Ross Douthat Seems To Think @TedCruz Is As Cynical As The Donald Himself

Posted on | March 27, 2016 | 123 Comments

by Smitty

In reply to Who Is Ted Cruz?, I’ve got to say: judge the tree by the fruit. A sample:

With Cruz, though, even the most fervent peroration always feels like a debater’s patter, an advocate’s brief — compelling enough on the merits, but more of a command performance than a window into deep conviction.

Sure. Cruz always seems to be playing verbal chess, as Ross allows two paragraphs later: “. . .Cruz never seemed to take a step on any contentious issue without gaming it out 17 moves ahead.”

But if Cruz is merely cynically phoning in his entire career, then why did he lay on a 21 hour filibuster? Restated, can the detractors get beyond accusing Cruz of being excessively measured, and perhaps show where Cruz is actually inconsistent in his conservative approach? Or is our current state of Sophist decadence such that merely exhibiting principles of any sort is evidence of “his own extremism”.

I can understand a negative reaction to Donald Trump as a used car salesman with hair suitable for a Primus video. There is known audio at the NYT of DJT sounding somehow wobbly on his signature issue, immigration. Can anyone come up with similar examples for Cruz? Are we supposed to believe that Cruz’s immigration bill amendment proves anything beyond the fact that Cruz is. . .a politician?

Limbaugh’s point that “they hate Trump, but they fear Cruz” has the ring of truth. The Donald is the one apparently capable of pretty much anything for 30 pieces of silver. While falling short of accusing Cruz of perfection, he seems the straightest shooter in politics today. And that is the motive for all the innuendo in the NYT: the apprehension that Cruz actually does mean everything he says and does, as stated.

Category: Republicans, Ted Cruz

Comments

123 Responses to “Ross Douthat Seems To Think @TedCruz Is As Cynical As The Donald Himself”

HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:36 pm

Because of his religiosity? Are you smoking dope? Cruz has always seemed to be sleezy to me…but that might be because I don’t ever trust professional politicians. Never.

I believe that Trump will end these crazy, stupid policies we have in regards to trade. He will build a wall, he will deport the murderers and criminals and I believe he won’t go starting wars and nation building in places that have always been at war and never had nations.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:37 pm

Cruz was recruited to work for them…

Uh huh. How long did you work for Jim Garrison?
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:37 pm

Cruz gave Obama fast track authority…he argued for the TPA. Now he has found religion…he is a liar.

Oh and Trump has been against these dumb trade deals since at least 1991 when he testified to the Senate.
Matt_SE
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:38 pm

That’s what I mean by “cynical nihilism.” They are burnouts, and don’t believe in truth or anything “normal,” so they turn to mystery cults and conspiracy theories.
Matt_SE
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:39 pm

Hide behind the skirt of Rubio, you sniveling coward. Just like your boss, Trump.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:46 pm

I’m perfectly aware that he worked for Bush in 1999 and 2000 and discussed it above. I’m also perfectly aware that this years tangles over ‘establishment’ and ‘outsider’ are perfectly anachronistic when referring to conflicts in 1999 and 2000.

Who else set up exploratory committees in 1999? Well, you had Elizabeth Dole, John McCain, Orrin Hatch, John Kasich, and Lamar Alexander, all of whom were much more implicated in Capitol Hill gamesmanship than George W. Bush ever was. You had Pat Buchanan, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes, Herman Cain, and Gary Bauer. These were, for the most part, demonstration candidates pushing a viewpoint or policy nostrum or vanity candidates. Forbes and Cain had some background in business administration, which would be the best preparation among these. Dr. Keyes and Bauer had had fairly brief tours in the subcabinet but were mostly promoters and commentators (Dr. Keyes over the radio, Bauer on the staff of Focus on the Family). You had Dan Quayle running, but he was non-salable inventory. Leaving aside perhaps Forbes, the most presentable alternative to George W. Bush was Bob Smith (who’s working for Cruz this year).
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:50 pm

Cruz’ father is a lay minister and has been active for 35 years in various organizations. Cruz also attended an evangelical high school. Cruz’ in-laws were missionaries.

In a country with a domestic market the size of ours, trade policy has only a small effect on welfare outcomes. Generally, liberal trade regimes are beneficial with qualifications. Trump does not deny that, he just says he’s a better negotiator.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:54 pm

And fictions other people have to play whack-a-mole with. For instance, contending Eleanor Darragh applied for Canadian citizenship. Evidence for that? Nothing, it’s just something they imagine or something they heard from their pal Morty. Another meme is that you cannot inherit citizenship from your mother. Where’d they get that? Pal Morty, again. (BO birthers favored this one too).
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:55 pm

Are you serious? You want to tell me about his religion? I don’t give a darn about his religion…that is his business. I don’t care. My assumption is that ALL politicians are evil stacks of sh!t that barely deserve to be fed much less admired. When I said he found religion I mean that on the TPA he now opposes it…he didn’t use to.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:56 pm

Cruz has always seemed to be sleezy to me..

Yeah, that’s real persuasive. Does he seem as sleazy when you’re taking your thorazine?
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:58 pm

Sniveling coward? Well that’s it you got me…heh. You people are pitiful. You are actually defending professional politicians…that is mind blowing. You need to get out more.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 12:58 pm

Are you serious? You want to tell me about his religion? I don’t give a darn about his religion

You brought the subject up. I see the portfolio of psychotropics you’re on causes short-term memory loss.
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 1:01 pm

hehe…Clever almost. But then again you are the guy who is reading challenged and doesn’t understand what he has read.

Cruz worked for Bush that is UNDENIABLE…that is where he met his wife, the current Goldman Sachs VP, who also worked for Bush in several areas…one of them having to do with Trade Deals. And yet you buffoons cling to the idea that Cruz makes the establishment scared…it would be funny if it werent so f@cking sad.
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 1:04 pm

heh…Yea he had no choice. That is an interesting defense. Truth is Cruz worked for the most Blue of the Blue Bloods of the Establishment…the Bushs. You can dance all you want but George H Bush was about as Establishment as you are going to get…which makes his sons part of the same game.
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 1:07 pm

hehe…You are a funny crazy guy. Did you miss the short bus this morning? I brought up religion by saying that Cruz “got religion” by his current opposition to TPA…he DIDN’T use to oppose it, back then he was a heathen, until Trump saved him by showing him what his position SHOULD be. And Cruz is enough of of a lying piece of sh!t to switch positions mid campaign.
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 1:09 pm

http://twitter.com/JennyHatch/status/713794919333101570/photo/1
Beware the RINOs: Cruz Sex Scandal Shopped by Rubio? | Regular Right Guy
March 28th, 2016 @ 1:40 pm

[…] Ross Douthat Seems To Think @TedCruz Is As Cynical As The Donald Himself […]
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 2:11 pm

She’s a household portfolio manager, not an investment banker. She did some investment banking for JP Morgan during the period running from 1996 to 1999, but that has not been her book for some time. She deals with individual clients investing money, not with companies looking to raise capital.

This 45 year old man spent about 6 years of his life on the periphery of greater Philadelphia and then in Boston. He never lived in New York and his wife only lived there for about 3 years. About 45% of his lifespan has been spent in Houston and another 15% a few hours down the road in Austin.

He hasn’t lived in Canada since he was four years old and he had American citizenship from birth.
Quartermaster
March 28th, 2016 @ 2:17 pm

I see your point, but would not used the term “senile” in this case. Not doing your homework is not good for his credibility and given that a writer’s credibility is his stock in trade, it’s not a good idea not to do it.

I had thought Cruz had graduated around ’92 and didn’t know he made a stop in Richmond on the way to Texas.
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 2:20 pm

Yea he is just a country boy…chewing tobacco and wearing cowboy boots.
Quartermaster
March 28th, 2016 @ 2:26 pm

That’s a matter of not thinking. There are a number of people who are otherwise intelligent that simply turn off the thinker when it comes to stuff like the NE dump. That’s stupid, but there it is.
Quartermaster
March 28th, 2016 @ 2:27 pm

No comparison of that sort will be completely accurate.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 3:46 pm

Another time, another place, you may be able to utter something without lying and without distorting what another person says. Not as yet, however.
Art Deco
March 28th, 2016 @ 3:49 pm

No, I pointed it out to him in detail and he simply denied it. It wasn’t poor research on his part, and verifying what I’d said was simple enough. I suppose you could call him a cuss.
Adobe_Walls
March 28th, 2016 @ 5:50 pm

It’s much more than just amnesty. To boil it down to it’s essence he’s a big government liberal Republican.
Adobe_Walls
March 28th, 2016 @ 6:09 pm

One down vote for improper use of the Thorazine Card.
Thorazine is the solution to many of this nations problems such as global warming. Throwing in the Thorazine Card for something as trivial as being a Trumpnik will have deleterious effects on it’s effectiveness much as the obscenely massive over use of the race card.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 28th, 2016 @ 7:25 pm

Facepalm. If you don’t get it, I can’t explain it to you.
paykasa bozdurma
March 28th, 2016 @ 10:59 pm

thank you
HughdePayens
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:26 pm

Do you just grab words and thoughts out of the air…maybe you are one of those word generator bots on the net…because you make no sense.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:37 pm

You have absolutely no credible evidence of any ties between Ted Cruz and Liz Mair in regards to that ad. Otherwise you would have already gone to the feds with it because it’s a FELONY, so STFU, idiot Trumpbot.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:41 pm

As opposed to your Orange Messiah, where every thing that comes out of his mouth is word salad, yet you bloody idiots think he’s a genius because you are utterly and abjectly incapable of any rational logic whatsoever.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:46 pm

Do you even know what fast track authority is, you fucking moron? All it means is that the Senate has to vote up or down on the treaty instead of quibbling with the internals. No country on the planet would ever sign a treaty with us otherwise, and rightly so.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:48 pm

You’re the one that’s applying guilt by association to Cruz because he dared to get himself elected to the Senate. I suppose you would prefer people that worked for Democrats instead of for Republicans.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:51 pm

If you want to peddle “Bush is EVIL therefore Cruz is EVIL” bullshit, then go to somewhere like dKos that actually believes in that fucking crap.

Otherwise go die in a fire slowly, idiot Trumpbot.
Finrod Felagund
March 28th, 2016 @ 11:53 pm

Your Orange Messiah gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clinton ~~slushfund~~ Foundation, idiot Trumpbot. I’ll take someone who worked for Bush over anyone stupid enough to fund the Clintons every day and twice on Sunday.
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 8:12 am

Oooh it appears that I have struck a nerve…heh. Hey the first one that loses control in a debate/flamewar loses. You know a lot about losing don’t you?
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 8:13 am

Reading comprehension 101…I didn’t mention either Republicans or Democrats.
Art Deco
March 29th, 2016 @ 8:39 am

There is nothing for you to ‘explain’. You’re just wrong.
Art Deco
March 29th, 2016 @ 8:45 am

There are no liberal Republicans in Congress. After 1983, the entire population of them consisted of a crew whose position rested on incumbency. Nearly all were cleared out in the 1992 elections with only a low single digit population remaining. The very last two retired in 1999 and 2007 respectively.

What you have are a few programmatic / ideological temporizers like Susan Collins. Someone’s got to be in the tail of the bell curve, and it’s her. She isn’t any more use to the Democratic caucus than she is to the Republican caucus. These sorts of people were in the caucus leadership ca. 1975, by the way.

A much bigger problem are Chamber of Commerce shills and the lawyers whose defaults are to think like their class and not like their constituents. The voting records of Kelly Ayotte and AM McConnell are not ‘liberal’ in any serious use of the term. These people are troublesome in other ways and for other reasons.
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 8:54 am

Well so you don’t like that Trump worked on the ground for Bush Sr. , McCain, and Romney? And you know it is cute that you are so insulting while hiding behind a keyboard. Do you get all pumped up when you do that?
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:03 am

Oh my did we learn a new word at school today…nice except I can see that you didn’t get much practice using it in a sentence. Cruz is playing the guy who can go to DC and straighten it out because he isn’t part of DC establishment…he is an outsider. Which would be true if he hadn’t worked for Bush for most of the time. You don’t get more establishment than Bush.
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:07 am

heh…You slay me. Say are you English or do you just play one for the internet?
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:12 am

Well it means a bit more than that…

“Congress needs to strengthen the country’s bargaining position by establishing trade-promotion authority, also known as TPA, which is an arrangement between Congress and the president for negotiating and considering trade agreements. In short, TPA is what U.S. negotiators need to win a fair deal for the American worker,” Cruz and Ryan said in their Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Cruz and Ryan also pitched the passage as an important step toward helping the domestic workforce. “TPA is what U.S. negotiators need to win a fair deal for the American worker,” they said. “One in five American jobs depends on trade, and that share is only going to grow.”

On May 22, Trade Promotion Authority passed the Senate 62-37 with bipartisan support. Cruz was among the 48 Republicans and 14 Democrats who voted “yes.”
Matt_SE
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:18 am

I’m not sure you Trumpkins want to play the guilt-by-association game. Your boss has a list of questionable connections like Roger Stone and Pecker from National Enquirer.
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:40 am

I know my guy is a bad guy…but he doesn’t play a good guy. Your guy plays a jesus figure and he is anything but that, big difference.

When I go to war I want someone who fights, Trump fights. We are at war with the DC Establishment who bear an uncanny resemblance to the European Elite and watching what those maniacs have done to Europe makes me fear our Elite.

Trump is not one of them…we can see this by all the fire he is taking. From all sides…
Matt_SE
March 29th, 2016 @ 9:51 am

There’s a difference between fighting hard and being an unscrupulous bastard. Winning at any cost is what Democrats do.
HughdePayens
March 29th, 2016 @ 10:17 am

There is a bigger difference between being and acting like a bad guy, Trump, and acting like Jesus and being a bad guy, Cruz.
Adobe_Walls
March 29th, 2016 @ 10:38 am

If you’re asserting that there are no liberals at all because there are no classical liberals I would agree. However my point is that just because Kasich is to the right of Hillary doesn’t make him a conservative just as Hillary being slightly to the right of the Khymer Rouge doesn’t make her a moderate. Kasich, all three Bush’s Christie et al are every bit the Statists that Hillary and Obama are. The differences as to what they want to do with state power may vary marginally but they would (or have) all expand government without diminishing previous expansions. Thus they, like Hillary, Obama and Pol Pot are merely different points on the arc leading ever downward into serfdom and darkness.
Matt_SE
March 29th, 2016 @ 10:51 am

There would be, except that Cruz has not “acted like Jesus,” nor is he a bad guy. He’s a good guy who has acted like a good guy.
daialanye
March 29th, 2016 @ 1:29 pm

Art Deco is correct—as with the typical strumpet, the truth knows you not.