Senate. Cruz’s statements about Trump stand on their own.

So these two men now intend to persuade us that all is well with them both? That they didn’t really mean all those nasty things they said about each other? That they have buried the hatchet … and not in each other’s back?

I still intend to be in the crowd at the Trump rally if it occurs anywhere near us in the Metroplex.

No, I won’t cheer the Liar in Chief.

2016 election, Donald Trump

Speaking of endorsements …

Here it comes. Donald Trump has announced his total support for Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. He’s planning a major campaign rally for the Cruz Missile, who is fighting for re-election against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Then we have Twitter posts such as the one that appeared in February 2016, when Trump and Cruz were rivals for the GOP presidential nomination.

Cruz is “another all talk, no action pol,” Trump said at the time.

Now he is giving Cruz his blessing?

This is the kind of flip-flopping that gives politics a bad name. In my humble view.

Oh sure, Democrats do it, too. But you are welcome to spare me the “both-siderism” argument that emerges in these partisan political discussions.

We’re talking in this instance about a particular contest that now includes the president of the United States of America, the head of state, head of government, commander in chief, leader of the Free World … blah, blah, blah.

The public domain is full of this kind of thing that will require some explaining. I do not expect the president to come clean on whether he was speaking the truth then, or whether he has re-defined the truth to fit the moment.

State news

POTUS plans big rally for the Cruz Missile

I’m all giddy.

Donald J. Trump has posted a Twitter message that reads the following:

Isn’t that cool? The president is coming to Texas to campaign for Ted Cruz, the Republican incumbent who’s seeking to fend off an apparently burgeoning challenge from Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

Trump says he is “picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find.” Let me think. I believe that would be the Cowboys’ crib in Arlington, which is only about 30 miles or so from where I live in Collin County.

This means I’ll get to attend a Donald Trump rally. It means — if it works out — that I’ll get to sit in a crowd of screaming maniacs.

Take my word for this: I won’t join them in whoopin’, hollerin’ and howlin’ when Trump spouts untruths. Oh, no. That’s not for me.

I’ll plan to be there because from what I understand these rallies are worlds unto themselves. They reportedly thrive in what can be called a parallel universe that functions right next to the real world.

Hey, I’ve made no secret of my desire to see Beto O’Rourke knock the Cruz Missile out of the sky.

To be sure, Trump hasn’t yet disclosed where this rally will occur. The state has plenty of large venues. The University of Texas football stadium in Austin also is possible, but Austin ain’t exactly Trump Country or, for that matter, Cruz Country.

The Cowboys stadium in Tarrant County, though, makes more sense.

It also gives me a chance to attend a Donald Trump, shake my head in disgust — and then declare that Beto O’Rourke would do a better job representing rank-and-file Texans than the man Trump has offered his “complete and total Endorsement.”

Oh, and such a rally would give the O’Rourke plenty of grist to remind Texans that Cruz once called Trump a “pathological liar,” someone who is “amoral” and a true-blue “narcissist.”

Is the senator a man of conviction — or is he a man of convenience?

national news

McCain tributes remind us of what has gone wrong

As I have watched the various tributes pouring in to honor the memory of U.S. Sen. John McCain, I am reminded of what some folks might say is the obvious.

I am reminded that as the men and women spoke of the late senator’s principled passion that much of the principle has been decimated in the name of partisan passion.

Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke of his “love” for his political adversary. He spoke of a friendship that transcended partisan differences. The Democratic ex-VP talked about how McCain’s devotion to principle superseded his Republican credentials.

Indeed, the same message came from Senate Majority Leader (and fellow Republican) Mitch McConnell, who today echoed much of what Biden said the previous day. McConnell noted that McCain could be your strongest ally or your most ferocious political foe. Indeed, McConnell and McCain had their differences over campaign finance reform — for which McCain fought and McConnell opposed.

What is missing today? The sense that political opponents need not be “enemies.” McCain could be irascible, grouchy, in your face, profane. He assumed all those postures because he believed strongly in whatever principle for which he was fighting.

Almost to a person, those who memorialized Sen. McCain reminded us of how it used to be in Washington and how it could become once again. If only the late senator’s political descendants would follow his lead.

I have been uplifted by the tributes to this American hero and political titan. I also am saddened by the comparison to the political standards he set to what has become of them in the here and now.

national news

You want ‘contact’ in politics? Wait for midterm election result

The late great U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas used to call politics a “contact sport,” especially as it was practiced in the Lone Star State.

With the midterm election approaching quickly, it appears as though the political climate in Washington is going to get a good bit more “contact oriented” than it already has become — if that is possible.

I offer this bit of information with extreme caution. The “experts” who suggest that Democrats are looking more likely to take control of at least one congressional chamber, the House of Representatives, also “predicted” Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the 45th president of the United States.

They missed that one.

Suppose, though, that the Democratic Party does take the gavel from the Republicans. What do you suppose will happen?

Let me ponder that.

We must not rule out impeachment of the current president of the United States. Donald Trump is facing a bushel basket of trouble in the months after the midterm election.

What’s more, there well might be a lot of congressional hearings as newly constituted House committees — with Democratic chairs — summoning witness after witness to look into whatever they damn well want to examine.

Yep, payback is a bitch — ain’t it?

Republicans saw fit to examine that matter called “Benghazi” seemingly forever. Then we had that email matter. The Benghazi probe produced nothing incriminating, nor did the email kerfuffle.

So, what might the Democrats do in return?

It’s anyone’s guess. Go ahead and speculate, if you wish.

I’m betting it’s going to get a lot less fun for Republicans once the smoke clears from Midterm Election Day — presuming, of course, that the experts are right … this time!

If they are, get ready for a whole lot of blocking and tackling in the nation’s capital.