Cruz’s Cancun crisis

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, February 20th, 2021 - 24 comments
Categories: doofus of the week, making shit up, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

What should a Texan representative do when the state is frozen over following an extreme weather event?

Tour the state?  Make sure that Federal supplies of generators and fuel are delivered to where they need to be?

How about fly off to Cacun for a holiday?

If you guessed the latter then you would be right.

Ted Cruz, Texan Senator and wannabe President did exactly that.

The event caused the most perfect piece of twitter poetry I have ever read:

Fly me to Cancun
And let me play among the stars
Let me order guac while people Freeze inside their cars

And as a close second:

Fly me to Cancun
And let me watch the ocean waves.
My people back at home
Have had no power now for days.

To be read thinking of Frank Sinatra.

I thought that we had reached a new extreme example of hypocrisy when this tweet reemerged.

Unfortunately it appears that the tweet is a fake.  But it is believable because Ted has over the years come out with some extraordinary claims.

In 2016 when Ted was battling with Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination Graham Readfearn in the Guardian wrote this about his campaign trail antics:

I have no clue how many climate science denial myths a Republican presidential candidate can fit onto the head of a pin, but given these zingers are generally huge it’s probably not that many.

But we do now have some clue how many myths one of those candidates, Senator Ted Cruz, can fit into an eight-minute diatribe. At least six.

When asked about climate change at recent hustings, Cruz has been delivering a stock set of answers from the Little Book of Climate Change Denial (not a real book).

At one such event in New Hampshire, the representative from Texas delivered a diarrhea-like splurge (sorry) of talking points, myths and cherry-picked factoids.

The world isn’t warming – check. This is all about government control – check. Scientists used to think an ice age was coming – check. Every pinhead contains an etching of Al Gore in a loving embrace with a dirty private jet – no check.

This is not to single out Cruz who, we understand, is currently second in national polls.

The Donald, currently leading in the polls for the Republican nomination, also denies the science of human-caused climate change. So does third placed Marco Rubio. It’s a hat trick.

We know already that denying climate science has become part of the Republican psyche in the United States, but every once in a while it’s worth pausing to remind ourselves just how nuts this situation has become.

These are people who fancy themselves as the leader of the “free world” but think every science academy in the world together with the world’s thermometers, tide gauges and glaciers are all engaged in an elaborate hoax.

Back to the present and Cruz cut short his holiday and implied that he only flew south to take his daughters and was going to head straight back.  Unfortunately this contradicts what he told Sean Hannity on Fox.

The optics are sub optimal.  Travelling the other way over the Mexican Border to avoid dystopian third world conditions does not reflect well on what the mighty US of A has become.

And the Democrats have been having a field day.  Beto O’Rorke has organised 860,000 telephone calls checking up on people.  And Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has fundraised a couple of million dollars and is flying to Texas to help distribute the proceeds to those in need.

The public response to Ted has been merciless.  He deserves the opprobrium.  But it is an indication of a major problem if someone like him can still be so close to becoming the next POTUS.

 

24 comments on “Cruz’s Cancun crisis ”

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  1. Ad 1
    20 February 2021 at 10:20 am

    Cruz is going to have to battle it out with De Santis as Trump's 2024 successor.

    With De Santis ordering the lowering of all flags in honour of the death of Rush Limbaugh, it looks like De Santis has chosen his moment.

    • arkie 1.1
      20 February 2021 at 11:08 am

      Trump does need a successor:

      Among Republican voters, 59% said they wanted Trump to play a prominent role in their party, up a whopping 18 points from the last such poll, taken in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. A slightly lower number, 54%, said they would back Trump in the primary.

      Cruz polls at 3%, less that Mitt Romney.

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/16/trump-2024-poll-republicans-most-popular-candidate

    • Lettuce 1.2
      20 February 2021 at 4:37 pm

      Ted was born in Canada. I thought only citizens born on American soil could become US President.

      • Incognito 1.2.1
        20 February 2021 at 4:55 pm

        Heh! They must demand to see his birth certificate. And his e-mails.

      • Andre 1.2.2
        20 February 2021 at 5:06 pm

        Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution:

        No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

        "Natural born citizen" has generally been interpreted to mean anyone who has acquired citizenship by the circumstances of their birth, whether by being born in the US, or having at least one parent eligible to pass on citizenship.

        John McCain was born on a US base in Panama IIRC, there was no question about his eligibility to become prez.

        However, there is a residency requirement for passing on citizenship. I was born in the US (hence I'm a natural-born citizen), and I have lived long enough in the US including the specified number of years after turning 18, so my kids born in NZ automatically got US citizenship and would be considered natural born citizens. But my brother did not live for enough years in the US after turning eighteen, so his kids did not get US citizenship at birth.

        • Lucy 1.2.2.1
          22 February 2021 at 7:54 am

          So does this mean anyone born via IVF or caesarean can not become a US president?

          • Andre 1.2.2.1.1
            22 February 2021 at 1:20 pm

            If it were a Democratic candidate whose eligibility could be attacked that way, you can be sure some Repugs would try it on.

  2. Morrissey 2
    20 February 2021 at 11:11 am

    Lyin'-on-the-beach Ted.

  3. Stuart Munro 3
    20 February 2021 at 11:36 am

    He might as well go to Cancun – he'd be no earthly good to his constituents.

    It's a little bit like the NZ experience with Brownlee – if you show the people you're neither use nor ornament, even sophisticated disinformation campaigns will struggle to keep you electable.

    • alwyn 3.1
      20 February 2021 at 2:03 pm

      It isn't Brownlee he reminds me of.

      He is much more like that genius former Health Minister David Clark. While the country was in lock down he ignored the rules by heading of for a off-road bike ride and took his family to the beach. How stupid was that?

      Cruz, although behaving like the idiot he is, at least didn't break the law.

      • Incognito 3.1.1
        20 February 2021 at 4:53 pm

        How stupid was that?

        Pretty stupid or maybe even quite stupid.

        Breaking the Law or not is a poor yardstick for judging stupidity.

        To paraphrase weka (when moderating the same commenter, twice today), calling public figures stupid is not useful political analysis.

        • alwyn 3.1.1.1
          20 February 2021 at 8:38 pm

          I do apologise for saying that what he did was stupid. I should have used the same phrase as I did for Cruz and just said he was an "idiot"

          I should have limited myself to simply quoting the opinion of the person who knows him best. Clark can be described in this way I assume?

          "At a time when we are asking New Zealanders to make historic sacrifices I've let the team down. I've been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me."

          That is from https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/413617/david-clark-offers-to-resign-after-revealing-he-took-a-trip-to-beach-during-covid-19-lockdown

          And yes, I have read it.

          • Incognito 3.1.1.1.1
            20 February 2021 at 10:29 pm

            If we only quote and repeat other people’s opinions life would become rather narrow, shallow, and boring.

            You’re more than entitled to your opinion but we deserve more than just that here, we want to read your argument and reasoning and constructive analysis to facilitate discussion and debate. Otherwise, you’d just be crying wolf and we’ll ignore you after a while. In other words, make it interesting for others to engage with you.

      • Muttonbird 3.1.2
        20 February 2021 at 5:06 pm

        Yeah, the first person I think of whenever Ted Cruz's name is mentioned is David Clark…

        • Incognito 3.1.2.1
          20 February 2021 at 5:22 pm

          I was reminded of a PM who went to his son’s baseball game instead of attending a commemorative service for two soldiers killed in Afghanistan but I’m old-school and children grow up so fast.

          Where are we going with this?

          • Muttonbird 3.1.2.1.1
            20 February 2021 at 5:30 pm

            We're going into a sarchasm. I thought the three dots at the end, and my commenting history, might have done it.

            • Incognito 3.1.2.1.1.1
              20 February 2021 at 5:36 pm

              Ah, sorry, missed the new sarc tag 🙂

              I guess we can’t expect too much of a highbrow discussion on a topic such as Ted Cruz in Canton.

  4. Peter 4
    20 February 2021 at 1:02 pm

    The Wall was to keep rapists, murderers and drug runners out. Guess it wasn't good enough to keep an arsehole in.

    • Craig H 4.1
      22 February 2021 at 10:29 am

      It has the obvious flaw of not working for air or sea travel, so was more about keeping poor Mexicans and asylum-seekers out than serious criminals.

  5. Gabby 5
    20 February 2021 at 1:10 pm

    Which direction is he taking his covid?

  6. RedBaronCV 6
    20 February 2021 at 2:45 pm

    The "is the poodle home alone and freezing " narrative is what is really going to demolish him.

    All the big stuff – very important – but the dog is likely to be the emotional tug that does it.

    Pity he's not on the 2022 ballot – Beto would take him out in a heartbeat.

  7. AB 7
    20 February 2021 at 5:19 pm

    Meanwhile in NZ, in the few hours before lockdown last Sunday, numerous wealthier Aucklanders escaped to beach houses in Northland and the Coromandel. I guess they are not elected representatives and don't have the notional responsibility to their constituents that a US senator has – but the respective moral universes don't seem that far apart.

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