Thank you, Teddy!

[thewayne]

"I didn't threaten to shut down the government the last time. I don't think we should ever shut down the government."
—Sen. Ted Cruz

'nuff said.

Comments

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I'm really baffled when I see stuff like this. What is going through their heads? Do they honestly think that when they speak in front of a camera, the video isn't preserved forever? Or do they really think everyone's memory is that bad? Obviously, his followers will gobble up whatever he says, but surely Cruz has some vague idea that he needs to collect more followers in order to be voted into the White House, and he won't get them with crap like this.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

My thought is that he was kinda calculating. Technically, it was the House that shut-down the government because they were incapable of passing a budget bill that the Senate would consider. Cruz is in the Senate, so technically he didn't get a chance to vote on the shutdown because the Senate head would not bring it to discussion and vote, so Cruz didn't actually vote on shutting down the government. So maybe, in his mind, this leaves him enough wiggle room. But the reality is that he was actively meeting with House Tea Partiers, much to the dismay of John Boehner and the rest of the House leadership, and manipulating things in the House from behind the scenes. So the statement itself has wiggle room, but his actions, which are documented, do not.

This is an election year, and things are going to get really interesting in the summer as it begins to heat up. I can't wait to see what the results are come November 5th. I have a feeling, and really hope, that the Republicans get a major spanking along with the Tea Party.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

It's true that I don't understand the fine details - If a budget doesn't pass here, it's considered a vote of non-confidence, the government is dissolved, and there's a new election. Whee! - but I do remember the pride he showed as everything was happening, and Bachmann glowing with empty-headed glee.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Well, we'll be rid of Bachmann come the election: she's not running again. Teddy? He's going to be here a while. I wish people had to resign in order to run for President, then we'd be rid of several idiots.

I didn't know that about your budgeting process, that's pretty cool. One thing that I really like about England's election system is that apparently an election period only lasts for a month or so, I can't imagine how much of an uproar our politicians would make if such a thing were done, instead our elections are functionally over a year long.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

We ripped off our political system from England pretty much wholesale, so our campaigns are pretty short, too, usually less than two months. A lot of Canadians think that campaigns must be less than two months, though that isn't the case. There's the potential for a campaign to last as long as twelve months, but I don't think that's ever happened. At this point, Canadians would be wondering what kind of work ethic politicians have if they can spend that much time on a campaign, and where they're getting their money from.

To be fair, though, you guys have a population ten times as large as ours, and more than five times the size of England, so it must be much harder to do things quickly.

[silveradept]

Not really. Most of our time is spent in primary elections, deciding which candidate from each party will compete for the equivalent of a riding. The actual party-versus-party conflicts are really only a few months long, and utterly vicious. If we could somehow keep all the buildup off the televisions, then we would also appear to have short elections.

[silveradept]

True, Ted, you never threatened. You assumed it was going to happen, and worked to that end.