(Picture credit to @darth)
If you’re following the shutdown news at all, you probably realize that Ted Cruz has come out of this looking ridiculous. Unless you’re Ted Cruz, of course—he thinks it’s going great. Last week, at the Values Voter Summit, Cruz accepted the endorsement of, um, God:
A woman in the front row shouted a passage from Romans: “If God is with you, who can be against you?” “I receive that blessing,” Cruz said somberly.
It’s always nice when our politicians can retain a sense of perspective. ‘God’s on my side? That figures, I’m pretty great.’
Still, even if Ted Cruz thinks God is a card-carrying member of the righteous Tea Party, an editorial published yesterday shows that this would put God to the right of one of the most conservative large-paper editorial boards in the nation. The largest paper in Texas, the Houston Chronicle, lamented their decision to endorse Cruz last year and bashed him for his inability to reach across the aisle:
When we endorsed Ted Cruz in last November's general election, we did so with many reservations and at least one specific recommendation – that he follow Hutchison's example in his conduct as a senator.
Obviously, he has not done so. Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution.
The paper went on to mourn the loss of Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst to the Cruz wing of the party, pointing out that Dewhurst’s attempt at a “full-blown political makeover” is “painful to watch.” Indeed it is: on Monday, Dewhurst called for the impeachment of President Obama. Your moderate alternative, Texas.
Aside from Cruz’s corrosive influence on Texas politics, though, the question remains: does he even know America thinks he’s nuts? Hopefully, a conservative outlet like this criticizing him will be a wake-up call for the Senator from Tea Partysville, but I worry that he’s too far gone now. If there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that the 2016 presidential debate between Ted Cruz and Rick Perry is going to be amazing.