Rare Footage from a Ted Cruz-Led Republican Strategy Meeting

I found the following on YouTube, and I think it offers some useful insight into how Ted Cruz has handled the debate leading up to this week’s government shutdown.

A few relevant quotes:

I bought this pen exactly one hour before my bike was stolen! Why? What’s the significance? I DON’T KNOW!!!!!!!

And:

The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back! It’s like you’re unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting…

Thanks to Marley for transcription assistance.

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Whose Liberty?

Senator Ted Cruz’s not-quite-filibuster today has the goal (I presume) of making the nation so sick of Ted Cruz that we’ll agree to do anything—e.g. “defund Obamacare”—in exchange for his promise never to speak in public again. I have to admit, it’s the best plan Republicans have come up with so far.

Anyway, during the festivities, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reportedly added this nugget of wisdom:

Whenever government acts, it does so at the expense of our own individual liberty. (Emphasis added.)

For someone who has been denied coverage due to a “pre-existing condition,” or who has not been able to access any healthcare, it seems clear that the new law will increase their liberty, by allowing them the opportunity to be healthy and not die avoidable deaths.

But I don’t think Sen. Lee is talking about those people when he talks about “our own individual liberty.” It would be nice if he would be more honest about who he actually means. Then we could ask him how much personal convenience is worth another person’s death from a pre-existing condition.

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Senator Ted Cruz, Green Party Double Agent?

Cruz-Headshot

More than meets the eye?

Ted Cruz, the Republican freshman senator from Texas, has, to put it lightly, been a colossal embarrassment for our state. I won’t even bother listing his accomplishments in his barely two months in office, but if his goal was to keep himself in the headlines making all Texans look bad, then he is doing a bang-up job.

A recent vote on a seemingly uncontroversial resolution, however, has made me wonder if there is something deeper at work here:

In an unusual move, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) objected last week to a routine Senate resolution commemorating Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week.

Congress passes hundreds of resolutions, meant to commemorate everything from a special awareness week or Little League champions. The resolutions lack any real power of law and are predominantly ceremonial. For example, earlier this month the Senate passed resolutions to mark “World Plumbing Day” and commemorating the three-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake.

In order to keep business moving and not clog the Senate floor, they are normally passed in bulk through a  “unanimous consent agreement,” meaning a vote isn’t tallied since both sides agree to it.

But last week, Cruz objected to including the MS Awareness resolution. He was unhappy with a clause in the resolution describing the purpose of the Multiple Sclerosis Coalition, according to a Democratic staffer.

Now, I suppose we should take anything a “Democratic staffer” says with a grain of salt, as it could be anybody from a 16 year-old Senate page to Vice President Joe Biden. Either way, it is unlikely to be someone with first-hand knowledge of the contents of Ted Cruz’s head (that joke is too easy.) We don’t know, based on Politico‘s reporting, what clause the senator found objectionable. I am going to assume that it reads “WHEREAS, kittens are adorable…” Continue reading

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