The Fiscal Cliff

[Jeff Lebowski]

On today of all days, I can't believe anyone would be calling Cruz and Lee brilliant. The GOP is on life support due to these clowns.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Cruz has no business experience and little real world experience outside of clerking and politicking. He's the Obama of the right. An idealogue with little knowledge about how the economy works or how businesses are ran.

I don't care if he's incredibly book smart at law. Being book smart at law doesn't help when people are trying to solve real world problems.

And yes, I'm still sulking over Mitt's loss. Dude would have been dynamic and pragmatic as president.

I'm not refuting your point, but Cruz's credentials and legal experience are infinitely better than Obama's -- a point that you probably don't disagree with because I know you're no fan of Obama. One of the more curious aspects of Obama's resume is the fact that he went pretty much nowhere in the legal profession right out of law school (I'm not talking about his success at getting into elected positions later on). Cruz clerked for a federal appeals judge, which is a very competitive position to get and then clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court which is an exceptionally difficult position to obtain. It's pretty much the most prestigious job someone can get out of law school. It's the type of resume that a future Supreme Court Justice has -- in fact, Cruz's early legal resume mirrors John Roberts' resume. Both went to Harvard, both first clerked for federal appeals judges and both clerked for William Rehnquist immediately after. Cruz then worked for a short time for a prestigious boutique appellate practice in DC (John Roberts was a very well-recognized, perhaps the best respected appellate attorney in the United States prior to getting appointed to the federal bench). After that he was a part in the attorney general's office in the Bush administration and thereafter went into Texas politics.

In contrast, Obama went directly back to Chicago where he again became a professional turd-stirrer. Because his multi-ethnic and international upbringing combined with his time at Harvard made every law school cream their pants, he became a lecturer at the University of Chicago where he published nothing of note. He has however published two autobiographies. He was also a state legislator of no renown. He then gave a nice speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and won his Senate election aided by outing his original opponent as a big fan of pegging in the bedroom with his wife who played Q in one of the dozens of Star Trek series. He then started running for president after being in the Senate for a couple years.

Anyway, Cruz's legal, professional and political experience blows away the resume Obama had prior to running for president. That of course doesn't mean that he didn't act very foolishly in this whole ordeal. But I think it's ridiculous to say that Cruz is somehow not qualified to be a Senator because of his resume. He probably has one of the best resumes in the Senate and it's substantially better than the one Obama had when he ran for president.

[Uncle Ted]

On today of all days, I can't believe anyone would be calling Cruz and Lee brilliant. The GOP is on life support due to these clowns.

No, Lee is a BYU grad and, therefore, by definition is brilliant. Cruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard, like Rmoney and Obama, which is yet another datapoint about how Harvard is overrated.

[SeattleUte]

On today of all days, I can't believe anyone would be calling Cruz and Lee brilliant. The GOP is on life support due to these clowns.

I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists.

[Jacob]

On today of all days, I can't believe anyone would be calling Cruz and Lee brilliant. The GOP is on life support due to these clowns.

Sounds like you watch or listen to too much 24 hour news coverage. Most people don't care. GOP will retain the house and pick up senate seats. Hardly life support. Next week all will be forgotten and the next crisis will arrive and the media will become hysterical. Also, Cruz and Lee didn't really say much over the last 2 weeks, did they? Were they really running the house from their freshman senate seats?

[Jeff Lebowski]

I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists.

I love you, SeattleUte.

[Jacob]

I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists.

Hack. But really, they become wealthy business owners. But you really don't have to be that smart.

[Goatnapper'96]

Sounds like you watch or listen to too much 24 hour news coverage. Most people don't care. GOP will retain the house and pick up senate seats. Hardly life support. Next week all will be forgotten and the next crisis will arrive and the media will become hysterical. Also, Cruz and Lee didn't really say much over the last 2 weeks, did they? Were they really running the house from their freshman senate seats?

I think it will hurt in picking up Senate seats. It also lost a chance to hammer on out of control spending, which I think win or lose wrt actually getting more spending cuts would have helped with the Senate seats the Republicans are pursuing.

Life support is a strong characterization and certainly having the basic same chance to get out the same message over the next few months as yet another super committee meets and the same issues arise in January and February could lead to a victory that erases this stupid strategy.

[Uncle Ted]

I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists.

Ah, a new quote to include in my signature.

[Uncle Ted]

Anyway, Cruz's legal, professional and political experience blows away the resume Obama had prior to running for president. That of course doesn't mean that he didn't act very foolishly in this whole ordeal. But I think it's ridiculous to say that Cruz is somehow not qualified to be a Senator because of his resume. He probably has one of the best resumes in the Senate and it's substantially better than the one Obama had when he ran for president.

But Cruz was John Boehner's private counsel. That is how he turned to the "dark side". Ask Cali.

edit: Also, you are downplaying what it takes to be a Community Organizers. Apparently they make good husbands:

Community organizers like President Barack Obama make great husbands. They listen before making decisions, never insist that it’s their way or the highway, and won’t leave the cap off the toothpaste tube. They consult on the big life stuff such as where to live, and they rarely draw red lines. When they do, they agonize over whether sending the children to bed without dessert sends the right message.
[...]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...organizer.html

[Omaha 680]

I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists.

I've never given you one of these, but

[venkman]

I think it will hurt in picking up Senate seats. It also lost a chance to hammer on out of control spending, which I think win or lose wrt actually getting more spending cuts would have helped with the Senate seats the Republicans are pursuing.

Life support is a strong characterization and certainly having the basic same chance to get out the same message over the next few months as yet another super committee meets and the same issues arise in January and February could lead to a victory that erases this stupid strategy.

I applaud Lee and Cruz. Yeah, the strategy didn't work. It was a hail mary but that's what was needed; a last ditch effort to stop or delay Obamacare. It's a done deal now and it will be a disaster. How does government deal with failed programs? Make them bigger! Hello single payer socialized medicine!

[snowcat]

Surprise, the Senate bill is porked up including over $2 billion for Mitch McConnel's state.

The legislation released by the Senate late Wednesday to reopen the government contains several surprises.

The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer.

It also includes an increase in authorization for spending on construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. The bill increases it to $2.918 billion.



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http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-actio...nate-debt-bill

[UVACoug]

This is absurd. I don't care where he went to school. Entirely irrelevant. Cruz and Lee just happen to be the smartest 2 guys in congress with the most knowledge about and accurate interpretation of the constitution. I'll take 2 of them over 10 John McCains. And certainly over an Orin Hatch and a Bob Bennett

They are smart enough to fool people like you into thinking they actually stand for something ... only to cave like everyone else knew they would when crunch time came. They are shysters who care no more about accurately interpreting the Constitution than Fidel Castro. All they care about is raising money for reelection and are willing to engage in brinksmanship, putting the credibility of our country at risk, in order to do so. It's time to wake up and stop letting these fraudsters pull a fast one on you.

[UVACoug]

I disagree. He's not Obama's equivalent. Real world experience is probably over-rated. Cruz and Lee don't want to run a business or the economy. That's not their job and not the presidents job. They want to let businesses run themselves. Obama goes the opposite direction. No experience in business will make you a better governor. Success in big business would probably make governors more likely to think they can fix the economy's or business's problems. Not so. Get out of the way. It's ideology that's important.

"Ideology" and "ideologues" are cancer to governing in a democracy. Ideology is inflexible, irrational, and impracticable. Ideology is fine in the context of religion, but in the hands of a politician (who is by definition insincere), it becomes nothing more than demagoguery and cheap populism. Good politicians have principles, not dogmatic ideologies.