By Linda P. Campbell
lcampbell@star-telegram.com
Texas' first Hispanic U.S. senator will be a sharp 42-year-old who won debating championships at Princeton, got a law degree from Harvard, clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court and has worked for a mega law firm.
Of course, Ted Cruz was born in Canada. And he's a Republican.
But apparently Texas Republicans, who won't elect a Hispanic-surnamed candidate to the state's highest court, will vote to send one to Washington, "elitist" pedigree and all.
That's not a bad thing. But it's mighty curious.
Cruz, who beat Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the GOP Senate nomination, will almost certainly take the whole shebang in November. Sorry, Democrats, former state Rep. Paul Sadler's a credible candidate with governing skills, but your party can't play the game like Cruz.
Tuesday night's victory, in case you wondered, was bought by the folks at the Club for Growth. Just ask them. Their news release taking credit hit my e-mail at 8:25 p.m. Tuesday: "Club for Growth Action spent over $5.5 million in independent expenditures on the race and the Club's PAC bundled nearly $1 million from Club members to Cruz's campaign."
His great debate skills enabled him to talk the talk that appealed to the smaller-government, less regulation, lower taxes, our-way-or-the-highway confrontationalists. But he's walked a mainstream GOP establishment walk to build the résumé he'll take to Congress.
Now, I certainly would appreciate less wasteful government spending, welcome a lower tax bill and applaud a balanced federal budget. Our country would prosper if more people had jobs to support themselves and their families and didn't need to rely on the public safety net.
But is that what Cruz, with his zero years of legislative experience, can reasonably be expected to deliver? Who will he be beholden to?
It's monumentally ironic that, for all his chatter about shrinking government, Cruz received a government salary for more than half his professional career.
He clerked for then-federal appellate Judge Michael Luttig (1995-96) and Chief Justice William Rehnquist (1996-97); worked in George W. Bush's Justice Department (2001); directed the Federal Trade Commission's Office of Policy Planning (2001-03); served as Texas solicitor general (2003-08); and got paid as a University of Texas adjunct law professor (2004-09).
While Cruz was at the FTC, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott called and asked him to help chase conservative causes in the courts at taxpayer expense, according to what Cruz told Texas Tribune reporter Aman Batheja about it in July. (
bit.ly/McrM2T).
To be fair, Cruz spun it more positively: "He gave me the charge and said, 'I want to look across the country and if we can stand up and fight for conservative principles, go do it.' And that was an extraordinary mandate to have," the Tribune quoted Cruz as saying.
Some of those cases were a matter of defending the state's position in cases brought by others, such as arguing that Texas shouldn't have to follow an international court's ruling even if President Bush ordered that, and fending off an attempt to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Capitol grounds.
But the AG's crusading isn't always the wisest use of taxpayer dollars, such as when it involves rounding up states for friend-of-the-court briefs in cases where Texas isn't a party, just to pander to political and social conservatives.
Cruz should thank taxpayers for letting him burnish his credentials with dozens of Supreme Court briefs and nine oral arguments. He moved on to lead a law firm's Supreme Court litigation practice, highly specialized work that pays more than what taxpayers can afford for a senator.
I don't fault Cruz for being a climber. And we should applaud when the child of an immigrant (his father came from Cuba in 1957) can achieve the American dream of prosperity and professional success. Though his biography notes that he was a founding editor of the
Harvard Latino Law Review, Rehnquist's first Hispanic clerk and Texas' first Hispanic solicitor general, Cruz didn't run on his ethnicity, and that should be seen as a sign of progress.
But this much doesn't sound so hopeful.
Cruz told a group in July that Americans are fed up with incumbents who "don't believe in anything" and want new leaders "who will stand and fight and get back to the Constitution." (Texas Tribune,
bit.ly/MZv2B3)
I'd argue that many more frustrated Americans would prefer leaders who'll solve problems, not just create havoc. Then the Constitution will take care of itself.
Linda P. Campbell is a Star-Telegram editorial writer. 817-390-7867Twitter: @LindaPCampbell
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