Ted Cruz: The Canadian Question, College Days, and the Budget Banzai Charge

Things are getting a bit bumpy for our pal, Rafael Edward Cruz. The senator from Texas is learning a quick lesson about what happens when you're a newbie with eyes on the presidency. 

Indeed, no rock is left unturned and no former college roommate is left unspoken to. People with axes to grind come out of the woodwork and they say all manner of things you'd rather not have anyone hear.

Of course, the initial order of business is the whole place of birth issue. Senator Cruz has, from the beginning, been up front about being born in Calgary, Alberta. Now, first off, for those who are geographically challenged, Alberta is not and has never been a state. It is a province in the country of Canada, which at last look is a different nation. You know, as in not the United States of America.

This is important because the U.S. Constitution says you have to be a natural born citizen of these United States to be eligible for the office of the president. It is why every right wing loon in America has been screaming Barack Obama forged his Hawaiian birth certificate. They have been on a six plus year crusade to prove Mr. Obama isn't one of us.

Up until now Cruz has brushed all this aside as if it were stray pieces of lint on his sleeve. However, The Dallas Morning News did a little research and found a couple of Canadians who are experts on all things Canadian and they say, Mr. Cruz, because of his place of birth, is one of them. But wait, the good news is that because Ted's mother was born in Delaware and was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, he also gets to be an American. So, in effect, he swings both ways. Then what is the big deal, you might ask? Well, birth place aside, you can't hold dual citizenship and be president of this country, which is a job it is becoming increasingly obvious Senator Cruz wants.

Now that a gaggle of candidates are starting to get serious about taking a shot at the white house, Mr. Cruz has decided to put the not eligible argument to rest once and for all. While insisting he is still unsure if he can register to vote in Calgary, he announced yesterday he will officially renounce any sort of Canadian citizenship and thereby clear away a potential constitutional roadblock waiting for him in some state or federal court room.

Luckily for him, the same people who have been howling Barak Obama isn't a citizen have decided to give him a pass. Donald Trump and Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, AZ, both prominent birthers haven't whispered a word about Mr. Cruz's birthplace, or the fact his father was not a citizen when he was born on foreign soil. Faced with such information a cynic might conclude all their caterwauling these past few years had more to do with politics and race than where little Barry Obama hit the ground running, but hey, that is just me.

Beyond the Canadian conundrum, information has come to light regarding Mr. Cruz's college career at Princeton. He arrived there as a freshman in 1988 and according to his roommate, Craig Mazin he had in his possession a Spanish language book titled, "Was Karl Marx a Satanist." In Mazin's words, "I thought, who is this person?"

The story which ran in the Daily Beast, details some oddities and conflicting views of Cruz and his stay in New Jersey. He was a star on the debate team and apparently everyone involved with it thought he was a great guy. He even won kudos for being a stud among the women "on the debate circuit."

At the same time he managed to go $1,800 in the hole during weekly poker games and ended up having to borrow money from an aunt to cover his debts. In addition other students didn't think so kindly of him. The Daily Beast story quotes unnamed and named classmates who used terms like abrasive, intense, strident, a crank, and arrogant to describe the future senator. According to fellow student, Erik Leitch, "The only point of Ted talking to you was to convince you of the rightness of his views." The word "creepy" even came up a few times, because of young Mr. Cruz's habit of strolling into the women's end of the dorm wearing nothing but a paisley bathrobe. Mazin was quoted as saying, "I would end up fielding complaints (from female students). Things like, "Could you please keep your roommate out of our hallways."

According to the observations found in the story, Cruz arrived at Princeton with the exact same political world view and philosophy he has today. In other words, after four years of undergraduate work, Harvard Law School and his career, his notion of politics and life haven't evolved a whit. The guy we see today is the same Teddy Cruz he was when he was eighteen. Mazin had this opinion, "We should be afraid that someone like that has power. I would rather have anybody else be president of the United States. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book."

Meanwhile, Senator Cruz's budget banzai charge has hit a wall. The idea of shutting down the entire federal government unless the Affordable Care Act goes unfunded has started to make an array of GOP lawmakers edgy. Not only is the leadership against it, but even wild eyed libertarian types like Rand Paul aren't on board. In the words of Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, "The problem is the bill that would shut down the government wouldn't shut down Obamacare."

Yes, some of the old hands in congress have jumped off the fiscal cliff before and it didn't turn out so well. They know exactly who the public is going to blame when it comes to a budget apocalypse and it isn't the guy living on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Well, it is easy to forget the Cruz man is still a rookie. We should probably cut him and his broken glass and razor blade idealism some slack. After all, he still sees the world through the eyes of a teenager who owns a book titled, "Was Karl Marx a Satanist."

I'm sure he'll grow out of it between now and 2016. Three years is a long time and politics will age you in a hurry.

And look at it this way, if he doesn't, we always have that phone book to fall back on.

sic vita est

8-20-13