Brooks, NYT: The Brutalism of Ted Cruz

[ErikJ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/the-brutalism-of-ted-cruz.html?login=email&smid=tw-share&_r=0

In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley was arrested after stealing a calculator from Walmart. This was a crime that merited a maximum two-year prison term. But prosecutors incorrectly applied a habitual offender law. Neither the judge nor the defense lawyer caught the error and Haley was sentenced to 16 years.

Eventually, the mistake came to light and Haley tried to fix it. Ted Cruz was solicitor general of Texas at the time. Instead of just letting Haley go for time served, Cruz took the case to the Supreme Court to keep Haley in prison for the full 16 years.

Some justices were skeptical. “Is there some rule that you can’t confess error in your state?” Justice Anthony Kennedy asked. The court system did finally let Haley out of prison, after six years.

The case reveals something interesting about Cruz’s character. Ted Cruz is now running strongly among evangelical voters, especially in Iowa. But in his career and public presentation Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace. Cruz’s behavior in the Haley case is almost the dictionary definition of pharisaism: an overzealous application of the letter of the law in a way that violates the spirit of the law, as well as fairness and mercy.

Traditionally, candidates who have attracted strong evangelical support have in part emphasized the need to lend a helping hand to the economically stressed and the least fortunate among us. Such candidates include George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.
............................cont'd

[mountain grammy]

1. Cruz is a very bad and dangerous man.

[hifiguy]

3. There's crazy and

there's crazy. Bad crazy, and Cruz is a walking embodiment of bad crazy. Batshit nuts, untethered from reality and with a messiah complex. That adds up to Charlie Manson crazy. An incredibly dangerous and unhinged man.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Evil psycho clown.

[oberliner]

4. The penalty for stealing a calculator from Walmart is two years in prison?

That, in and of itself, seems extremely excessive.

[ErikJ]

5. I bet Walmart has something to do with that.

THey pull great weight in red states.

[Johonny]

6. Compationate conservatism is BS that only fools like Brooks believe in

I know Rethugs are supposed to pretend for the masses, but this GOP primary proves the candidates are done pretending. It doesn't really matter, because the fantasy world of Brooks never really existed in real life. The compassionate conservatives were never compassionate.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

7. That's the best post I've read today! Well said and dead-on accurate. nt

[ErikJ]

9. Should call it the Pharisee party

U can get away with anything or cruelty u want as long as you're anti-choice.

[gratuitous]

8. Someone else noted

Someone else (Kevin Drum?) noted that it was unlikely Brooks came across this case poking around on the internets. Makes you wonder who fed it to him?

It's also rather precious that Brooks is all het up about Cruz's alleged brutality, considering all of the brutal things Republicans have been saying for years in the name of compassion. Anyone remember the chucklefest that was George W. Bush's ersatz search around the White House for those weapons of mass destruction that never turned up in Iraq? High-larious, it was. But certainly not brutal to be joking around about the purported reason for destroying a country and killing thousands of people.