Carville: 'Ted Cruz Is the Most Talented, Fearless Republican Politician I’ve Seen in 30 Years'

This is Ted Cruz doing what Ted Cruz does best. His answer was an obfuscation of the actual facts of the case which he gets away with because of the fact that his questioner was not prepared to have to respond. Because the questioner floundered on his response, Cruz was able to present a grossly simplified narrative of the case from a position of authority. So yeah, he schooled the guy who seemed more nervous than smug from San Marcos.

 

The entire GOP is a constructed veneer, astroturfed to use social issues to maintain economic power. Orwell was right.
There is not a social issue they raise that actually effects the real lives of people as much as banking laws, campaign finance, the student loan industry, health insurance, the minimum wage, voting laws and organized workers. Gay Marriage, abortion, obamacare opposition and military threats are just easy hot button smokescreens.

But hey, I'll be fine either way, whatever.

 

what facts was he wrong about?

 

From what I said, where did you get that I said that he was wrong about facts? I said that he obfuscated the facts and was able to get away with it because of the lack of preparation by the questioner.

Here is basically the interaction (paraphrased because its a video):

His answer obfuscates the facts of the case as you can see for yourself if you read the syllabus produced or you could also read the decision itself:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

 

they facts are the government wanted to stop a movie from being shown, and the SCOTUS said that was unconstitutional

exactly what Cruz said

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/toiJlj6EH9s?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I think a cop should shoot Ted Cruz for inciting an insurrection in America.

 

The holding of the case is about 5 pages long and has almost nothing to do with movies (maybe the 3rd subsection does...the other two don't). If that's all he thinks it says, then for somebody who went to law school, Cruz seems pretty terrible at reading case law.

So he's either dumb/ignorant of how to read case law (unlikely) or he's lying.

Which one do you think it is?

 

Over the line, Smokey.

 

Agreed. A taser would be sufficient.

 

Stopping a movie being shown was the outcome the plaintiffs wanted to affect.

But they always have to dress up shutting down free speech with pages of dissembling.

 

Continuing a long-term strategy of disingenuous demagoguery for a captive audience that forms his base?

If you were an advisor to Ted Cruz, would you counsel anything otherwise? That's his go-to move. It's like telling Harden not to Eurostep and draw a foul.

It won't get him into the White House, but it got him a Senate seat in Texas.

 

What about a chokehold?

 

I don't like him much, but even joking about killing a Senator is a bad idea, mc mark.

 

Not just the rubes in the base. Cruz was able to fool even the Supreme Court and the Princeton Debate Panel with his disingenuous demagoguery.

He's like a super villain.

 

isn't community organizer Obama the super villain

ARE WE NOT GETTING OUR NARRATIVES CROSSED.

 

His record in jurisprudence would support Sam Fisher's argument that he's hardly a fool. Arguments in a courtroom work differently in the court of public opinion, and he's also smart enough to know that.

It's hardly a crime for a politician to appeal to the rubes of any base (Jesus, look at the Clintons) so it's not like I'm damning him for doing it, but it is what it is.

 

The plaintiff in the case was citizens united, genius. They're the ones who made the movie. And you're the one who purports to know the facts of the case?

Anyway, the thing "stopping a movie being shown" was McCain-Feingold and several decades worth of case law precedent, like Austin. One of hte major criticisms of course of Citizens United - not that I'd expect you to be sophisticated enough to get this point, though Ted Cruz should be - is that instead of just overturning those items as applied to the showing of a particular movie, they threw out everything that they didn't like that didn't have the slightest thing to do with remedying the showing of a particular movie.

None of this has anything to do with a specific movie, in the slightest; and short of access to a time machine, it is impossible for them to have done so.

You need to re-learn what happened - I suggest you not start with Ted Cruz as he is obviously wrong.

 

It was an emotional day. Bad choice of words.

 

Ted Cruz just did a huge favor for Democrats:

Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill, Joining House
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/us/senate-spending-package.html?_r=1

WASHINGTON — After moments of high drama, dry process and acrimony, the Senate passed a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending package Saturday night, abruptly ending several days of chaotic legislative maneuvers and clearing the bill for President Obama to sign.

The legislation, which will fund most of the government through the fiscal year that ends in September, passed in a bipartisan vote, 56 to 40, after a turbulent process — a fitting coda for a governing body that has often failed to govern.

The vote concluded a long day of brinkmanship, spurred by a legislative challenge to Mr. Obama’s executive action on immigration by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who helped force the Senate into a weekend session. By the end of the day, Mr. Cruz found himself isolated even from members of his own party.

“I don’t see what we’re achieving here,” Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said of Mr. Cruz’s strategy.

Throughout the day, lawmakers — many of whom had to cancel holiday plans — trudged to the Capitol to cast a monotonous series of more than two dozen procedural votes. (At one point, Democrats wheeled a piano into a spare room off the Senate floor, where they sang carols including, perhaps optimistically, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”)

The turmoil and infighting offered a glimpse into the dynamic between the two parties as well as the tensions among Republicans that are likely to erupt after they take control of the Senate in January.

In addition to funding core domestic government operations, the bill provides money for more military operations abroad and for combating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Mr. Cruz and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, held up the spending bill to emphasize their objections to Mr. Obama’s executive action, which will allow as many five million undocumented immigrants to remain in the country.

Mr. Cruz ultimately failed to stop the spending bill, which will fund the Department of Homeland Security — the agency primarily responsible for carrying out the president’s immigration directive — through February.

By carving out more legislative time, Mr. Cruz inadvertently enabled the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to advance two dozen nominations, including several contentious ones that would otherwise have faced a more difficult confirmation process.

“It will have the end result of causing nominees who I think are not well qualified to be confirmed, so I don’t understand the approach that he is taking,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “And I think it’s very unfortunate and counterproductive.”

Mr. Cruz did manage to secure a vote on a point of order raising constitutional concerns about the president’s authority to defer deportations for undocumented immigrants. But the Senate roundly rejected his point, with 20 of his fellow Republicans voting against.

Senators spent most of Saturday plowing through votes on presidential nominees — a process known as a Vote-O-Rama.

The list of nominations included Antony J. Blinken as deputy secretary of state, the department’s No. 2 post; Carolyn W. Colvin to lead the Social Security Administration; Dr. Vivek H. Murthy as surgeon general; and Sarah R. Saldaña to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The spending bill greatly increases federal limits on individual contributions to national political parties and relaxes restrictions on big banks’ trading of certain risky financial instruments — provisions that infuriated liberal Democrats. Twenty-one Democrats, one Independent and 18 Republicans voted against the bill.

The legislation provides $64 billion for military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries. It allows certain multi-employer pension plans to shore up their finances by cutting retirees’ benefits. And it reduces the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies out of favor with Republicans. But Democrats staved off deep cuts to many of their favorite health and education programs.

Mr. Cruz’s last-minute ploy surprised even Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, who had left the Capitol on Friday evening telling reporters that he would see them Monday. The maneuver seems likely to further elevate Mr. Cruz’s popularity and credibility among the conservative base, boosting excitement for him should he seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

But only Democrats seemed able to wrest a modicum of enjoyment from the proceedings.

As Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, struggled to explain to a group of reporters just what Mr. Cruz had hoped to achieve, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, loped by and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Let me know if you need backup,” Mr. Booker said with a grin.