I read both the related Salon article as well as the original Houston Chronicle article first with disgust, and then with anger. I had about as much respect for the Chronicle's editorial-writer's mea culpa as I did for some drunk driver's Sunday morning jail-house revelation. The dudes should have known better even before he started chugging, got behind the wheel of the car and then hit something.
I say Ted Cruz's political incumbency is as much anything the consequences of the Texas political and media establishments' stupid mental habits. The Chronicle, in their typical arrogant corporate-media arrogance, did what they thought was expected of them, endorsed the winner of the Texas Republican senatorial primary without thinking about the consequences of a Ted Cruz victory, anointed him, and greased the skids to Cruz's electoral victory.
The Chronicle's editorial shows few signs of second thoughts between Cruz's primary victory and the November 2012 election. If they had any real doubts about whether Cruz would represent the interests of the average Texas voter, the Chron held those doubts close to their chests, reassured themselves that whatever else, Cruz was a Republican, and when it came time to endorse candidates in the 2012 elections, poured the anointing oil on Cruz's forehead.
In doing so, the Chronicle's editorial writers failed their readers and failed the citizens of Texas.
The Chronicle had PLENTY of warning as to what sort of right-wing lunacy would follow if Cruz took office. Anyone paying even MARGINAL attention to the Texas Republican Party's senatorial primary was forewarned that Cruz was a Tea-partying politician who would happily bring the processes of government to a halt to further the Tea Party's extreme-right agenda. But like the White Star Line's corporate honcho Bruce Ismay, the Chronicle bid the captains of the Texas GOP's Cruz candidacy to sail on, sail on, despite the ice fields of a Cruz Titanic incumbency.
I very seriously doubt that Democrat Paul Sadler would have pulled the stuff that Ted Cruz pulled had the Texas electorate chosen to vote its interests. Sadler was a veteran Democratic politician with a far better grasp of the nature of Texas politics than the Republican who beat him. Sadler, at the very least, would have had the mother-wit to acknowledge that he represented a conservative state with a conservative electorate and would not have tried to act like a Texas-based Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders.
The Chron's endorsement shows the mental laziness of the Texas media and political establishments. For the last twenty-five years, they'd heedlessly endorsed Republican candidates over Democratic ones, always assuming that since those candidates are Republicans, they must be better for Texas because they SAY they're pro-business and hey, they're Republican.
We are seeing the consequences of such sloppy thinking. A near shut-down, business doldrums, a government credit downgrade, the threat of recession, tens if not hundreds of Texans' jobs in peril or Texans out of work, and with the prospect of yet more fiscal brinkmanship with a Chronicle-anointed Republican senator in Hutchison's seat.
And we have more than five years' left for more Cruz antics, no thanks to the "wisdom" of the Chron's ivory-tower editorial writers.
I believe it's high time for the Texas political and media establishment to wise up and SERIOUSLY think about supporting Democrats again. Texas wouldn't be in this mess had Paul Sadler won the 2012 election. Texas wouldn't be in this mess if Richard Noriega had won the 2012 election. Texas wouldn't be in this mess if Ron Kirk had won the 2012 election. Texas wouldn't be in this mess if Victor Morales had won the election.
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