An excellent summation (part of an excellent article) of the 10-hour descent into well- deserved and overdue political hell for Texas weasel Sen. Ted "Cancun Cruz" Cruz:
Cancún-gate checked nearly every possible box of a scandal. The sad-sack black roller suitcase and oversize canvas tote, awaiting its beach debut! The fleece half-zip as part of the classic frumpy Dad ensemble! The 6 a.m. scramble to book a return flight! The politician seeming to blame his preteen daughters! The adorable family dog, possibly left home alone! The police escort! The leaked text messages, with a “Real Housewives of Houston” mood!
And the hypocrisy of a man who has trashed fellow politicians for vacationing during crises — vacationing in Cancún during a crisis himself.
It has it all, not the least of which is a protagonist who is unquestionably the most sleazy, dishonest, cowardly, unlikable creature on two legs (or is it four?).
But as Jamelle Bouie and others have noted, Cancun Cruz is simply an emblem of his rotted- out Republican Party:
It was all darkly amusing. But what Cruz did is emblematic of the Republican Party's mode of governance. The reason Cruz felt comfortable leaving Texans to freeze solid on the sidewalks of Houston is the same reason the Texas power grid crumpled under the winter storm. Theirs is a party in which catering to the welfare of one's constituents, or indeed any kind of substantive political agenda, has been supplanted by propaganda, culture war grievance, and media theatrics. Neither he nor anybody else in a leadership position in the party knows or cares about how to build a reliable power grid. They just want to get rich owning the libs.
Are enough voters going to finally notice or care? (Steve M. doesn't think so.)
(Photo illustration: Texas Monthly; Cruz: Chip Somodevilla/Getty; trunks: nickp37/Getty; background: Jacobs Stock/Getty; suitcase: Yevgen Romanenko/Getty)
