Frank Bruni was a White House reporter for The New York Times under George W. Bush, and found him both "lavishly self-deprecating" and "defiantly proud of his own failings and foibles." But he clearly shared something with Bush in his new Times column "The scary spectre of Ted Cruz."
Bruni accurately noted that "Dubya" rarely adds any opinion on current events or leaders in his post-presidency, and yet he was quoted attacking Cruz at a fundraiser for his brother Jeb. “I just don’t like the guy.”
I think a great many Americans — including a majority of Cruz’s colleagues in Congress — know exactly how he feels.
But there’s no solace in his words. Quite the opposite. He wouldn’t have felt compelled to utter them if Cruz wasn’t a possible factor in the race — if he wasn’t a menacing, stalking, relentless force to watch for and run from, like the body-hopping spirit in this year’s most celebrated horror movie, It Follows.
In fact Bush’s remarks at the fund-raiser apparently included a heads-up about Cruz’s potency, especially in primaries across the South.
Like most liberals, Bruni acts appalled that two amateurs are dominating the pre-primary polls, which seems like a bit of an act, considering the loathing for Senator Cruz. "The slow torture of the Republican primary knows no limit. First Donald Trump turns it into a carnival, then Ben Carson comes along with his insanity about the Holocaust and guns. Between them they own nearly 50 percent of the Republican vote, according to recent national surveys."
Bruni laid into Cruz in much the same way that "conservative" Jennifer Rubin does, that everything he does to stand against Obamacare or a ballooning national debt is a pose, not a serious policy position.
He’s the patron saint of lost causes, at least if they bring the spotlight his way. In that sense he’s emblematic of the flamboyantly uncompromising comrades in the so-called Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives, who similarly confuse attention with accomplishment.
All of them, with Cruz as their spiritual leader, have turned petulance into a theory of governing, or rather anti-governing, as they breezily disregard the contradiction of their ravenous lunge to become monarchs of a kingdom that they supposedly want to topple, to gain power over a system that they ostensibly intend to enfeeble.
Cruz doesn’t propose remedies. He performs rants. He’s not interested in collaboration or teamwork. His main use for other politicians, even in his party, is as foils and targets.
When the media's democratic socialists get arrogant, they think anyone who opposes their vision of gargantuan government is "anti-governing." They don't think Democrats exercising a "nuclear option" or filibuster or an obstruction based on liberal principles is ever "anti-governing." Bruni concluded:
Keep that in mind when he rails against the establishment and the elites. And remember that when someone is as broadly and profoundly disliked as Cruz is, it’s usually not because he’s a principled truth teller.
It’s because he’s frightening.
