From this morning's Houston Chronicle, Lisa Falkenberg reports:
"We have a new messiah, it seems. Another polished orator with a made-for-TV smile and a Harvard law degree. A success story born of humble beginnings and and exotic demographic... A young, sudden star who, barely a week after winning a Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate (his first election!) is being mentioned as a presidential contender in 2016".
Who, you ask, is this wunderkind? None other than
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz. Get used to hearing that name (Ted, not Rafael). You'll have the chance to judge his oratorical skills at the GOP convention in Tampa. He's "on board" Team Romney, with some even suggesting that he's a dark horse contender for vice president, although there's little doubt that Texas will be voting for Romney (despite the degree to which Mitt's loathed by many Texans).
Lisa adds:
"One thing's for sure: The birthers needn't work themselves into a fresh lather over this non-Anglo. No birth certificate shenanigans here. Cruz's American credentials are quite clear: He was born in Canada.
His Cuban-born father, who fled to the United States after fighting under Fidel Castro, and his Irish-American mother, born in Delaware, met in Texas but sought their fortunes in Canada during the 1960's oil boom. Ted, born Rafael Edward Cruz, was born in Calgary in 1970."
Follow along below the empty petroleum reservoir for more...
Lisa goes on to say that Ken Herman of the Austin American Statesman has
"found a way around this hurdle, however. After researching and consulting experts, Herman's humorous, not-so-legal opinion is that being born abroad to a U.S. citizen mother is enough to nudge him past the natural-born citizen requirement for the nation's highest office."
Wow. What a relief! Imagine the embarassment if a Tea Party favorite had a "birther issue"! It's great to know that, despite having been born in Canada, Ted Cruz is good to go, a regular ol' citizen of the US of A.
So I guess we can expect Sheriff Arpaio, Orly Taitz, Donald Trump and other bloviating birthers to use this same logic when it comes to President Obama. His mother, Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas (ironically, the location of Koch Industries' corporate headquarters). American citizen mom, meet American citizen Barack.
Or maybe the rules are just... different if you're the new Tea Party Messiah. Heaven knows, these folks have been fooled by a bunch of false prophets already, and they're due for a change of luck. Some of them are still heartbroken and bitter after being scammed by a sexy grifter in leather, who shook them down for donations throughout her "will-I-or-wont't-I" tease of a campaign. Picking up the pieces, they hitched their wagon to a melifluous, crooning pizza mogul whose marital infidelities and harassment of women in the workplace were too much even for the always open-minded Tea Party folk.
There's clearly a hunger for a true Messiah, even if it means embracing someone with [gasp] a Harvard law degree, magna cum laude. People have said that Ted Cruz is a bright guy, a brilliant orator. Those are not traits typically in demand by the Tea Party. They tend to prefer their candidates to be ordinary folks with one mad skill: saying "no".
Perhaps in an effort gain some Tea Party street cred, Cruz has been making some truly witless pronouncements.
Like during the Dallas TV debate against [David] Dewhurst when he remarked that "it is much cheaper to provide emergency care than it is to expand Medicaid and to expand the rolls."
Houston ER doctor Arlo Weltge, representing the Texas doctors' lobby, was quick to set Cruz straigt: "He's wrong," Weltge said, adding, "If it's the cheapest solution you're after, Mr. Cruz, why don't you just let the poor people die in the streets?"
i don't know whether Cruz replied to this, but he's already viewed with deep suspicion regarding his humanity, thanks to Dewhurst's millions in negative advertising prior to the July 31 primary runoff. Dewhurst portrayed Cruz as the consummate sleazy lawyer, representing a Chinese company ripping off American patents, and a for-profit prison system jailing kids, one of whom committed suicide after serving his term. It's entirely possible that he's taking this "die in the streets" position as a viable alternative to actually spending money on health care.
There's every likelihood that Ted Cruz will be elected to the US Senate from Texas, since we haven't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. Get used to hearing the name, and the hype... and the deafening silence from the hypocritical birthers.