Who is Ted Cruz and what does he want?

When newly elected Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) began making news a year ago, the image I picked up was of this Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate and clerk for SCOTUS Chief Justice Rhenquist,  who was now spouting Tea Party rhetoric, presumably as a cynical tactic to build a conservative base for his political ambitions.

As he then went on to grab more and more of the spotlight, everybody began talking about his 2016 ambitions.   What seemed alarming, from a liberal viewpoint, was that he might just be the moderate in radical clothing who could win the Republican primary as the Tea Party hero -- and then pivot to a more moderate position for a formidable run in the general election in 2016.  

Mitt Romney tried that in 2012, but he just wasn't convincing as a right-wing conservative.  Cruz might win the Tea Party crowd, but he has lost the moderates and, for right now, even the sane members of the GOP establishment.  

We were not wrong about Cruz's ambition and his tactics.   But assuming that he is a moderate in disguise, playing cynical strategy, may be wrong.   Cruz comes by his conservatism naturally.

His father fled the Castro regime in Cuba and settled in Texas to work in the oil industry.   Cruz grew up in that ultra-conservative environment, which included his father being a part-time, charismatic, fundamentalist preacher.

It turns out he has no strategy, no end game for what to do now that he succeeded in leading Republicans into this government shut down.

Ted Cruz is not a leader;  he is a narcissistic opportunist.

Even Grover Norquist is down on him, saying:   "He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away."   He couldn't deliver the Senate vote as he had promised, so he has just been laying low.  Meanwhile, fellow Republicans are furious at him. 

Hubris . . .it's brought down many a better man than Ted Cruz.

Ralph