Just how dangerous is Ted Cruz?

[Ropey]

How can a Canadian be dangerous?

exactly They must have their hands full w/ tinyd anyway

 

[Dot Com]

Rafael Cruz (R-TX) is on par w/ being as dangerous as that other Canadian Steve Carrel

 

[Crackerjaxon]

Blah, blah, blah. Anyone who isn't a neocon is a dangerous extremist.

No, Cruz isn't dangerous. I imagine he will wind up being the conservative version of Ted Kennedy, possibly a member of the cabinet at some time.

 

[dcraelin]

This latest Cruz news story about praising helms seems like a PR stunt to me. He knew it would be controversial and would gain him sympathy from those sick of all the racism charges flying around in politics.

I think Cruz is a fake, but if he manages to get Obama/Romney care stopped I'll have to reassess that opinion.

 

[rightwinger]

I would put Cruz somewhere between Caligula and Gengus Khan

 

[whitehall]

The radical left is like a rabid dog. Nothing matters except the drool and the anger.

 

[BDBoop]

I would put Cruz somewhere between Caligula and Gengus Khan

Senator Ted Cruz, Communists, Harvard Law School, and Joe McCarthy. : The New Yorker

Q&A with Sen. Ted Cruz | Dallas Morning News

Q. You were compared to McCarthy by several people – a lot of pundits, a lot of writers, several senators. How did that make you feel? Were you surprised by that? And what is your response to that?

A. It often seems in Washington [that] the ferocity of the attacks leveled at an individual, from Democrats or from the media, is directly related to the effectiveness of that person in standing for conservative principles. In the short time that I’ve been serving in office, The New York Times has already spilled barrels of ink attacking the conservative principles I’m fighting to defend. It seems to me if The New York Times is this hysterical already, it may be a sign that perhaps we’re doing something right.

Can tell he's a youngun.

Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.[1] He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, his tactics and inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate.

The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

From the Senator's wiki page. Now granted, I am not so old that I actually knew about events as they happened. But I DO know how much damage that asshole did, and it takes a special kind of stupid to believe that being compared to the man is a good thing.

In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the United States Army. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or homosexuality to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government.[5]

Not as widely known as McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade, were his various attempts to intimidate, and expel from government positions, persons whom he accused, or threatened to publicly accuse, of homosexuality. Former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson has written: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element . . . and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals."[6] This anti-homosexual witch-hunt McCarthy and others waged along with their "Red Scare" tactics, has been referred to by some as the "Lavender Scare".[7]

With the highly publicized Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, and following the death of Senator Lester Hunt of Wyoming by suicide that same year,[8] McCarthy's support and popularity faded. And, on December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis; it is widely accepted that this was caused, or at least exacerbated, by alcoholism.[9]

I can tell you this. Just taking that one statement away from my knowledge of Cruz is enough for me to discount him and what he can do. The first few paragraphs of the interview listed above - well, seriously. He thinks he can comport himself like that and get anything done? Let him try. So far, he's done not much of anything but show his ass.

Q. Given how you have left this perception with your adversaries on the Hill that you are arrogant and annoying and are kicking up dust – let’s say you need a favor someday from McCain or Feinstein or whomever. How do you get things done?

A. I can’t control whatever personal insults or attacks others might choose to hurtle my way. Regardless of what they might say I have no intention of responding in kind.

Q. That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking how you’re positioning yourself to be effective not only on things like stopping the assault weapons ban but on things you can’t foresee, that might require building a coalition.

A. In my opinion, Texans are looking for leaders in Washington who will stand for principle and who will work to solve the enormous fiscal and economic challenges we have. For too long, politicians in Washington have not been willing to get serious about stopping out of control spending and crushing debt that threatens the future for our kids and our grandkids.

This week is a good illustration of that… [The Democrats’ budget] does nothing to solve the enormous challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. Every one of us would like to see those critical bulwarks of our society strengthened, and right now those programs are careening toward bankruptcy.

Q. What I’m trying to get at is your role.

A. What I have endeavored to do, every day that I’ve been in the Senate, is focus on substance and policy, and work to help provide leadership to solving these enormous problems.

Q. Sen. [Tom] Coburn [R-Okla.] told me that one thing he learned along the way was how to pick fights. Some people would say you have picked every fight that’s come along, and you haven’t been so selective.

A. That comment is indicative of some in Washington who’ve been too quick to surrender on every front. Texans, by our nature, do not quickly surrender. And I think that’s one of the reasons so many Texans are frustrated with politicians in Washington.

Enough with the bluster. He's good at slinging shit - not so good at getting in the trenches and learning how to work with a team.

 

[BDBoop]

Now, - wow. THIS looks to be an interesting book.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068]Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies: M. Stanton Evans: 9781400081066: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

Accused of creating a bogus Red Scare and smearing countless innocent victims in a five-year reign of terror, Senator Joseph McCarthy is universally remembered as a demagogue, a bully, and a liar. History has judged him such a loathsome figure that even today, a half century after his death, his name remains synonymous with witch hunts.

But that conventional image is all wrong, as veteran journalist and author M. Stanton Evans reveals in this groundbreaking book. The long-awaited Blacklisted by History, based on six years of intensive research, dismantles the myths surrounding Joe McCarthy and his campaign to unmask Communists, Soviet agents, and flagrant loyalty risks working within the U.S. government. Evans’s revelations completely overturn our understanding of McCarthy, McCarthyism, and the Cold War.

Drawing on primary sources—including never-before-published government records and FBI files, as well as recent research gleaned from Soviet archives and intercepted transmissions between Moscow spymasters and their agents in the United States—Evans presents irrefutable evidence of a relentless Communist drive to penetrate our government, influence its policies, and steal its secrets. Most shocking of all, he shows that U.S. officials supposedly guarding against this danger not only let it happen but actively covered up the penetration. All of this was precisely as Joe McCarthy contended.

 

[whitehall]

The post illustrates the dead end track the democrat party is on. There are 435 congresspeople and only one president and yet the left singles out a single congressman and claims he is "dangerous" because he is doing his job and criticizing the president's incredible 3,000 page law that nobody understands. The only person in government who is really dangerous is the man with the most power and the radical left knows it. We have a foreign policy in shambles, the premier of Russia is dictating foreign policy and writing op-ed's in the NY Times, a retired US general and former head of the CIA is booed on college campus, the president is hiding witnesses to Benghazi and interfering with a congressional investigation into operation Fast/Furious and the freaking left thinks Ted Cruz is dangerous.

 

[Ed_Brown]

I like Cruz ... but I'm a biased radical extremist according to DHS. I'm afraid, however, that Cruz's problems surrounding his Canadian birth certificate, which I've blogged about and gotten a tidal wave of different views, will become more of a factor the closer to 2016 we get. Only Obama gets the free pass on citizenship. Others who speak the truth are held to a higher standard.

 

[rightwinger]

I like Cruz ... but I'm a biased radical extremist according to DHS. I'm afraid, however, that Cruz's problems surrounding his Canadian birth certificate, which I've blogged about and gotten a tidal wave of different views, will become more of a factor the closer to 2016 we get. Only Obama gets the free pass on citizenship. Others who speak the truth are held to a higher standard.

Obama was born in the US, Cruz wasnt

 

[Kiki Cannoli]

Cruz is a white hispanic.

 

[eflatminor]

...not so good at getting in the trenches and learning how to work with a team.

'Cuz what we need is more team players, more compromise...it's not like that approach has gotten us 17 trillion dollars into debt or anything...

 

[BDBoop]

...not so good at getting in the trenches and learning how to work with a team.

'Cuz what we need is more team players, more compromise...it's not like that approach has gotten us 17 trillion dollars into debt or anything...

You'll have to talk to the Republicans about that, they created most of the debt.

Yes, I know - you have a spin that says the opposite.

 

[rightwinger]

How dangerous is Cruz?

I wouldnt let him near puppies, kittens and small children

 

[BDBoop]

How dangerous is Cruz?

I wouldnt let him near puppies, kittens and small children

Or just children and other small animals.

 

[The Rabbi]

It is interesting to see these hate threads. Because that's what they are. Whoever the Left thinks might be a presidential contender, their first impulse is to slander him. He's Joe McCarthy. He's George Bush. He's Adolph Hitler.
Tells me the left is crapping their pants at the prospect of Ted running. And before some asshat says they relish it because he's way to the right to get elected, they said exactly the same thing about Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

 

[BDBoop]

It is interesting to see these hate threads. Because that's what they are. Whoever the Left thinks might be a presidential contender, their first impulse is to slander him. He's Joe McCarthy. He's George Bush. He's Adolph Hitler.
Tells me the left is crapping their pants at the prospect of Ted running. And before some asshat says they relish it because he's way to the right to get elected, they said exactly the same thing about Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

He has not only heard the comparison to Joe McCarthy, he quite enjoys it. Who are you to say he's wrong?

 

[The Rabbi]

It is interesting to see these hate threads. Because that's what they are. Whoever the Left thinks might be a presidential contender, their first impulse is to slander him. He's Joe McCarthy. He's George Bush. He's Adolph Hitler.
Tells me the left is crapping their pants at the prospect of Ted running. And before some asshat says they relish it because he's way to the right to get elected, they said exactly the same thing about Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

He has not only heard the comparison to Joe McCarthy, he quite enjoys it. Who are you to say he's wrong?

Who are you to say anything?

 

[BDBoop]

It is interesting to see these hate threads. Because that's what they are. Whoever the Left thinks might be a presidential contender, their first impulse is to slander him. He's Joe McCarthy. He's George Bush. He's Adolph Hitler.
Tells me the left is crapping their pants at the prospect of Ted running. And before some asshat says they relish it because he's way to the right to get elected, they said exactly the same thing about Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

He has not only heard the comparison to Joe McCarthy, he quite enjoys it. Who are you to say he's wrong?

Who are you to say anything?

You're allergic to logic?

Makes sense.