I haven’t watched much of the republican debates, but I have occasionally passed through while my wife was watching. Tonight was one such time. I heard Trump say something like, “You aren’t endorsed by a single Senator … You should be ashamed of yourself!”
I heard that and thought, “You have got to be kidding? Did you just say that? Seriously? Seriously?” The one who has claimed that he will bring everyone into the Oval office and cut deals, but who has previously sworn to burn it all down according to his bot followers, has hurled the insult at Cruz that he isn’t loved in Washington. Reality is more bizarre than fiction. I couldn’t have made this up if I tried.
A couple of days before the primary in South Carolina, I heard the following men speak: Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, Mike Lee, and Dave Brat (Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina was there and praised by Ted Cruz, although he didn’t speak), and others (Mark Levin, etc.). I listened intently to Louie Gohmert describe the events leading up to the death of the “gang of eight bill.” I am a political wonk, and I keep up with these things. Even I didn’t know some of what he told us. I cannot give you all of the details, but I can provide a summary.
Gohmert described the intense strategic meetings to plot the death of the bill. The meetings were held between Cruz, Lee, Brat, Gohmert, Duncan and others. When the bill hit the House, it was all but a done deal because the gang had a pretty new face to put with it, i.e., Rubio. It was very hard to turn it back. America doesn’t know how close we were to having the gang of eight bill as law.
One of the tactics was a poison pill by Ted Cruz placed into the bill during deliberations between the House and Senate, but it also required much work in the House proper. And all of this was led by whom, you asked? Why, it was led by Ted Cruz, with all the meetings in Ted’s office. If Louie Gohmert was lying, Mike Lee, or Congressman Brat or Duncan could have stopped Gohmert. None did, because Gohmert was telling the truth. You don’t have a gang of eight law because Ted Cruz led the effort to kill it. Why doesn’t America know this? Well, Ted is trying ever so hard to tell them, but they can’t hear it for the confusion of the mob of monkeys as they screech and bark and howl and sling their feces everywhere.
That’s why Ted Cruz is hated in Washington. And I’ve thought about my own life this evening in terms of being hated. In a way, a man’s measure is found in his enemies. I drifted off this evening to what my grave marker might read. If it reads something like this: “Herschel was an objectionable and loathsome man but for the sovereign grace of God. He led a nondescript life. In fact, he wasn’t worth much even after God saved him … except that he was hated in Washington,” I would die a happy man.
How do I do that? How do I make it to 33rd degree blogger-hated-in-Washington? I so want to be hated in Washington. Good heavens. If someone hurled that insult at me, I would wear it as a badge of honor.