By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Do you want to know why this kerfuffle over Ted Cruz’s aborted vacation in Cancun is gaining such traction?

I am going to tell you anyway, even if you don’t care one little bit?

The Republican U.S. senator from Texas has taken great pains to blast the daylights out of other politicians — chiefly Democrats — who take vacations at inopportune times.

Thus, it is Cruz’s mouth that has gotten him into trouble.

Cruz jetted off from Houston to vacation with his wife and daughters at the very time Texas is struggling to recover from serious Arctic blast that resulted in millions of Texans losing electrical power, natural gas to heat their homes or water to drink.

He tried to pawn it off on his daughters, whose schools were closed because of the weather. They asked Mom and Dad if they could go somewhere warm. Sen. Cruz and Heidi Cruz obliged. The family took off for Cancun. Then the fecal matter hit the fan.

Cruz then  returned home. To his credit (I reckon), he has apologized for messing up. Still, the story will be tough to kill and bury. Why? Because the junior senator from Texas has made a nagging habit of sounding sanctimonious as it regards politicians’ working and vacation habits.

He tore Austin Mayor Steve Adler a new one in December because Adler vacationed in Cabo San Lucas while the city he governs was struggling with the pandemic. Cruz is on record saying that Congress shouldn’t take vacations when there is so much damn work to be done. They should just work, work, work until the job is finished, he has said.

So what does the Cruz Missile do now? He wants to be a good parent and leave the country — not just the state — while Texans are suffering grievously.

As the saying goes, “Words have consequences.” Those words carry a particular consequence when a politician who utters them intones a high degree of self-righteousness while castigating others … and then does the very thing he condemns.