# Ted Cruz is pretty crafty **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 25, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609 "2013-09-25T00:56:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/1 "2013-09-25T00:56:57Z")
Or so it seems to me. On the outside looking in, he seems incompetent. He is engaging in a useless filibuster and making lots of republicans in the senate and house hate him in the process. If the government does go into shutdown, the republicans will get more of the blame. But he seems like he has a good strategy. He likely knows there is no chance a filibuster will work, it just makes him look principled to tea party conservatives, who make up 50%+ of primary voters. So when Cruz runs in 2016 he will have a lot of leverage in the primary election. Plus as far as him being hated by republicans for his antics, he can pass that off as him pissing off the ‘moderate’ and establishment republicans. The conservative base seems to think the GOP is too liberal and cooperative, so Cruz is going to win support for standing up to them. If he wins the primary, the republicans who hate him will have no choice but to support him the same way Bill and Hillary Clinton had no choice but to support Obama in 2008. Plus Ted Cruz has written about how the GOP has to appeal on [economic](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-03/opinions/36210969_1_republican-policies-obama-policies-economic-policies) issues. Granted it will be all talk, but considering we will have had 8 years of economic collapse and stagnation by 2016 a message of conservative economics could have some appeal. Then again, it might not. It isn’t like the economic collapse will have magically happened because of too much regulation instead of too little, and it isn’t like corporations will stop doing everything they can to avoid offering a living wage and benefits to tons of workers. So the message may not have too much appeal. But Ted Cruz could find a way to make his message appealing if he can convince people that conservative economics will lead to high paying, full time jobs with benefits. So I’m guessing that is his strategy. No idea if it’ll work but it could. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/2 "2013-09-25T01:08:32Z")
It’s clean against Leary’s Law (“Thou shalt not alter thy brother’s mind without thy brother’s consent”), but, oh! I can’t help wishing I were a page, and in a position, when Cruz starts his filibuster, to slip about a hundred hits of LSD into his water-pitcher . . . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/3 "2013-09-25T01:12:58Z")
[Even the GOP is mad at Cruz right now.](http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/22/fox-news-admits-republicans-opposition-research-ted-cruz.html) > [@](#): > > It is getting ugly in Republican Land. Today, Fox News disclosed that top Republican officials sent them opposition research to be used against Ted Cruz during his Fox News Sunday interview. > > Wallace said, “This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington. And I sat that, because as soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats, but from top Republicans who — to hammer Cruz. Why are Republicans so angry at Ted Cruz?” > > \ > > It is easy to understand why Republicans are so angry at Ted Cruz. Sen. Cruz spent the summer aligned with Jim DeMint and his former PAC Senate Conservatives Fund. The Senate Conservatives Fund has been running ads targeting Republican senators in their home states with the demand that they support shutting down the government unless Obamacare is defunded. The fact that Cruz could cost some of her fellow Republicans their seats is probably why they are so angry with him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/4 "2013-09-25T01:15:05Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > If he wins the primary . . . Now, “Bob,” I know I haven’t been a very good SubGenius . . . ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/5 "2013-09-25T01:33:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It’s clean against Leary’s Law (“Thou shalt not alter thy brother’s mind without thy brother’s consent”), but, oh! I can’t help wishing I were a page, and in a position, when Cruz starts his filibuster, to slip about a hundred hits of LSD into his water-pitcher . . . 😃 I suspect that might be fatal, not to mention wasteful. One or two hits would be more than enough for epic entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/6 "2013-09-25T01:44:01Z")
> [@](#): > > It is getting ugly in Republican Land. Today, Fox News disclosed that top Republican officials sent them opposition research to be used against Ted Cruz during his Fox News Sunday interview. Even uglier: FoxNews personality and former Republican politician Sarah Palin has demanded that her employer release the names of those who sent the questions to be used against Cruz. In the interest of being “fair and balanced”, mind you. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/7 "2013-09-25T01:46:42Z")
It’ll probably play great with the far right. Other people may notice that it made no difference and never stood the least chance of making a difference. I think that’s part of why other Republicans are annoyed at Cruz: they get to make (for them) a difficult vote while he gets to grandstand and make them look like jerks. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/8 "2013-09-25T01:47:17Z")
Eh, I agree he’s doing this to get his name out there as a Prez candidate. But I disagree that its particularly crafty. The opinion of party leaders depends a lot on getting the party nominations, especially the GOP nomination. Its not like the GOP rank-and-file was calling out for a Mitt Romney Presidential candadacy in 2012, after all. Cruz seems to have really pissed off his parties leadership, while at the same time not accomplishing anything beyond the Republican’s 3 bajillionth meaningless symbolic effort against Obamacare. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/9 "2013-09-25T01:55:43Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I suspect that might be fatal, not to mention wasteful. One or two hits would be more than enough for epic entertainment. **Is** there a lethal dose? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/10 "2013-09-25T04:16:11Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > **Is** there a lethal dose? [Apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide), though well above the dose you suggested. - Estimates for the median lethal dose (LD50) of LSD range from 200 µg/kg to more than 1 mg/kg of human body mass, though most sources report that there are no known human cases of such an overdose. Other sources note one report of a suspected fatal overdose of LSD occurring in November 1975 in Kentucky in which there were indications that ~1/3 of a gram (320 mg or 320,000 µg) had been injected intravenously. (This is a very extraordinary amount, equivalent to over 3,000 times the average LSD dosage of ~100 µg).[75][76] Experiments with LSD have also been done on animals; in 1962, an elephant named Tusko died shortly after being injected with 297 mg, but whether the LSD was the cause of his death is controversial (due, in part, to a plethora of other chemical substances administered simultaneously).[77]\* ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/11 "2013-09-25T12:21:40Z")
In a basically Cruz-friendly [article in the _Weekly Standard_](http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/washington-builds-bugaboo_753924.html), the author notices the senator repeating the same phrases. In public speeches, in an office interview and even later… > [@](#): > > I’m not complaining. Professional public speakers have no choice but to recycle material. And for the hack, hearing a politician say the same thing multiple times makes note-taking vastly easier. “Disciplined” is a term of art in politics, and generally a compliment. It describes a stubborn, admirable, and often necessary insistence on the part of a politician on talking about only what he wants to talk about, in terms of his choosing. I think Cruz senses that his fluency seems slightly artificial, a little too pat, since he takes care to alter his cadence and punctuate it with “you knows” and “let me tell yas” and those thoughtful pauses that allow him to glance reflectively off to the side and bite his lower lip, before rousing himself to deliver a sentence he has delivered several hundred times. > > It doesn’t stop, though. Later we sat together in the back seat of a car driving to another speech. Cruz spoke in personal ways about going to his alma mater, Princeton, but the word clumps from the speeches, the set pieces that he arranges in one sequence or another and seldom departs from, were always within reach. He spoke of his father again. He mentioned the great divide in America, again, and was quoting Margaret Thatcher when I realized he was giving a speech again, except this time at close quarters, only a few feet away, in the back seat of a car. I made a quick calculation of how many vertebrae I would damage if I slipped the lock, opened the door, and did a tuck and roll onto the passing pavement. The answer was: too many. So I contented myself with looking out the window at the Houston exurbs until the speech wound down and I could ask another question, after which the speech resumed and I watched the endless series of tire stores and taco stands and Jiffy Lubes roll by. Another detail–during his career of public service, Cruz also worked at a Houston law firm. Taking in about 3 million dollars in a few years… ---
**Author:** ![i\_am\_a\_scientist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f07891/32.png) [@i\_am\_a\_scientist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/i_am_a_scientist)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/12 "2013-09-25T12:52:34Z")
Cruz is a smarter Rick Perry, or the political Tim Tebow: Destroying opponents on an amateuer level but will flounder in the pros. He’s arrogant and can’t read a defence in 3 seconds. In the 2016 GOP primaries Cruz will say something apologetic about, say, slavery, and the the Republicans will do a collective oh-no-who-did-we-wake-up-with (as they did with Perry). Plus all the opposition research the GOP leadership needs is right in the recent GQ article on Cruz. Buried on [page 3](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201310/ted-cruz-republican-senator-october-2013?currentPage=3) is the meatiest and most relatable part of the profile: > [@](#): > > “But Cruz’s personal style earned him many detractors in BushWorld. He was infamous for firing off mundane work e-mails in the middle of the night—it happened so often that some in the Bush campaign suspected him of writing them ahead of time and programming his computer to send while he was asleep.” I mean, who doesn’t know (and hate) \*that \*fucking guy? ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/13 "2013-09-25T12:58:29Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Plus Ted Cruz has written about how the GOP has to appeal on [economic](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-03/opinions/36210969_1_republican-policies-obama-policies-economic-policies) issues. Mmmm. “Opportunity conservatism.” Either someone already got to Ted with that acid or he’s been playing with Palin’s random word generator. It does have the ring of truthiness and cromulence to it though - you have to admit that much. And honestly, in American politics, what more do you really need brothers and sisters? Add to that a heaping helping of folksy charm and you’ve got the trailer trash trifecta. If that constitutes “crafty” then Ted is definitely such and at least in the same league as the average televangelist. I would normally put politicians a notch above that since the natural selection pressures are more numerous and less forgiving, but whatev’s. If you think however that things aren’t going to improve between now and 2016, whether in terms of GDP growth, employment, or any other measure you think is important - I wouldn’t bet on it. Or if I did, I wouldn’t bet much and I’d hedge that bet. The most you can hope for, if you want some sort of economic disaster scenario, is that economic growth will accelerate, take the federal reserve by surprise and result in a significant level of inflation by then. Inflation is a great economic issue for conservatives - isn’t it? It was back in the 80’s after Carter failed so miserably. So if you want to hope and dream, at least hope for something realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/14 "2013-09-25T12:58:34Z")
nm - misread ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/15 "2013-09-25T13:07:15Z")
The real question is, how Cruz’ act will play with the people who write the big checks to fund primary campaigns. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/16 "2013-09-25T13:29:07Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Even uglier: FoxNews personality and former Republican politician Sarah Palin has demanded that her employer release the names of those who sent the questions to be used against Cruz. In the interest of being “fair and balanced”, mind you. The clown car has begun picking up the usual loonies to disport for our pleasure, but they really need to think twice about picking up hitchhikers they see along the way. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/17 "2013-09-25T13:53:37Z")
Oh, I don’t know, his [quoting of _Green Eggs and Ham_](http://gawker.com/ted-cruz-reads-green-eggs-ham-because-he-will-not-eat-1380949655) in his Jimmy Stewart act was pretty entertaining. > [@](#): > > “they do not like Obamacare in a box, with a fox, in a house, or with a mouse.” It would have been craftier if he’d shown any signs of having read it all the way to the last few pages, though. 😉 > [@](#): > > Senator Cruz, you do not like Obamacare, so you say? Try it! Try it! And you may! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/18 "2013-09-25T13:56:49Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > _Experiments with LSD have also been done on animals; in 1962, an elephant named Tusko died shortly after being injected with 297 mg, but whether the LSD was the cause of his death is controversial (due, in part, to a plethora of other chemical substances administered simultaneously).[77]_ :eek: If anybody’s gonna administer that kinda drug-cocktail to an **elephant,** I ain’t stickin’ around to watch the results! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/19 "2013-09-25T14:03:40Z")
No need for psychoactives. A laxative would do. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609/20 "2013-09-25T14:08:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :eek: If anybody’s gonna administer that kinda drug-cocktail to an **elephant,** I ain’t stickin’ around to watch the results! It’s only a problem if you forget the little umbrella. They really hate it when you forget the little umbrella. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-is-pretty-crafty/669609.md?page=2)