We do tend to breed some of the worst down here, don't we! Some of the best, too. In day-to-day life, Texas is not a series of exaggerations. It's when we open the door and allow the place to air that the big stinkers get out.
That's one way of putting it, but Frank Bruni, writing about Ted Cruz in the Times, is far more eloquent. He points out that even John McCain, one of the more venal, self-serving and now (in addition) cranky old farts, has told fellow Republican Ted Cruz off, loud and clear.
When a Vesuvius like John McCain tells you that you belch too much smoke and spew too much fire, you know you’ve got a problem. And Ted Cruz, a Republican freshman in the Senate who has been front and center in his party’s effort to squash Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense, has a problem. He’s an ornery, swaggering piece of work. Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are. ...Bruni, NYT
Cruz is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard. Did that tone him down? No. Was he any better in those tonier places? No. They remember him as "fiercely smart" as well as "arrogant, sour and self-serving." So much for a lousy generation of parents who let their lousy little offspring know that they could do no wrong. If you think Cruz comes from humble origins here in Texas, understand that his parents are oil people and his wife works for Goldman Sachs. Texas (Houston) is only a stepping stone.*
There is something, however, that redeems Ted Cruz and Frank Bruni spots it. Cruz may act as a much needed purgative within the Republican party.
... The challenge for Republicans now — a challenge that, to limited and varying degrees, Rubio and even Eric Cantor are beginning to grasp — is to be seen and to act as a constructive force, as a party that’s for things, that wants to be inclusive and that operates with a generosity of spirit, not an overflow of spite. With his votes and his vitriol, Cruz undermines that. He brings himself plenty of attention. He’ll bring Republicans nothing but grief. ...Bruni, NYT
Good. They deserve him.
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*Cruz's parents are Canadian and Cuban and Ted did part of his growing up in Canada, the oily part. Let's also remember that another Texan of ill-repute, #43, was really a scion of Connecticut and an Ivy Leaguer in all but educational results. If you want Texan (and nobody apparently did want him) you've got Rick Perry, yessir military and Texas A&M. Oh, and a hunting lease at Niggerhead Ranch.
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