Harping on a theme he’s harped on before, Mickey Kaus dinged Ted Cruz (again) for not opposing illegal alien amnesty with the single-minded focus Kaus thinks he should. (“You didn’t clap loud enough! Tinkerbell is dead!Amnesty is Alive!”) This criticism is misguided:
- Mickey Kaus is a Democrat and an ObamaCare supporter, albeit an entirely more reasonable example of each than usually found, as well as an amnesty opponent. Thus dinging Ted Cruz for fighting ObamaCare rather than amnesty is basically saying “A Republican senator is fighting hard against a program I support but not fighting hard enough against a program I oppose.”
- Ted Cruz has long been a fervent opponent of both ObamaCare and illegal alien amnesty, but has always been more fervently against ObamaCare, proclaiming that we should “repeal every syllable of every word of Obamacare” as one of his stock talking points from the very beginning of his campaign.
- Those doubting Cruz’s opposition to amnesty should take another look at what he said about it back when I interviewed him in 2011:
- Cruz fought and voted against amnesty when it was before the Senate, but now it’s before the House. Given that whole “bicameral legislature” idea, the issue is beyond Cruz’s legislative purvey.
- While I won’t go so far as to declare amnesty dead (as some have), if only because the GOP establishment seems to have a limitless appetite for suicidal compromise, its chances this legislative session do look slim, and all that was accomplished without Cruz taking the leading role against it.
Given all that, Kaus continuing to harp on Cruz’s appears to be of an idee fixe on Kaus’ part than real criticism.
Tags: amnesty, Border Controls, Illegal Aliens, Mickey Kaus, ObamaCare, Ted Cruz