Even people who believe Ted Cruz is the devil go on about how smart he is. Boy, I don’t know…
To America’s watch-me-woke-it-up CEOs I say: When the time comes that you need help with a tax break or a regulatory change, I hope the Democrats take your calls, because we may not.
Starting now, we won’t take your money either.
https://t.co/AO5GSqB9RR— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 30, 2021
The WSJ piece is behind a paywall, but a HuffPo article on the topic contains another jaw-dropping confession from Cruz:
“This time,” he wrote, “we won’t look the other way on Coca-Cola’s $12 billion in back taxes owed. This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we’ll say no thank you. This time, when Boeing asks for billions in corporate welfare, we’ll simply let the Export-Import Bank expire.”
Here’s the reaction of Walter Shaub, who headed up the Office of Government Ethics:
This may be the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said. It’s the part everyone knows: these crooks sell access. Others have the sense not to admit it. This is why our republic is broken. Immoral politicians selling power we’ve entrusted to them like it’s theirs to sell. https://t.co/hRciXUXeEs
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 2, 2021
Well, yeah. Cruz is a corrupt loudmouth jockeying for the pole position in a field of corrupt loudmouths who hope to lead a corrupt party formerly led by the most corrupt, dumb loudmouth of them all. “Saying the quiet part out loud” is a meme because Republicans so often, well, say the quiet part out loud.
But usually it’s a hot mic incident or GOP blabbermouth holding forth among friends who publicly confess that Republicans are changing laws specifically to suppress Democratic votes or what have you. It takes a special kind of stupid to broadcast your corrupt dealings with corporations on the WSJ opinions page.
Maybe it’s time for people to stop saying Ted Cruz is smart. Open thread.
SiubhanDuinne
I never did.
Bobby Thomson
Trump proved that openly admitting corruption isn’t a career killer so long as voters like the rest of the things you’re doing. No one voted for Ted because they thought he had integrity
Edit: I agree that his reputation for intelligence is puzzling, but not because of this.
hells littlest angel
“I’ll take your money but I won’t I plow your driveway.”
Ted Cruz is just a regular American like Homer Simpson.
opiejeanne
Ted telling on himself.
Baud
“Or we may. Hard to say. We’ll see.”
natem
@Bobby Thomson:
Not sure if that’s true (after all the Former Guy famously
lost his last electionwas robbed by massive Antifa BLM Democrat fraud), and also, if there is one thing we can assert with utter certainty: Ted Cruz is all the venality and cruelty of Donald Trump with none of the curb appeal.MattF
Ted was always the Golden Boy, headed for great things. Perhaps his mentors were a bit too explicit about what those great things would be. Perhaps Ted is just a shithead.
Baud
Who is “we”? The article caption says “I.”
Edmund Dantes
Well since SCOTUS has pretty much defined political corruption out of existence at this point, what do they have to worry about being upfront about it?
Lyrebird
@Baud:
I think he (Cruz) is speaking for all Senate Rs, expanding on whatever the dude in the quoted tweet is saying about himself.
danielx
@natem:
Wait – what was that about TFG’s curb appeal?
hells littlest angel
@Baud:
This is a rare instance of the word “we” being used to mean “none of us.” Maybe an attempt by smart-guy Cruz to avoid using a double negative.
Baud
I believe only the Ex-Im reauthorization is actually in the hands of Congress. Back taxes are an IRS issue, and I believe the MLB exemption is baked into the law.
hells littlest angel
He has the same curb appeal as 112 Ocean Avenue.
Baud
@Baud:
FTA
natem
@hells littlest angel: He does indeed ooze out of his many orifices
xjmuellerlurks
Poor Ted. Now he’s limited to taking oil industry money, mineral extraction money, fascist/authoritarian-leaning plutocrat money, etc. In the words of Bob Dylan, “you gotta serve somebody”. We know it’s not us common rabble.
scav
So, now the QOP are really going to treat companies even more like the people they legally are. Reserving tax breaks and legal immunity for companies that toe the strict GOP line just as vaccines and PPE gear were really only for red states — and immediate forgiveness for all sexual transgressions are reserved for out and loud fundamentalist xians.
Betty Cracker
@natem: Right, there was that election! I think BT’s point about Republicans not campaigning on integrity is true — bigotry and bellicosity are the main draw. But Trump explored the limits of that, and he lost. For now, at least, he’s still popular in a shrinking party, but US elections are determined by turning out the base effectively and getting unaffiliated voters on board.
Confessing that you let Coca-Cola slide on $12B in back taxes because they gave you money probably won’t play well with those voters. This is another reason I’m hoping Dems seize this golden opportunity to make fighting public corruption a major component of their pitch.
TheOtherHank
The thing to remember about Ted and his ilk is that the most important thing one learns while getting an Ivy League undergrad degree is the absolute certainty that they are smarter than everyone who didn’t got to an Ivy.
Thus, by definition, everything they say and do is smart.
Booger
@hells littlest angel: Is that better or worse than 461 Ocean Boulevard?
Van Buren
@Edmund Dantes: Exactly.
Bill K
Ted can try all he like, but my boy Ron Johnson is still the dumbest Senator. Go Ron!
(Really…go. Go away…far away. )
Baud
@xjmuellerlurks:
I believe corporations can only contribute through PACs. My guess is that Cruz has some sketchy, possible illegal, arrangement with a superPAC to receive the money that he has vowed not to take.
natem
@xjmuellerlurks: The funniest thing about Ted Cruz is he’s so transparently full of shit everyone knows he’ll gladly take Coca-Cola money, including Coca-Cola.
Ken
I think there’s a misprint. The word “stomp” was left out.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: And… I’d bet there are probably a few R Senators who are unhappy with this. OTOH, there are probably a few D Senators who are pleased. So… even steven, I guess.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One can almost hear the ghost of Simmon “An honest politician is one who stays bought” Cameron ghost weeping at poor Teddy.
So how long is before the GOP start demanding corporations included the N word in their adverting campaigns before they are allowed to bribe a Republican politician?
Jeffery
Molly Ivins said of Ted Cruz, Only in Texas could a Hispanic, Canadian, immigrant run as a white racist.
MisterForkbeard
I mean, they’ve been openly corrupt for decades now. This is bad too, but it’s amazing that they’re literally telling corporations that they’ll punish them for… wanting basic dignity and respect for others? That’s the red line?
Betty Cracker
@Bill K: Johnson is making a strong case, but it’s hard to out-dumb Tuberville.
Other MJS
Any sufficiently advanced doubling down is indistinguishable from stupidity.
hueyplong
I’ll go with Tuberville. He’s proved himself stone stupid in wildly divergent fields. A jackass of all trades and master of none.
Hilbertsubspace
A talent for being glib, sneaky, and cunning isn’t the same as intelligence. This is a fairly common error made by individuals at all levels of society. A skilled thief can rob a scientist blind, but that doesn’t make him smarter.
Lyrebird
@Betty Cracker:
Fighting public corruption, YES!!!
About the Senate specifically: Will you write about possible Rubio challengers when more get serious, begging pardon if you already did and I missed it?
I got a fundraising email from Grayson that said, should I run for Senate? I was disappointed – go ahead please laugh – when I opened the email and could not find a “No!” button anywhere.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
That was my takeaway too – he says point-blank that he and his party were totally fine with Coke not paying $12B in taxes they owed, and were perfectly happy to shovel corporate welfare to Boeing, until they disagreed with the GQP on an unrelated issue.
So yeah, the Dems should hit them hard over this, and keep hitting.
Frankensteinbeck
The Republican viewpoint is the asshole viewpoint, and the asshole viewpoint is that it’s not corrupt if they do it, because they deserve it. As a result, Republican voters don’t care about corruption, only what side you’re on. Cruz’s statement makes perfect sense and is admirable to his constituency. He’s using his corruption to enforce bigotry, and they think that’s great.
Ken
@hueyplong: Yes, but is wide-but-shallow stupidity even comparable to the bottomless depths some display? We may need to set up multiple categories.
Mike in NC
Ted Crud has always been described as someone with a face made for radio. Now more than ever with his homeless person whiskers.
lowtechcyclist
@natem:
This. So totally this. Cruz and the GQP will take their money, take their calls, vote to keep them free from paying taxes and being regulated.
This is just performative outrage for the rubes.
hueyplong
@Ken: That makes sense, but you may be underestimating Tuberville’s ability to go deep as well as wide in stupidity.
I’ll give him this, he convinced several institutions to hire him despite all evidence pointing to the fact that doing so would be a mistake. And then he (or someone promoting him) realized he could treat Alabama voters as though they were southern university Athletic Directors.
Amir Khalid
TedCruz has impressive smart-person credentials. We’ve all seen how those credentials don’t stop him saying and doing things that are invariably corrupt and/or stupid and/or cowardly. I guess an Ivy League education can’t change a person’s essential nature.
Steve in the ATL
@hueyplong: I still can’t believe that that many Alabama fans voted for a former auburn coach.
MCA1
I know it’s an ancillary point, but how f’ing tiresome is Cruz and every other Republican’s sad, constant retreat to their safe space mantras these days? Every time they take to twitter they just start warbling “Wokity woke antifa woke radical socialist woke cancel culture wokeness.” They’ve degenerated to the point that they lack the words to even start to discuss actual governing philosophy or policy. Their vocabulary consists primarily of empty, meaningless tribal allegiance signifiers. “Watch-me-woke-it-up?” What does that even mean? This is a United States Senator, for crying out loud.
I mean, props to the Republicans for coming up with some terms (“wokeness,” “cancel culture”) to replace the worn out “political correctness” as a euphemism for “people insisting there be consequences to me being an asshole” and selling it to their rubes. But the level of overuse is pathetic and makes my ears hurt.
Geminid
@Hilbertsubspace: There is a tendency to attribute a politician’s odious political positions to a lack of intelligence. I think it’s more a matter of a lack of empathy and good sense, qualities which seem to be distributed among people independently of IQ.
germy
Ted is doing the “Mike Huckabee Twitter Humorist” thing:
Frankensteinbeck
@lowtechcyclist:
The rubes are all in on performative outrage themselves. He has declared bigotry good and threatened someone in its defense. Actually following through would only be a bonus, because they themselves wouldn’t do it.
J.
I think I need to rent “A Fish Called Wanda” and watch it again. :-)
germy
germy
@J.:
Back when screenwriters used a painful speech impediment as a comedic device. Those were the days.
Baud
@germy: Mimicry. We use snark and mockery to punch up, so they copy it to punch down.
Baud
@germy:
The treatment of the corgis isn’t one I care to relive either.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@lowtechcyclist: Alternatively it could be that the corporations are back peddling from the GOP because of all the racism and the Republicans have nothing to lose. To come corp like Coke Cola the MAGAtards are a pretty insignific demographic that isn’t worth pissing off the rest of the world for.
James E Powell
@Steve in the ATL:
White supremacy overrules all other factors.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
It’s the statement he was elected to make. Conservative values are radically different from ours. Looks real bad to the mushy middle, though.
scav
Yeah, the GOP always been corrupt vis-a-vis corporations but a dignified down low was maintained for public occasions. The decorous facade of doing for the good of all corporations and for the wellbeing of the economy as a cherished whole was maintained. The slightly new twist is that the evangelicals in their takeover play are adding the explicit embrace of overt targeted corporate corruption to their increasingly public flaunting of personal sin as acceptable lifestyle choice for their leaders. Oh, and the normalization of the spoils system as SOP.
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck: That’s the optimal situation for Republicans who don’t need any non-Republican votes to win. But in lots of races, they actually do need to pull in unaffiliated voters who don’t marinate in wingnut media 24/7, so perhaps there are limits to what they can get away with?
ETA: Agree with what you said at #55 — it does look bad to the mushy middle.
Geminid
@MCA1: “Woke” definitely is a big conservative buzzword now. Pete Snyder, a Republican candidate for Virginia Governor, uses it four times in a 30 second radio commercial. As in, “Woke liberal mobs terrorizing our neighborhoods? Not on my watch!” For Snyder, “woke” is the new Black.
germy
And a voice made for silent films.
Captain C
@Steve in the ATL: We’ve got 6 years to dig for quotes from those days disparaging the Crimson Tide.
Uncle Cosmo
@SiubhanDuinne: “Fredo” CanCrooze? Smaht?
Humor me, peeps: I am well aware that Canadian Raffy sports ein Backpfeifengesicht (“a face that invites a slap”) – but does anyone know a word (in any language, I’m not picky) for “a forehead that begs for a three-group” – ? ETA: Asking for a fiend (named Gaetz)…
gene108
@Baud:
It’d take an army of IRS tax attorneys and accountants to get a big company like Coca Cola to pay back taxes in full.
I doubt the IRS has those kinds of resources, which are in the hands of Congress to allocate funds.
Coca Cola could probably agree to pay a lesser amount, or like Robert Mercer just keep dragging out however many billions the IRS says they owe.
hueyplong
@Uncle Cosmo: Just one person’s view, but I think you’re applying unnecessary gilt to the lily when you attempt to move beyond Backpfeifengesich.
Betty Cracker
@Lyrebird: I think I got that same exact email and had the same exact response! I heard Val Demings might take on Rubio or DeSantis, but AFAIK, there’s nothing official. It’s definitely a race I’m watching!
Gloomyjim
@lowtechcyclist:
Not only that but they should also use it against the corps themselves. “HobbyLobby is merely playing/paying into GOP interests merely to (insert corporate favor/malfesense accusation)”.
ONe should always double tap when able.
Fair Economist
@Baud:
How much of this is that Cruz isn’t getting much money from corporate PACs anyway with the post-Jan 6 limitations, so he’s trying to at least get some (fake) virtue signaling out of it?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Were they corgis? I thought they were a floofier breed, but it’s been ages since I’ve seen that movie. It is a very funny movie, IMO, though of course things have changed since 1988…
Just Chuck
“Please proceed, Senator.”
randy khan
I think Mr. Cruz misunderstood the nature of the transaction. It wasn’t “we’ll give you money and support whatever you do in return for certain things we want.” It was “We’ll give you money if you do the things we want.”
Also, I noticed that he didn’t say that he won’t take money from their executives, just the PACs.
mrmoshpotato
But not with Shithead Ted!
Art
Ted is a bullshitter. A key characteristic of a bullshitter is that they really don’t care about the truth. Ted is actually somewhar smart. Less talented BSers only think short term. Ted is just smart enough to think relatively long term for himself. The key to his survival is to be useful to people with money and power.
As for the consequences of his actions to others, outside of his patrons, he cares not a whit. Thinking short term, having no need for any overarching understanding , it simply doesn’t matter if he thinks Aristotle is Belgian. The GQP base is highly unlikely to check the facts and any discrepancy can be papered over with more BS. Their base is addicted to the heady mix of fear, anger, resentment, disgust, and self-assumed superiority. Another dose of the good stuff scooped up by Ted and they love him like a drunk loves their bartender.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck:
looking for the lie. Seeing none.
Josie
@TheOtherHank:
This, times ten.
NotMax
“Please proceed, senator.”
//
prostratedragon
@Steve in the ATL: They got all misexcited recalling how happy they were with him as Auburn coach.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
My memory may be fading. Maybe I confused the dogs with the Queen’s corgis. It’s not the breed at issue that the problem though.
Archon
It must be liberating for elected Republicans to no longer have to pretend their fiscal agenda serves the public interest.
Steeplejack
Another Scott
@Baud: Not Corgis. Yorkshire Terriers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qguwpiDbMws (4:24)
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Steeplejack:
“And here is my wife, a fabulously compensated Wall Street executive, wearing a very expensive hat. We flew up to the Kentucky Derby today because the Republican Party is the party of the working class!” – Betty Bowers
I’d add this:
“And to further demonstrate our solidarity with the working class, you can tell this photo has been taken in some fancy-dancy private box because we’re way high up above the track, and we have enough room to take this pic without being cheek-to-jowl* with the hoi polloi.”
*”And when I say ‘jowl,’ I’m not messing around.”
Keith P.
Ted Cruz himself lives in the most expensive neighborhood in Houston (River Oaks). Harvard/Princeton-educated…wife is a Goldman Sachs exec.
Frankensteinbeck
@Steeplejack:
White people, and not just white people, but White People as an identity. In their hearts, they know that only white people work hard.
People who consider them lesser because they are stupid or bigoted or mean, rather than praising them for being stupid, bigoted, and mean. They are not imagining the ‘liberal elites’ because it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with who gets to publicly shame who.
EDIT – And the ex-leader of their party was more stupid, bigoted, and mean than any of them, so he was absolutely the champion of the working class. The country club part is irrelevant, because again, it’s not about money.
Bill Arnold
Saw this this morning in news feeds:
Exclusive — Cruz, Rubio ramp up criticisms of big business (Niall Stanage – 05/03/21)
It turns out that Ted Cruz could have figured out that he is full of shit if he and/or a staffer had hit up google scholar for 10 minutes.
The Politics of CEOs (Alma Cohen, Moshe Hazan, Roberto Tallarita, and David Weiss, 20 August 2019)
The Political Polarization of U.S. Firms (IVyacheslav Fos, Elisabeth Kempf, Margarita Tsoutsoura, February 11, 2021)
Studies did not address only the Fortune 100 but I suspect that they have a similar skew.
There’s also the winner effect; CEOs/corporations play with what they have, including who is in power. Even so a bunch of CEOs/corporations donate to both parties, essentially bribing both major parties. They’d probably prefer a one party state like China, where there is just one party to bribe, but so it goes.
Ksmiami
@Keith P.: it makes me think less of Goldman Sachs…
Barbara
@Frankensteinbeck: Few things make me angrier than using “working class” when you mean white men working “blue collar” jobs. I don’t expect anything better from the likes of Cruz, but Thomas Edsall routinely pulls this sleight of hand, which suggests that other demographics either don’t count or don’t work.
Just Chuck
@lowtechcyclist: I can’t think of the Kentucky Derby anymore without picturing Ralph Steadman’s illustrations.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Ted Cruz is a coward’s coward.
Heywood J.
Not really, not when there’s zero consequences for it.
Just One More Canuck
@Lyrebird: So I take it there was no option for “Oh for the love of God, NO!”?
Miss Bianca
@germy: @Baud: Yeah, I loved that movie (for cryin’ out loud, part of that Wanda/Otto exchange is in my email tagline!), but some parts of it have aged really, really…not well.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Yorkshire terriers
lowtechcyclist
@Just Chuck:
And fifty years later, I bet it’s still decadent and depraved. :^)
Have you ever read the version of the Alice books with Steadman’s illustrations in place of Tenniel’s? They’re worth a look, even though I still think Tenniel’s are a better fit.
Villago Delenda Est
Seditious motherfuckers like Rafael deserve no quarter.
boatboy_srq
@Baud: You don’t think any of those those things would stop the Canadian-Cuban, do you?
/s
Gravenstone
@Betty Cracker: Johnson gets seniority in the role.
Geminid
@Gravenstone: As often happens, a woman is being overlooked: Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
TriassicSands
Uh, Trump still dominates and leads the thoroughly corrupt Republican Party. And even when he’s gone there will be people like Hawley and Cruz desperately trying to out-Trump Trump.
Ruckus
@Ken:
Well if you measure stupidity by volume then a narrow but deep amount may be equal to a wide but shallow amount. I think you also need to measure stupidity by quality. And yes stupidity can have a level of quality. Not everything needs to be positive, a number line goes in two directions.
Llelldorin
Even for Ted Cruz, that one’s remarkable: “Nice grift we have going here. Pity if something were to… happen… to it.”