Is it Over for Ted Cruz After Praising Jesse Helms?

I'm sorry, but with that full-body frown, he just looks constipated.
Image from Huffington Post.

When Trent Lott helped the extremely elderly Strom Thurmond celebrate a birthday by butt-kissing him, it effectively ended Lott's career. You just can't get that cozy with a public person that well known as a rabid racist. Oddly though, ol' Strom had been a bit rehabilitated by then, and was even known to have a (surprise!) black daughter! Oh, my. But it was still curtains for Lott.

Whither Ted Cruz? The freshman Senator from Texas, a tea party darling, has cozied up to the memory of Senator Jesse Helms. Now Helms was never rehabilitated in any sense. He was an unapologetic segregationist. He was a nasty homophobe. He tried to block Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday. He did have a lot of arch-conservative bona fides, but they were all presented in a vicious, combative, pinched, unpleasant, confrontational way. And Cruz is apparently a fan of Helms' methods.

But what about Helms' beliefs? Is Ted on board with all of that crap? I assume there is a portion of the tea baggin' base that would have voted for Helms in a heartbeat. But can the GOP actually let Cruz ride on that kind of reputation? Can they take the id of the tea party, and fly that philosophy front-and-center?

Full disclosure: I loathed Jesse Helms with every fiber of my being, while he was in office. And I wasn't even attuned to politics much at the time. Also, since the first time I saw Ted Cruz, I thought he looked like a sanctimonious ass, and I didn't even know his name or party yet. My first impression was pretty well on the money though. And I still can't believe he's younger than me.

[Excerpt]
Ted Cruz: 'We Need 100 More Like Jesse Helms' In The Senate

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that the country would be better off if the Senate was full of people like Jesse Helms, the late senator who was ardently opposed to all kinds of civil rights measures and even tried to block the Senate from approving a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

And if you're wanting a rightward view of this little happening, how about a little Jennifer Rubin, who doesn't have much nice to say about Cruz either.