You know, a long time ago, before he became a very smart and formidable Senator, Al Franken liked writing books. And the title to one of his earlier ones was “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me”. If Ted Cruz writes another book, he’d have to title it, “I’m loud enough, I’m nasty enough, and goddamn it, people hate me". But Rafael "Ted” Cruz is nothing if not a unifying figure. First he united the entire Senate to hate his guts, and now he’s done the impossible, he’s made an entire government commission hate him.
The Federal Election Commission is useless. And that’s not an insult to the commissioners and the hard working 339 souls who populate it, the FEC is useless by design. The Supreme Court has 9 members, ties are not possible unless someone recuses themself for some reason. House and Senate committees have odd numbers to ensure a deciding result. But the FEC has three Democratic members and three Republican members. Even with that, while it may have been weak, it still did stuff occasionally. But since the new GOP class of 2008 joined in the Tea Party hatred for government oversight, pretty much every decision has been a 3-3 deadlock. A Republican paradise department.
That is, until “Calgary Teddy” Cruz came before them. According to a new REPORT in The Hill, Thursday the FEC decided that they had already had enough of Cruz, and they’ve never even met him;
The commissioners voted unanimously that $1.1 million in loans to Cruz’s 2012 Senate bid from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. should have been disclosed to voters. The loans first came to light during Cruz's GOP primary bid in last year's presidential campaign.
There are a couple of things that stop one in ones tracks here. The first, smaller one is that none of this came to light until 2016 when Cruz ran his obnoxious campaign for President. He literally brought the scrutiny on himself for something he had gotten away clean with. But the bigger shock was the vote, 5-0. The FEC can’t even come to a unanimous vote on where to go for lunch, but they all agreed that Ted Cruz is a shit. I don’t know what happened to the sixth vote, but can guess that they didn't even want their vote to be associated with Cruz. The website posting did not indicate if the commission will sanction Cruz or not.
The rules of the FEC are not that arcane here. Candidates can loan unlimited amounts of their personal money to their campaign, Trump did that in 2016. They can also take out loans from commercial banks, but they have to disclose the sources, interest rate and terms publicly. Cruz failed to do this. It actually should have been caught earlier if anybody was paying attention;
Cruz said during his 2012 run that he was financing his bid in part with personal funds, liquidating his assets to compete against a well-funded opponent.
The Tea Party favorite’s 2012 financial disclosure showed that he had not sold off enough financial assets to be capable of lending his campaign as much as he claimed, however.
The discrepancy was first reported in January 2016, with many media outlets noting his wife's past work as a Goldman executive.
This couldn’t have come at a worse time for Cruz, or a better time for us. Cruz’ victory in 2012 was a fluke, a federal court case screwed up the timing of the primary, and then the runoff was scheduled in an even more unfavorable turnout date in the middle of the summer, and Cruz squeaked through with Tea Party fervor to run in the general in a deep red state. Cruz is up for reelection in 2018, and it appears that the Senate and the FEC aren’t the only ones who can’t stand the sight of him. There are already a couple of known GOP entities who are looking seriously at a primary run against him, and a couple of Democrats are already laying the groundwork for 2018, and a couple of early reports I’ve seen are showing that they may be getting toeholds towards being competitive. Cruz could be in for a rough ride as it is.
When your personality and reputation make people think of a debt collector at their door every time they see you, you really don’t need to give them any more reason to hate you. Cruz has just done that. Whether it’s a GOP primary challenger, or a Democratic challenger in the general election, both and all of them can now slam Cruz in :30 spots and campaign speeches, to say nothing of debates with the probity of how he raises and discloses his campaign funds. Another reason to look forward to the whole primary and general election process coming upon us faster and faster.