Ted Cruz, Translated for Sane People

Ugh. Image from source, Huffington Post

Yesterday, as I watched the Sunday political talk shows (remote at the ready for zapping through them), I was rolling my eyes so hard, I thought they'd pop out of my head. Republican after Republican bent and twisted their responses to questions to make the "defund Obamacare" portion of the budget bill to be a "compromise," and to make it out that it was President Obama and Harry Reid who want the government to shut down. It's extortion by the GOP, and they're honestly trying to sell it as a reasonable request, and that Democrats are the reckless ones.

Worse than them all though, was Sen. Ted Cruz on Meet the Press. Though David Gregory was uncharacteristically semi-aggressive with his questioning, there remains the problem of Gregory giving Cruz the plum spot on the show, right at the top, with no sparring partner. And then Cruz was the absolute picture of your typical "dance a little sidestep" bob-and-weave politician, that is oh-so-typical on these Sunday shows. Wasn't Cruz supposed to be different, tea baggers?

Mercifully, someone at HuffPo has condensed and translated Cruz's responses into something much easier to follow.

[Excerpt]

Ted Cruz Was On Meet The Press And Struggled With Brevity, So Here's The Short Version

As Cruz has demonstrated troubles with prolixity -- and because these troubles make everyone's life a little harder -- I am going to boil his answers in a Sunday "Meet the Press" interview down into their simplest form so that for once, Ted Cruz doesn't have to be such a long-winded pain in the ass of John Boehner or anyone else. . .

It's good, read more at: Huffington Post

Why Ted Cruz's Grandstanding Doesn't Matter

A face only a caricature artist could love. Image
from source, Think Progress

I wrote about this myself a bit ago, but if you'd prefer a bit more of a thorough explanation for why Ted Cruz's fauxlibuster is just a lot of hot air, here you go.

[Excerpt]

Why Ted Cruz’s Anti-Obamacare Grandstanding Doesn’t Matter At All

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the floor to speak against the health reform law, attempting to block a funding bill from coming to a vote in the Senate. Cruz has been pushing to derail the funding bill unless it includes a provision to defund Obamacare — a far-right strategy which could ultimately force the federal government to shut down next week, and which doesn’t actually have the support of GOP leadership or the vast majority of Republican voters. Nonetheless, when he began speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Cruz vowed to continue his “speaking filibuster” until he is “no longer able to stand. . .”

Read more at: Think Progress