Ted Cruz may be setting records in Washington for Senate ostentatiousness.
First, the Texas Republican defeated the state’s lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, whom almost every political “expert” in Texas thought was a shoo-in to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Senate. Didn’t happen, as Dewhurst lost the GOP primary to Cruz, who then went on to defeat Democratic former state Rep. Paul Sadler handily in the 2012 general election.
Then the rookie senator took his seat and began slinging accusations left and right about President Obama’s picks for at least two key Cabinet picks: John Kerry at State and Chuck Hagel at Defense. He suggested the two men, both decorated Vietnam War veterans, lacked “sufficient regard” for the military. Cruz has never served in the military, let alone put his life on the line.
He’s strutted and preened in front of TV cameras, joining the likes of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and Republican Rep. Peter King, both of New York, as the most TV-hungry pols on Capitol Hill.
Now comes word that Cruz might want to run for president of the United States of America in 2016.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/ted-cruz-2016-president-90843.html?hp=t1_3
Count me as one American who’ll never vote for this guy, but who kind of hopes he takes the leap.
I’ve never particularly liked politicians – or businessmen and women, for that matter – who act like know-it-alls when they take on new assignments. Cruz just seems to have this way about him that gets under my skin. He chastises individuals with many more years of experience in the sometimes-complex act of legislating. He lectures his colleagues on the Constitution, such as when he scolded Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on the fine points of the Second Amendment, to which Feinstein said she is “not a sixth-grader” and knew a fair amount about the Constitution.
This guy, a tea party favorite, is going to be fun to watch, if only to see if his hubris has any limits. So far, Ted Cruz’s reservoir of self-aggrandizement seems infinite.