President Donald Trump has certainly stolen the show in recent weeks, as far as zany and wacky actions committed by politicians go.
But don’t let the fact that he is dominating the news cycle make you forget that all our other democratically elected officials do things that make you say “Zuhhh???” every single day.
Like Ted Cruz. The man who back in the day many thought could have been our 45th president had himself a heck of a head-scratching few days.
It began when he attended the Super Bowl in his home state of Texas.
There, as many are wont to do, he whipped out his cell phone, passed it to a stranger or a friend, and had them snap a shot.
Nothing wrong with doing so, but that’s just a bad picture. Don’t
post that, man. Have them try again. Cell pictures don’t cost nothing.
Two days later, he joined Bernie Sanders for a bizarro 2016 presidential debate.
He did some things that were… not good.
Multiple sclerosis patient on Medicaid asks @tedcruz what will happen to her coverage w/repeal.
Cruz: "Congratulations on dealing with MS." pic.twitter.com/13jC26k1tK— Omar Ghabra (@omarghabra) February 8, 2017
That’s Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) congratulating a woman on… having multiple sclerosis. Congratulating her on her struggles with MS.
Look, I hate to go all “Merriam Webster’s defines congratulations as” on you, but Merriam Webster’s defines congratulations as expressing “vicarious pleasure to a person on the occasion of success or good fortune.”
So… not what he did.
But. Hey. OK. Slip up-aroos happen. That wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t his only bad debate moment.
He then made a reference to the infamous Saturday Night Live Blue Oyster Cult sketch—and it did not go well.
https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/829177681900105728
I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is me not finishing this joke set-up, because I’d rather just forget this miserable moment happened.
This is all good and well, but it isn’t the sort of utter nonsensical inanity we’ve come to demand of our representatives in these through-the-looking-glass times.
Fret not.
Talking about Democratic objections to voting for Sen. Jeff Sessions‘ because of his racist past remarks, Cruz said on Wednesday: “I’ll point out, the Democrats are the party of the Ku Klux Klan. [You] look at the most racist, you look at the Dixiecrats, they were Democrats who imposed segregation.”
Sure. Also about as relevant to the discussion as saying that when Washington, D.C. was in the middle of Pangea, dinosaurs roamed the land, so why are Democrats allowed to have humans vote on cabinet appointees?
All this is to say, it’s a shame he didn’t do all these things during the primaries. He could have been president.