'Mr. Cruz’s victory in November is all but assured'.....nytimes

[spanone]

HOUSTON — As a teenager, Ted Cruz was an intense and eloquent parser of free-market economics, dazzling Rotary Clubs here in Houston by reciting the Constitution. At Princeton, he was a national champion debater and an intellectual leader of a band of conservative students. He was a star at Harvard Law School and clerked for the chief justice of the United States.

But few may have imagined Mr. Cruz, 41, in his newest role, as the Tea Party favorite and Republican candidate for the United States Senate, trading verbal orchids with the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Mr. Cruz earned the nomination on Tuesday in a runoff election after more than a year of sweaty street campaigning, drawing national attention for beating Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the more experienced nominee of the Texas Republican establishment.

“I’d have predicted that he would be a professor, not a politician,” said Robert P. George, Mr. Cruz’s adviser at Princeton in the early 1990s. Professor George, a noted social conservative, said that Mr. Cruz stood out even among his Ivy League peers as “intellectually and morally serious,” writing his thesis on the separation of powers.
“But he’s certainly not a shrinking violet,” Mr. George quickly added in an interview Tuesday — to which, Mr. Dewhurst, a wealthy conservative who had the support of Gov. Rick Perry, can attest.

Mr. Cruz’s victory in November is all but assured in this heavily Republican state and marks a shift to the right in the already-conservative party here. Political elders and experts who have watched him during his time here as state solicitor general and on the campaign trail predict that he will be an intellectual force in the Congress on behalf of Constitutional limits on federal power. He is expected to join Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and other Tea Party icons as an uncompromising irritant of mainstream Republicans and Democrats alike.



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/politics/republican-senate-candidate-in-texas-is-known-as-an-intellectual-force.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=print

[Texasgal]

1. BAAAAAAAARF!

God what a fucking asshole this guy is!

[spanone]

4. i just read this story. scary. senator.

[NoPasaran]

7. Roger that

Come January, John Cornyn will be the less loathsome senator from Texas.

[Initech]

28. I stopped at the words "Tea Party favorite".

[w8liftinglady]

2. There has been a COMPLETE Media blackout on Paul Sadler by Texas

Forward this to anyone you may know who can help!!!!

[w8liftinglady]

38. Grantholm on The war Room went there...I hope it spreads.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. This guy is a freak.

He is beyond Palin/Beck - he is in full blown Alex Jones territory.

I started tracking a few links last night when I heard about his win, and he terrifies me.

Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/125162736

Some highlights about this loon:

1) Ted Cruz Believes George Soros Leads A United Nations Conspiracy To Eliminate Golf
2) Ted Cruz Wants To Gut Social Security
3) Ted Cruz Wants To Party Like It’s 1829
4) Ted Cruz Is An Islamophobe
5) Ted Cruz Campaigned On How He Helped Texas Kill A Mexican

[FSogol]

13. C'mon, this requires an explanation: "Cruz Believes Soros Leads A UN Conspircy To Eliminate Golf"

[Ruby the Liberal]

17. Ok.

Links to the originals (and their links to their sources) at the link above.

From ThinkProgress:

Ted Cruz Believes George Soros Leads A United Nations Conspiracy To Eliminate Golf: In 1992, President George H.W. Bush joined the leaders of 177 other nations in endorsing a non-binding UN document known as Agenda 21. This twenty year-old document largely speaks at a very high level of generality about reducing poverty and building sustainable living environments. Nevertheless, Cruz published an article on his campaign website claiming that this non-binding document is actually a nefarious plot to “abolish ‘unsustainable’ environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads.” To top it off, Cruz lays the blame for this global anti-golf conspiracy at the feet of a well-known Tea Party boogieman — “The originator of this grand scheme is George Soros.”

From Mother Jones:

He thinks George Soros wants to ban golf: Like many conservatives, Cruz believes that the United States' sovereignty is under assault from an obscure United Nations agreement called Agenda 21. Although Agenda 21 does not have the force of law, right-wingers believe the treaty's sustainable-development precepts will force Americans to live in "hobbit homes" and forcibly relocate residents from rural areas into densely populated urban cores. "Agenda 21 sounds like absolute crazy conspiracy theory nut stuff, but it's not," explains Glenn Beck. As Cruz puts it on his website:

The originator of this grand scheme is George Soros, who candidly supports socialism and believes that global development must progress through eliminating national sovereignty and private property. He has given millions to this project. But he is not the only one promoting this plan; in fact, the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) now consists of over 600 cities in the United States.

Agenda 21 attempts to abolish "unsustainable" environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads. It hopes to leave mother earth’s surface unscratched by mankind. Everyone wants clean water and clean air, but Agenda 21 dehumanizes individuals by removing the very thing that has defined Americans since the beginning—our freedom.

As Senator, he's pledged to confront the Agenda 21 menace head-on. Here's a video of Cruz discussing the treaty with Beck, in which Cruz concurs that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could become vessels for the mass eviction of rural Americans in the name of sustainable development:

[derby378]

22. Teabaggers have been going on about Agenda 21 for at least a year

I infiltrated a Tea Party meeting in Dallas last year, and they were going on about how sustainable corporate development was a moot point because if your city is paying any dues to ICLEI, "your tax dollars are going towards sustainability and tighter control over your life whether you're aware of it or not." That got the sheep bleating all over again about how "green is the new red."

[Ruby the Liberal]

26. "Green is the new red"?

That is priceless.

[cloudbase]

24. Ted obviously doesn't like golf

because you have to know your ass from a hole in the ground to play.

[FSogol]

32. Thanks and Wow.

[sabrina 1]

35. Lol, I was about to ask about that also. .

Soros wants to eliminate golf! I had no idea!

[FSogol]

41. Is that just a plot to sell more golf balls and clubs?

[mike_c]

5. "...an uncompromising irritant...."

Americans get exactly the government they deserve. Sheesh.

[RagAss]

6. This dude looks like a member of Frank's gang in "Blue Velvet".

Weird and scary looking.

[Justitia]

8. He's a complete nutter - ugh. -nt

[Blue_In_AK]

9. And yet again I congratulate myself

for having the good sense to leave Texas forever way back in 1968.

[Oilwellian]

25. Blue, I was right behind you in 72

I left the day after HS graduation and have never looked back (although I do visit relatives there from time to time.)

[Blue_In_AK]

40. Yeah, I stuck around for college

(University of Houston, class of '68), but I was out of there within a week after graduating.

[RZM]

10. He looks like a mime without makeup n/t

[crazylikafox]

11. CBS evening news said the same thing tonight.

That Cruz is an automatic win.

[tsuki]

34. I should have read all the posts before

I asked my question. Thanks.

[FSogol]

12. Queue bizarre sex scandal in 5...4...3...2...

[dionysus]

14. kinda looks like gomer...

[spanone]

16. he's a slick gomer. video...

[southernyankeebelle]

15. But the good news I heard with this guy in it assures the state being purple next time around.

[nanabugg]

18. Hmmm...let's just wait and see. The universe is still unfolding....as it should. nt

[JI7]

19. he looks like he does odd things in private

while preaching purity and shit in public.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. uh-huh! he sure does!!!

[ananda]

20. It's too bad that the Texas Dem party..

.. has rolled over and played dead for lo these many years
and is yet to be resurrected.

[spanone]

21. he's never been elected to any office.

senator cruz.....

[Politicalboi]

27. My Gaydar is going off

It's not science, but just a feeling. He looks like he is wearing lipstick in that picture. I can totally see make-up on this guy.

Maybe he's Rick Perry "secret" b***h.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. ...

[riverwalker]

30. talk me down

lets not just hand the seat to him on a silver platter. His Democratic opponant Paul Sadler has only 580 follewers on Twitter. C'mon people! https://twitter.com/sadlertx
Ted Cruz has over 27,000 crazy teabaggers following him!

[sabrina 1]

37. Just followed him. He needs more exposure. Is the Party helping him at all?

[lostnote12]

31. "all the bells and whistles but the soul of a codfish".....keep the faith Tx Dems!!!

[tsuki]

33. Is this the guy CBS News had a fluff piece on? nt

[nevergiveup]

36. This guy looks creepy/scary

I am not one to usually be bothered by a persons looks but if this guy moved next door to me I would put my house on the market the next day with a notation that I would take any offer.

[spanone]

39. he's very scary....Princeton debate champion and Harvard Law grad

Cruz has never been elected to public office, but the Princeton debate champion and Harvard Law grad is now heavily favored to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson. His primary campaign was viewed by many as a struggle between moderate Republicans and the Tea Party.

"I will never support new taxes," he said. "Period. The end."

A lot of Republicans would say they think things have gotten worse with the Tea Party members in Congress, putting a halt to a lot of legislation. But Cruz said that's a good thing.

"Well I think there are a lot of things that needed to stop. That needed to halt," he said. "Our $16 trillion debt was a bipartisan problem. A whole lot of Republicans went arm in arm with the Democrats in agreeing to that spending, in agreeing to blow up the federal budget, and that's why Americans are looking for new leaders who won't do that."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57484916/texas-ted-cruz-scores-a-major-tea-party-victory/