Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society

Like Son, Like Father

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

hqdefaultWell, the guy who ushered in the recent government shutdown with a 21 hour filibuster sure gets it honest. Texas senator Ted Cruz, that darling of the Tea Baggers, is no longer the Harvard educated political mystery man who chides the administration at every turn and who rabble rouses what is loosely referred to as the Republican base. Seems he learned the techniques of fact-free demagoguery at daddy’s knee and not amid the ivy in Cambridge (or at Princeton as Elaine M reminds me). That’s right, the Right (as in far) Reverend Rafael Cruz has embarked on his own freewheeling magical mystery tour armed only with the credential that he sired that darling of the Rebel flag wavers. Cashing in on sonny boy’s status among some on the right, Rafael Cruz is now touring the country demanding Obama “go back to Kenya” and turning the Treaty of Tripoli* on its head claiming divine sanction in decreeing that the land of the free and home of the brave is also the exclusive dominion of the Christian. And if that isn’t a big enough stain on his vestments, the representative of the Savior commands all Tea Baggers to shinny on up to the latest polling place to vote Republican.

IRS are you listening?

Speaking to the faithful at a Republican rally in Hood County (no pun intended), Texas, the elder Cruz gave us a new spin on two centuries plus of  previously settled American history. Ignoring the fact that most of the movers and shakers who founded the nation were deists (and not Christians as currently subscribed), Cruz said “the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed on the knees of the framers” and were a “divine revelation from God, yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God.”  Amen brother, pass the plate.

Cruz the elder added this little historical revelation to his earlier intelligence blockbuster that President Obama is really an “outright Marxist” who “seeks to destroy all concept of God.” “Back to Kenya” he goes was our man of God’s solution to the crisis of faith facing the nation.

Perhaps sensing that daddy might be more useful in the attic behind a locked door or maybe as a guest at an institution where falling down or colliding with walls is never a worry, Senator Cruz dismissed the rantings. “He is a pastor. He is a man of deep integrity. And he made a joke.”  Sonny didn’t disagree or distance himself from the remarks, however. Hardy Har Har.

Yep, those fire and brimstone guys are a laugh a minute. Lewis Black look out!  Raffy Cruz is stealing your material. Here is the jokester at his best before an audience that seems more than happy to pay the two drink minimum from that Comedy Central of the right birtherreport.com.

I’m guessing the beverage is Jonestown Kool-ade:

Those Cruz’ are a riot.

For those who think that the Ivy League schooled Sen Ted Cruz may have educated himself out of this lunacy, I suggest that you ask too much genetic engineering from mere college professors.

Source: Huff Post

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

* From the treaty ratified by the Senate and signed by President John Adams:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen ],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan  nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

127 thoughts on “Like Son, Like Father”

  2. Sonny says his daddy “is a man of deep integrity”. I wonder what his definition of integrity might be.

    I agree with Mark Esposito that the IRS needs to be looking at this fool and all the other Churches who are promoting cretins like Cruz.
    Just wait until you hear a Liberal minister (is there such a critter?) preach for a Democrat to be elected you will hear the screeches of righteous indignation from sea to shining sea.
    Sorry Mr. Lloyd Miller..You have to know that you are telling a lie when you say “Democrat Ministers can politic all they want”. First of all I’m betting that you couldn’t name a Democratic minister if your life depended on it. Secondly I suspect that you are describing yourself when you scream the word “FACIST”.

    I wish you a good day Mr. Miller, in spite of your “contemptible” attitude.

  3. WATCH: Ted Cruz’s Dad Calls US a “Christian Nation,” Says Obama Should Go “Back to Kenya”
    Want to understand where the tea party champion’s hardcore views come from? Meet his father, Rafael.
    —By David Corn
    | Thu Oct. 31, 2013
    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/ted-cruz-rafael-father-video-christian-tea-party

    Excerpt:
    Comments uttered by a politician’s parent may have little relevance in assessing an elected official. But it’s appropriate to take Rafael Cruz into account when evaluating his son the senator. Ted Cruz, the tea party champion who almost single-handedly spurred the recent government shutdown, has often deployed his father as a political asset. He routinely cites his Cuban-born father, who emigrated from the island nation in 1957, when he discusses immigration and justifies his opposition to the bipartisan reform bill that passed in the Senate. (Ted Cruz hails his father as a symbol of the “American dream” who came to the United States legally—though Rafael Cruz began his career in the oil industry in Canada, where Ted was born.) Moreover, Ted Cruz campaigns with his father; he had him in tow on a recent trip to Iowa (where the evangelical vote is crucial in GOP presidential primaries). Rafael Cruz regularly speaks to tea party and Republican groups in Texas as a surrogate for his son; during Ted Cruz’s 2012 Senate campaign, his father was dispatched to events and rallies across the state to whip up support. And thanks to Ted Cruz’s political rise, Rafael has become a conservative star in his own right. He has been prominently featured—and praised—at events held by prominent right-wing outfits, such as FreedomWorks and Heritage Action. What Rafael Cruz says—especially when he is speaking for his son—matters.

    The elder Cruz is a North Texas-based pastor who directs a small outfit called Purifying Fire Ministries.* Rafael Cruz’s inflammatory remarks and fundamentalist views have recently started to attract increased media attention. A few weeks ago, he sparked headlines when he told a gathering of Republicans in Colorado that Obama has vowed to “side with the Muslims,” that Obamacare mandates “suicide counseling” for the elderly, and that gay marriage is a plot to make “government your god.”

    A sermon Rafael Cruz delivered in August 2012 at an Irving, Texas, mega-church has also come under scrutiny. At that event, he asserted that Christian true believers are “anointed” by God to “take dominion” of the world in “every area: society, education, government, and economics.” He was preaching a particular form of evangelical Christianity known as Dominionism (a.k.a. Christian Reconstructionism) that holds that these “anointed” Christians are destined to take over the government and create in practice, if not in official terms, a theocracy. Rafael Cruz also endorsed the evangelical belief known as the “end-time transfer of wealth”—that is, as a prelude to the second coming of Christ, God will seize the wealth of the wicked and redistribute it to believers. But, Cruz told the flock, don’t expect to benefit from this unless you tithe mightily. Introducing Cruz at this service, Christian Zionist pastor Larry Huch offered this bottom line: In the coming year, he predicted, “God will begin to rule and reign. Not Wall Street, not Washington, God’s people and his kingdom will begin to rule and reign. I know that’s why God got Rafael’s son elected, Ted Cruz, the next senator.” (In July, several prominent Dominionist pastors at a ceremony in Iowa blessed and anointed Ted Cruz, rendering him, in their view, a “king” who would help usher in the kingdom of Christ.)

    During his sermon at this church, Rafael Cruz preached that men, not women, are the spiritual leaders of their families: “As God commands us men to teach your wife, to teach your children—to be the spiritual leader of your family—you’re acting as a priest. Now, unfortunately, unfortunately, in too many Christian homes, the role of the priest is assumed by the wife. Why? Because the man had abdicated his responsibility as priest to his family…So the wife has taken up that banner, but that’s not her responsibility. And if I’m stepping on toes, just say, ‘Ouch.'”

  4. Wootsy, You can call me just about anything, but don’t call me an attorney.

  5. mespo, please share, or just point me to it. Eggplant is one of my favs. We’re heading to Tuscany next month, the land of wild boar stew, trippa, and anchovies; the holy trinity!

  6. “A son should not pay for his father’s sins.”
    —–
    That’s interesting coming from a legalistic pov, then what should he pay for?

    I’ve followed this blog for a good long while and while historically I have been a supporter of those in the legal professions, I am beginning to understand just how far removed from reality the words that come flying from that sector are………..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJjn0FBD6no

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJjn0FBD6no&w=560&h=315]

  7. People ….:

    “Obamacare is what will win it for the Republicans.”

    *************

  9. “Steak tartare.” This time change sucks! The govt. loves to control everything.

  10. Mespo serving some steal tartar for breakfast, People. And, can you shorten your name?

  11. Obamacare is what will win it for the Republicans.
    Obamas is an even bigger liar and corrupt puppet than Bush was.

    Btw Tea Baggers? Really? Partisan hackery from the guest bloggers as usual.

    If only people like Juliet N would devote half as much time in tearing down her own party, we could end the corruption in the Democratic party. Look at how fired up and foaming at the mouth you leftys get over Cruz or the GOP. When it comes to the Democrats you might agree about corruption but its in a very casual oh well manner. You are idiots.

    1. Racist (which is a more fitting shortening of his chosen moniker):

      You’re either new or you haven’t been paying attention. I’m highly critical of my own party. I’m bitterly disappointed in this president — no public option, drones, spying on citizens, Gitmo still open, trying to compromise with morons, etc. And Hillary Clinton wouldn’t even be my tenth choice for 2016. She’s business as usual. But I realize I’m too “fringe left” to get what I want. I know we can’t run Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I’m just practical like that. But if the Republicans keep letting their fringe make policy, and they are stupid enough to run Ted Cruz, I’ll laugh all the way to the polls.

  12. Drippy logic…irrational! Higher education makes you smart! Only if you start with smarts! Get the hook!

    Lock them up together for about ten years, then see who comes out smarter.

  14. Lloyd:

    You seem angry. Have an ice water and re-read your comment and the post. Nobody excused nutso ministers of either stripe. Raffy is just our delusionist of the moment. Happy to criticize most any minister of delusion – politics be damned. Anybody claiming God is on their side, can’t prove a word of it since both sides always claim it. Psst, God don’t care.

  18. The Rev. Wright comes to mind. Of course, Obama chose his angry, spewing, pastor. A son does not choose a father. A son should not pay for his father’s son. I’m not a “tea bagger” but I don’t hate them either.

  20. I can think of nothing in politics that would give me more pleasure than Ted Cruz being the Republican nominee for president. It’s a guaranteed eight more years for us.

    Please, GOP, we beg you to keep being the party of delusion. Go even harder right. Pretty please, with sugar on top!

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