Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke for 21+ hours on the Senate floor yesterday to express his opposition to Obamacare. Not that there was any doubt that he opposed it, and it wasn't actually a filibuster, they say. So why did it take 21+ hours -- and include irrelevancies like reading Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham"?
Here's the parliamentarily interesting part. When he stopped talking and the Senate could finally vote on cloture to move the bill to the floor for debate, the vote was 100 to 0 for moving the bill. This means the stunt not only had no effect on the vote; it means that Cruz himself voted to do what he had just spent 21+ hours supposedly trying to prevent.
Go figure. The real story is the back story, and it undoubtedly has something to do with running for president in 2016 and building his credentials with the ultra-conservative base, so he can say "I fought with every ounce of strength I had to stop Obamacare." **
And -- oh, I almost forgot the main reason -- the contributions are pouring in to Cruz's campaign funds from the lunatic fringe and the crazy multi-billionaires.
So what was that all about? It was all about Ted Cruz.
But here's the real incongruity, Sen. Cruz, which was pointed out by one of the MSNBC commentators last night (I forget which). You read a children's book that was not about "Freedom" from hierarchical control, which you were supposedly touting; rather it's a story about urging a child to try something he thinks he doesn't like because he might just find that he does like it after all. So the message of your own reading choice to you, Sen. Cruz, would be: Give Obamacare a chance; try it, you might like it.
Politics. It's a strange and fascinating business. The GOP base eats this stuff up -- but the reasonable Republicans have turned against this upstart.
Ralph
** Jon Steward skewered him for that, pointing out: "Easy for you to take that risk, Senator; as a senator you've got great government sponsored health care.
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