WASHINGTON — As the Senate edged toward a divisive filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber — his voice lost to laryngitis — as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.
Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz’s own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator’s relentless pursuit of speeches, financial records or any other documents with Mr. Hagel’s name on them going back at least five years. Some Republicans praised the work of the brash newcomer, but others joined Democrats in saying that Mr. Cruz had gone too far.
Without naming names, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, offered a biting label for the Texan’s accusatory crusade: McCarthyism.
“It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,’ and, of course, nothing was in the pocket,” she said, a reference to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s pursuit of Communists in the 1950s. “It was reminiscent of some bad times.”
In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.
Read More at The New York Times . By Jonathan Weisman.
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If we could have 44 Senators like Ted Cruz (R) I am sure the GOP would get back on it’s feet!
I agree with you bobmann101! We do need Senators with a ‘backbone’! Ted Cruz was elected by his constituients to take on the RINOs and the liberal left! He is doing a fantastic job and he is definitely a true TEXAN because he does not back down!
It makes you wonder about the Republicans who are unhappy with him and why? Because he does not play their game! He is right you get every piece of information possible and use it to stop Hagel who is unqualified and has background issues.
Looks like they could’nt get Cruz DC educated……..love it.
Let hope he does not cave to the pressures. A person may not be bribed or bought, but they or their loved ones can be threatened!
I pray Senator Cruz remains strong and willing to stand up and be counted.Heavens knows we need many
more like him!!! I just wish I felt even the least bit positive about the future for my grandchildren and great grand children.There is such a longing for the America that I grew up in.To all appearences it may well be too late for them to know Liberty and Freedom.
Thank you, thank you Senator Cruz, keep up the good work. I am sure Texas sent you to DC to shake up the Congress, not go along with statis quo, that is why Obama has gotten by with so much. Our Congress has allowed this to happen. They did not have a backbone among them unitl you got there. I have been so disgusted with these spineless do nothings for so long. I want to see American Congressman standing up for We The People again. Tell those panty waste’s to clean their knees off and try acting like the brave men in our military for a change. I miss the wonderful country my father, of the Greatest Generation, raised me in. If he were alive to see those wimps today, he would never believe it. Do not let them stop you, walk all over them, speak out anytime something is not right or needs changing. God bless you and America.
I’m with Sen. Cruz. I don’t know much about Sen. Hagel, but from what I saw of his confirmation hearing, he doesn’t qualify for dog catcher in a town of 500 people and 3 dogs. He appeared totally incompetent for any public office. I guess that’s why he’s a senator. If he becomes Sec’y of Defense, we are doomed.
I didn’t vote for Cruz in the primaries, but certainly voted for him in the election. At first, he didn’t show this kind of fervor, but I am now glad that he got nominated and elected. Go Cruz!
Bravo Senator Ted Cruz. Please stay strong, we appreciate you so much and have nearly given up that there are still honest men with your kind of courage. Don’t let the buzzards get you down.