Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The company that Raffy keeps

When you go through the tattered remains of the 2010 Rafael 'Ted' Cruz for Attorney General effort, you find an interesting cast of characters that Raffy thought were worth bragging about to Texas voters.  It is a pretty curious lot ranging from the oddball assortment of the vast right wing conspirators in Texas (more on these clowns in a future post) and a couple of unusual supporters worth noting.

First, there's Richard Thornburgh, or if you're Karl Rove, he's better known as "Deadbeat Dick."

Thornburgh was a two term 'Guvana' of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and was serving as Bush 41's Attorney General when he got drafted into a special elelction for the U.S. Senate.  Thornburgh found out that you can't go home in politics and got whupped pretty good by a Liberal Dinosaur whose campaign was run by James Carville.

Well, Dick pretended the whole thing never happened and ran off to the United Nations.  The trouble was, he owed Karl Rove a whole bunch of moola.

We like Karl, so we use young, skinnier pictures of him with GWB.
Thornburgh didn't understand that you don't piss off Karl Rove and you don't owe him money.  So in 1993, Thornburgh's campaign committee was sued in federal court of Karl Rove & Co. Rove won the case and collected $180,000 from the Thornburgh committee. Karl Rove & Co v. Thornburgh was heard by a Texas federal judge who'd had been appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

If you were running for office in Texas, is this an endorsement you'd brag about?

In addition to Deadbeat Dick, Raffy showcased his support from former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, whose wonderful third wife Barbara Olson died on 9/11 at the Pentagon.  So what is Olson up to these days?  Well his 4th marriage must have taken him on a different path, because he's helping Al Gore's old lawyer sue to overturn Prop. 8 in California in order to legalize Gay Marriage.

Olson with Gore lawyer David Boies trying to legalize gay marriage out on the left coast..
These two legal clodhoppers want to overturn a citizen amendment (passed by a vote of the people) to the California Constitution which now defines marriage as one man and one woman. Ted now thinks that "Nooooo, the people are stupid.  We lawyers know what is best."

Since Ted Olson is now trying to make this the law of the land in California, how smart is it to brag about having this guy's endorsement?  Does Raffy have zero judgment or is this just a 'lor-ya' thing?

Earth to Raffy:  Gay Marriage is already legal back in your homeland.  So this would be a non-issue back home.  An example:

Question back home in Canada: "How would you vote in Parliament Mr. Cruz on same sex marriage?"  Cruz: "Gosh you guys already legalized that before I got home.  Next question..."

Rafael Cruz answering questions...Oops! Not again....
Question in America: "Mr. Cruz, what did you know about Mr. Olson's lawsuit and when did you know it?"  Cruz:  "On the advice of counsel and my political consultants, I must invoke my fifth amendment rights."

That was flanderer David Vitter above.  These chunky boys look too much alike!
Can't just be a "Hah-vahd" thing - Olson went to Cal-Berkley (euhhh, I know).  It's just a Washington DC lawyer thing.  Enough said.