Following in the footsteps of another 2016 Presidential hopeful (Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the senate floor on Tuesday to talk. But his talk was not like that of his fellow Tea Party member. Paul actually filibustered, whereas Cruz just talked and talked and talked about defunding Obamacare.

He also read a couple Dr. Seuss books, which is way more interesting than hearing him speak about Obamacare.

Realistically, it did not matter what Cruz talked about – Tea Party supporters will love him and others will hate him. It was silliness and shows just how insane Washington, D.C., has become.

Cruz worked out a deal with the enemy (Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid) that allowed him to speak. He won’t delay a vote or anything like a real filibuster would. It was pure theater and to gain him some publicity for a presidential run.

On his personal road to the White House, Cruz has many problems to overcome. He acts like a snob for one and comes across as just a little better than most of us commoners. It looks as though most everyone else in the Senate (even many Republicans) don’t like Cruz, even referring to him as a “wacko bird.”

Add me to the list.

While Rand Paul is Tea Party, Ted Cruz is Tea Party X-Treme – “the next great conservative hope” for the GOP. He kind of reminds me of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in cowboy boots – “black ostrich-skin cowboy boots” which is his “favorite footwear” according to an article from GQ. 

He will probably crash and burn just like Bachmann.

I started disliking Ted Cruz during the Chuck Hagel hearings for Secretary of Defense. As a new senator he should have sat back, kept his mouth shut, and learned. He seemed full of himself. His questions went over the line several times and showed a lack of respect for Hagel and for the military. Cruz seems to forget that while he was getting his Ivy League education from Princeton and Harvard some patriots were putting their butts on the line to protect his freedom.

It’s time for a reality check – Obamacare can be improved, but the Republicans are wasting a lot of time and resources trying to stop the funding for it, instead of working to improve it. Maybe a better way to say that is the Republicans are allowing the Tea Party wing of their party to waste a lot of time and resources trying to stop the funding. The mainstream Republicans are afraid they will lose elections if they anger the Tea Party members of their party.

Nationally, Mitt Romney ran as an anti-Obamacare candidate in 2012 and was beaten badly by Barack Obama. In the 2012 Senate race here in Montana, Sen. Jon Tester supported Obamacare and Denny Rehberg was against it. Tester clobbered Rehberg by 18,000 votes.

I can envision 20 years from now a Tea Party Republican saying, “If elected, the first thing I will do is introduce a bill to defund Obamacare.”

And the four or five active Tea Party members listening to the speech will cheer wildly…

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