Ted Cruz has had this problem almost from the day he joined the U.S. Senate in January 2013.
He thinks much too highly of himself and too little of his colleagues, many of whom have much more time in the senatorial saddle than the junior RepublicanĀ from Texas.
The Senate leadership, led by Cruz’s fellow Republicans, has shot him down yet again.
And to think the leadership did so after Cruz called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor earlier this year. Shocking, I tell ya! Shocking!
He wants to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding. He’s griped about GOP senators being too willing to work those dreaded Democrats. He once accused former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of consorting with communist North Korea while Hagel was seeking to become defense secretary in the Obama administration. He once said John Kerry — a decorated Vietnam War veteran — lacked sufficient appreciation of the military; Cruz, by the way, never wore his country’s uniform.
Now the Cruz Missile is running for president of the United States and he’s running into trouble among his colleagues.
They keep pushing back on this young man’s efforts to obstruct whenever and wherever he gets the chance.
Cruz has his fans on the right and the far right. They’re with him in his efforts to shut down the government. They like his fiery rhetoric. They believe he’s capable of fixing whatever ails the nation.
A legislator, though, has to cooperate — even with those in the other party. If he fails to learn that fundamental truth about legislating — which is the making of laws — well, nothing’s going to get done.
Ted Cruz then will have nothing to show for his bombast.