He’s saying what everyone feels:
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has actively cultivated a low profile in his nearly eight years in the Senate, refusing most interview requests from national media outlets, building relationships with his colleagues and otherwise trying to reshape his image from a nationally renowned comedian to a serious lawmaker.
“You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz,” Franken told USA Today’s Susan Page, repeating a line from his book, “and I hate Ted Cruz.”
“He’s a special guy,” the senator added.
Indeed, Page reports that Franken dedicates an entire chapter of his book to Cruz, titled “Sophistry.”
Franken told Page that he felt no compunction about breaking Senate protocol that dictates senators not publicly discuss private conversations with one another because Cruz already had. Franken was referring to a June 2015 incident in which the Texas senator called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a “liar” for, in Cruz’s view, publicly contradicting statements he had made in private about renewing the Export-Import Bank.
Well said. Cruz faces the voters next year and Democrats believe Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D. TX) has the best shot at unseating Cruz. Here’s what the New York Times had to say recently about Beto’s campaign:
But then Mr. O’Rourke showed up. This time will be different, or so his proponents say. He is liberal and progressive, but also technologically and economically literate in a way that should appeal to business. He speaks fluent Spanish. He has served his district well, especially by touting the charms and economic opportunities (as opposed to the crime) on the El Paso-Juarez border.
Older Democrats like to compare him to the Kennedys, in his politics and looks. (He is handsome and toothy, with a thatch of shimmering brown hair.) Millennials like him because he once played in a punk band called Foss, because he started a software company, and because he has a few things in common with Bernie Sanders. Like him, Beto promises to go it alone, without support from consultants and political action committees.
Mr. O’Rourke also knows how to brawl. He pulled off two upsets, the first to become a city councilman, and the second and more important in his 2012 congressional victory against Silvestre Reyes, a 16-year incumbent who is Mexican-American.
Mr. O’Rourke also does savvy social media. When a snowstorm closed Washington airports in March, Mr. O’Rourke and a fellow Texan congressman, the Republican Will Hurd, livestreamed their road trip from Texas to the Capitol, the subtext being that some Democrats and some Republicans can occupy the same space without looking like they’re auditioning for Comedy Capers. Besides, it was a neat way for Mr. O’Rourke to introduce himself to a national audience: Along with traditional media outlets, 2.6 million Facebook viewers checked out the guys as they chomped on junk food in between discussions of Big Issues. They even got a shout out from Mark Zuckerberg.
Then there is the spread of so-called anti-Trump sentiment — the same one that Democrats in Kansas and Georgia and Montana are also pinning their hopes on. Mr. O’Rourke has shown that he, too, can hold a rally. The crowds that greeted him in Houston, San Antonio and even Midland, once home to the Bush cabal, have been like Elvis concerts.
Finally, there was a recent poll by the Texas Lyceum, a nonpartisan leadership organization, which doesn’t bode well for Ted Cruz. It showed San Antonio’s high-profile congressman, Joaquin Castro — he of the famed Castro twins — winning a hypothetical 2018 Senate runoff by 4 percentage points, with 35 percent to Mr. Cruz’s 31 percent. Worse for Mr. Cruz was that he tied at 30 percent in a match-up against a total newcomer: a pipsqueak named Beto O’Rourke.
Everyone hates Senator Shitkicker so lets send him packing. Click here to donate and get involved with O’Rourke’s campaign.