In Honor of Ted Cruz

Well freshman Senator Cruz seemed to have gathered the limelight with a make-believe fillibuster. But self-promotion seems to be his only concern.

Cruz has just completed a roughly 20 hour fake filibuster. It kinda looked like the old fashioned filibuster you see in movies, but it truly was a meaningless show. A true filibuster means holding the Senate floor to stop the Senate from taking any further actions. This is not what Cruz did. All Cruz was doing was consuming the time until the scheduled procedure vote at which point he was forced to stop. It was time that no one was really planning to do anything else on the Senate floor, because the Senate has idiotic rules that require huge blocs of time be wasted on nothing.

www.commondreams.org...

To the extent that Cruz’s phony filibuster had a point (it didn’t delay any vote) it was to shame his fellow Republicans into joining his crusade to shut down the government if Obamacare isn’t defunded; those who disagreed, he said, were like “Neville Chamberlain, who told the British people, ‘Accept the Nazis.’ ”

www.washingtonpost.com... _story.html

(as an aside - the new 'emoticons' are tacky and boring)

Yes. He accomplished a lot.

First, the obvious: the freshman Texas senator has made himself a folk hero for the Republican right. He went onto the Senate floor a contender for the crown of tea party favorite. He came back a star. As we wrote yesterday it’s now possible he’s bested Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and other contenders to become the leader of grassroots GOP conservatives, at least for the moment.

www.csmonitor.com...

And just to get in my democratic socialist kicks in: by Ralph Nader

You’d think he would have used his time to talk specifically about the suffering that uninsured people and their children are going through, especially in the Lone Star State. Or about what could replace Obamacare other than his repeated “free market” solution, which is to say the “pay or die” profiteering, tax-subsidized corporate system.

For those who prefer to believe hard-bitten businesspeople, Matt Miller, writing yesterday in The Washington Post, interviewed big business executives – David Beatty who ran the giant Weston Foods and Roger Martin long-time consultant to large U.S. companies in Canada. They were highly approving of the Canadian system and are baffled at the way the U.S. has twisted itself in such a wasteful, harmful and discriminatory system.

www.commondreams.org...

Circus over Substance - just what we need more of....

reply to post by FyreByrd

Well, it's a good thing you aren't biased against Ted Cruz.

It sure would be awful if his singular attempt to make a statement in congress went unappreciated.

Thanks for drawing attention to this.

reply to post by greencmp


All Ted Cruz proved was that he can bull# for 21 hours..
Ladies and Gentlemen, your next President.

reply to post by FyreByrd


LOL! "Ted Cruz, you are NO Wendy Davis!"

No, Ted Cruz’s Fake Filibuster Isn’t The Same As Wendy Davis’s Real One

Did you see John Stewart lampoon this guy? It was pretty right on. Watch it here: theweek.com...

reply to post by FyreByrd


And had to add this from today's vote:

He spent more than 21 straight hours railing against any government funding for Obamacare. Then Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined the other 99 senators from both parties in voting Wednesday to move ahead on a spending plan expected to do just that.
The rare 100-0 vote on a procedural step means the spending measure that would avoid a partial government shutdown next week now can be amended by Senate Democrats to restore funding for President Barack Obama's signature health care reforms, which had been eliminated last week by House Republicans.

www.cnn.com...

(aside - can we please have a 'pig' emoticon please - getting all sixties here)

Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER the fact. cowards...the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

windword
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

LOL! "Ted Cruz, you are NO Wendy Davis!"

No, Ted Cruz’s Fake Filibuster Isn’t The Same As Wendy Davis’s Real One

Did you see John Stewart lampoon this guy? It was pretty right on. Watch it here: theweek.com...

Thanks - I will.

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER ther fact. cowards... the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

That's the funniest bit - you missed it - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just let him make a fool of himself.

FyreByrd
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

And had to add this from today's vote:

He spent more than 21 straight hours railing against any government funding for Obamacare. Then Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined the other 99 senators from both parties in voting Wednesday to move ahead on a spending plan expected to do just that.
The rare 100-0 vote on a procedural step means the spending measure that would avoid a partial government shutdown next week now can be amended by Senate Democrats to restore funding for President Barack Obama's signature health care reforms, which had been eliminated last week by House Republicans.

www.cnn.com...

(aside - can we please have a 'pig' emoticon please - getting all sixties here)

He was not speaking against the bill. He was speaking against Obamacare. The bill that was passed did NOT include funding for Obamacare. That's why he voted for it.

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER the fact. cowards...the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

edit on 26-9-2013 by roaland because: spelling

The Democrats are doing a little happy dance over the Cruz fiasco. And the mainstream GOP are chalking up another loss due to the Tea Party and the old guard infighting and not paying attention to real issues. The GOP need a lot more than just "we're not obama"!!!

Ted C. should run....

FyreByrd

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER ther fact. cowards... the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

That's the funniest bit - you missed it - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just let him make a fool of himself.

Oh i didn't miss it, what i did miss was anyone who supported this monster of a mistake to actually stand up and prove him "wrong". In fact, so many calls came in yesterday Mitch Micconel (spelling) no longer took phone calls on it because they were all standing up against obamacare. A lot of us do not want this and will vote out anyone who votes for cloture.

olaru12

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER the fact. cowards...the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

edit on 26-9-2013 by roaland because: spelling

The Democrats are doing a little happy dance over the Cruz fiasco. And the mainstream GOP are chalking up another loss due to the Tea Party and the old guard infighting and not paying attention to real issues. The GOP need a lot more than just "we're not obama"!!!

Ted C. should run....

screw the republicans! they couldn't fight their way out of a wet paperbag much less talk their way out of one. Their no better then the Dems in my book, both have done great damage to this country and their votes, as well as the ecconomy, reflect that.

reply to post by roaland

That would've required Senator Cruz to yield his time to them. He didn't do that. He did, however, yield some of his time to Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio to let them ask him questions.

Senator Cruz discussed the idea with Harry Reid prior to his 21 hour speech, Harry Reid agreed no one would try and steal his spotlight but that his speech would have to end by 1 PM the following day. Harry Reid showed up early and made fun of the speech a little after noon. Ted Cruz then agreed to vote to amend the bill, thereby allowing the senate to vote to remove the part defunding Obamacare.

Ted Cruz did nothing that a crazy person on a street corner doesn't do on a regular basis. He'll probably run for president in two and a half years.

#KeepOnCruzing I like Ted but I can understand why the republicans are lashing out at him. If the GOP want any chance at a 2016 run they need to be smart with their moves and causing a government shutdown wouldn't help.

reply to post by FyreByrd


Senator Cruz has done nothing short of herald the end of the GOP...himself included.

Two options are on the table NOW...

(1) Shut-Down.

(2) Boehner punts with a 2 week CR extension funding government moving the fight to the Debt Ceiling raise.
But the TP wants the fight now..

AND...the Dems won't sacrifice ACA/Obamacare for either..ever..even if the compromised the POTUS can and will Veto.

It is either Shut-Down now or Default in a couple of weeks.

A Default would crush our economy...minimum recession, potential depression.

Either Shut-Down or Default is going to enrage the majority of Americans and their is little doubt at present who is taking the American Economy hostage for their demands.

The GOP is going to lose either way...Not being partisan, just running the numbers..

Wall Street to GOP: Are you nuts?

Political analysts and market experts say this strategy could wind up doing lasting damage to both the United States economy and the GOP’s national political standing.

....

A brief shutdown would have some negative economic effects and could create political blowback on the GOP. But it would cause far less long-term damage than a default, which would likely send interest rates sky-rocketing, crush the stock market, devastate business and consumer confidence, and probably send the nation’s economy hurtling back into recession if not depression.

....

White House and Treasury officials say any further negotiations over the debt limit would introduce a level of risk around United States Treasury bonds where none previously existed, ultimately raising borrowing costs for both the government and average citizens for decades to come — if not permanently.

“We can’t do it, not just because of the issues at stake now but for what it would mean generations from now,” one senior administration official said recently.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Thursday described House Republicans as suicide bombers. “What we’re not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest,” Pfeiffer told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We’re not going to do that.”

www.politico.com...

edit on 27-9-2013 by Indigo5 because: (no reason given)

roaland

olaru12

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER the fact. cowards...the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

edit on 26-9-2013 by roaland because: spelling

The Democrats are doing a little happy dance over the Cruz fiasco. And the mainstream GOP are chalking up another loss due to the Tea Party and the old guard infighting and not paying attention to real issues. The GOP need a lot more than just "we're not obama"!!!

Ted C. should run....

screw the republicans! they couldn't fight their way out of a wet paperbag much less talk their way out of one. Their no better then the Dems in my book, both have done great damage to this country and their votes, as well as the ecconomy, reflect that.

The GOP has some good men that are honest, moderate, and have our best interest in mind but they won't stand a chance of winning any national elections as long as the Republican wing that worships Rush Limbaugh are in the drivers seat and making policy.

FyreByrd

roaland
Man, with all these ppl coming out today agianst Ted Cruz you would think alot of them stood up while he was phibustering to debate him. Oh, wait, hmm guess no one spoke up while he had the floor like they should of.

That in itself speaks volumes about these ppl speaking out agianst Cruz AFTER ther fact. cowards... the lot of them..Oh i forgot spineless, cant forget that one....

That's the funniest bit - you missed it - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just let him make a fool of himself.

Well Reids not a greedy person. He dose share the limelight on occasion.

cass1dy09
#KeepOnCruzing I like Ted but I can understand why the republicans are lashing out at him. If the GOP want any chance at a 2016 run they need to be smart with their moves and causing a government shutdown wouldn't help.

Not taking sides here.....this is really just your run of the mill political slandering. The dems simply have a republican willing to run one out of the dem playbook and they know how effective this tactic is. Listen to the desperate language mac and quack are using.

In fact I will go so far as to say, that anyone that considers themselves a student of politics should download a copy of this. Its classic, uses just a lot of tools, covers a lot of ground, deploys telling rhetoric ect.

reply to post by Indigo5


The republicans, a republican had to do this. About half of their party base is about to break out the tomatoes on them over this issue. And don't be fooled the dems hate this sort thing.

The House should counter with fund it, but eliminate the IRS and payroll deductions. Since neither us a part of Congress and only Congress has the power to collect taxes.