"Ted Cruz explained throwing his daughters under the bus by saying it was his wife's idea."
Saturday Night Live
He learned nothing from watching Trump for five years.
He could have said he did not want to be in the way of rescue efforts back in Houston. Say he went there to work. Say it like he meant it. No apologies. Stick to that. Be angry.
It might have worked for him. GOP primary voters, the people who matter in a run for president, would have been happy to see a fighter defending the implausible, but not giving an inch. The more implausible, the better, because it would show he had the Trump instinct for taking the fight to the Democrats. The more people ridiculed him, the more he would be a sympathetic victim. He did nothing wrong and the Democrats are hounding him. Cruz is a victim, don't you see?
He played it wrong. He let his conscience and sense of shame distract him. He could have felt proud and acted proud. After all, he was a senator who got a police escort to the airport in the middle of a statewide disaster, and for a trip to the Ritz Carlton in warm sunshine, a sweet deal. Rank has its privileges. It was not utterly impossible that he could work harder and better in Cancun than in Houston, what with Houston having electrical problems and being cold.
But he knew in his heart that was phony, so he tried to deny and minimize what he did. He said he was just going down to drop his daughters off and return immediately. That was a lie that promptly fell apart; he was ticketed through Saturday. Then he said he was just guilty of being a great dad, the daughters begged him. Then that he was doing it for his family, quality family time. Those sounded like excuses, which validated the whole meme: Ted Cruz was caught red-handed neglecting his post in a crisis.
By Saturday--too late by far--Cruz had figured out how to play this, and he began making this about Democrats and the news media, the go-to targets for a Republican in trouble. Even then, though, he messed up. He validated his critics by minimization rather than denial. Other people are worse than me, he said.
It is amazing how the networks are obsessed about my 1-day trip with my family and yet can't somehow seem to cover Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the really horrific policies that led to thousands of COVID deaths in New York state. I think the news media has an interesting way of assessing what are the real crises facing the country.
Trump would not have minimized, he would have justified, without a hint of apology or shame. His phone call to Ukraine was perfect. His phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State was perfect. His January 6 speech was perfect.
Cruz could have said it was a perfect trip.
Too late. Cruz felt enough empathy for the people left behind and shame for leaving them, that he was slow to get his story out. It needed to have begun right there in the plane, telling people he was there to work, harder and better, darned right.
It might have been too great a stretch to pull off. Cruz is thoroughly unlikable, as senate colleague Lindsay Graham noted. Someone could kill him on the Senate floor, and there wouldn't be a jury to convict the murderer, Graham said.
Cruz was an easy target. Republicans are piling on, too. He is a rival.
5 comments:
Guess he missed that first day of Politicians 101 class when they covered "do not check into a place named the Ritz while your constituents are freezing to death in the dark".
"He played it wrong. He let his conscience and sense of shame distract him."
I don't think defiance would have done much good. This is classic damage control and one wonders if returning was actually his idea or someone whispering in his ear. I find it hard to believe it was some tickling of conscience.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou
I'd just like to point out that while the Gov. Cuomo situation is a complicated issue with facts in question and some evidence of being politically motivated, as well as second guessing a leader's actions in a crisis, comparing it to Cruz hightailing out of Texas is about as "apples to oranges" as one can get. I don't blame the governor for being defensive. He was doing his best in a life or death disaster, making policy in the dark.
I'm quite sure that this us the first time ever that I seen Tailgunner Ted Cruz credited with having empathy or a sense of shame. Even his staged photo op shots of him handing over bottledxwater lacked any credibility. But I think Texas will still reelect him in 24, if he runs.
Naomi Klein suggested on Democracy Now that Cruz’s behavior was a symbol of how the rich see themselves as above the common class..they take a jet out the climate danger zone and head toward a better temperature. They feel their money will protect them from having to face the disasters that climate change will bring. Hurricane coming in Florida jet out to the weather of the west coast. I bet the Bushies had lots of electricity and generators and no $11,000 bills.
Many such politicians are going to learn all the wrong things from Trump. I said something similar about Steve Jobs, after his passing, in that too many business executives would learn all the wrong lessons from the singular Jobs: Abusive behavior; dismissive of market research; solo leadership vs team building; etc. Like Jobs, I believe Trump a singular talent; a conman of epic proportions; able to get away with anything...mainly by extravagant display of shared hatreds. When less talented politicians aim to be Trumpian (and that certainly marks Cruz), they will fail, lacking Trump's singular survival skills. This, in turn, will be how Trumpism fades from the scene. No one else can pull it off; and Trump is dead (good as; a loser). Cruz's excellent adventure was so entertaining, I look forward to more such things in the near future.
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