Brent Budowsky: The four faces of Cruz

At the risk of giving solace to the list of possible Republican candidates for the presidency, which seems larger than the starting offense for the Texas Longhorns, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) might have begun the implosion of his presidential candidacy the day after he announced it.

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, another of the many putative nominees-in-waiting, and a favorite (this week) of the political commentariat, has come under fire in some GOP circles for flip-flops on major issues. This suggestion that Walker is politically two-faced is not without merit but shall be a subject for another day.

{mosads}On Tuesday, in his second day of formally campaigning for the presidency, Cruz, who calls himself the champion of courageous conservatives, gave new meaning to the phrase “not ready for prime time.” The Texas senator thinks big, and in two interviews on Tuesday he outdid Walker with performances that were not merely two-faced but four-faced!

Let’s consider the four faces of Ted Cruz:

For the first face of Cruz, he continued his all-out attack against ObamaCare, vowing to defeat and destroy it with more vehemence than he employs in his vows to defeat and destroy Middle East terrorism.

However, in the second face of Cruz, just minutes later, he announced to Dana Bash on CNN that he would be enrolling in health insurance through ObamaCare as a customer, which he vows to defeat and destroy as a politician.

In other words, he vowed to destroy ObamaCare, before he vowed to enroll in it!

For the third face of Cruz, he attacked Hillary Clinton as evil incarnate for using private emails for government business, vowing he would never stand for such vile activity in a Cruz presidency!

But for the fourth face of Cruz, in a must-see interview for every Republican opposition researcher and every aficionado of fantastic flip-flops and supreme hypocrisy, he told The Texas Tribune that he used private emails himself for Senate business, including vital matters of national interest.

Will the House Benghazi Committee of Clinton inquisitions subpoena Cruz emails involving Armed Services Committee matters?

These are the four faces of Ted Cruz on Tuesday: He would destroy ObamaCare, before he will enroll in it, and he condemns Clinton’s use of private emails, before he admits doing it himself.

It gets better. When the Tribune asked how Cruz could condemn the former secretary of State for doing the same thing he admits doing, his excuse was that Congress enacted rules to give senators special treatment to allow them to do the allegedly vile deeds he condemns Clinton for doing.

It gets even better. Having used the excuse that Congress had enacted special rules to enable lawmakers to write the private emails that Cruz condemns from Clinton, when he was asked whether he would now disclose his emails, he said no! Why? Congress enacted yet another law to give itself yet more special treatment, he says, to protect lawmakers from disclosing the kind of emails they would send subpoenas to demand from Clinton and others!

Who does Cruz think he is kidding?

I should add, in fairness to Cruz, that, by the close of business Tuesday, his staff was suggesting he is again considering health insurance options to determine whether ObamaCare is the superior choice he found it to be after his initial review. It is possible that he will flip-flop yet again and not choose ObamaCare after his embarrassment, and then there will be five, six or even seven faces of Ted Cruz we can discuss.

Let’s applaud ObamaCare on its fifth birthday this week and thank the junior senator from Texas for giving the best birthday present!

ObamaCare has been a success, reducing the number of uninsured, helping people with preexisting conditions, helping the kids of parents on policies and keeping premiums lower than expected. In some future face of Cruz, he might admit he too is a happy customer!

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.