Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday underscored why he is considered the least popular member of the U.S. Senate when he called for mandatory term limits on members of Congress and denounced veteran lawmakers of both parties for "corruption."

The Texas Republican said there are Americans of all political stripes who look at Congress and say "throw the bums out."

"We ought to listen," Cruz, who is up for re-election next year, told a cheering audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

"This election was the American people saying 'enough already' with the corruption in Washington," he said. "And it's both parties. It's Democrats and Republicans who have been here too long, who become captured by this city."

Cruz introduced a bill in January with Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit senators to two six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms. If the amendment ever passes Congress, which is unlikely, it would have to be ratified by 38 states.

Congressional leaders, most of whom have been in office much longer than Cruz's proposed limits would allow, will probably never bring the legislation to a vote. Cruz, who was elected in 2012, is still a freshman in the Senate.

"I think it's (term limits) one of the first and biggest steps we can take to actually drain the swamp," said Cruz, invoking one of President Trump's favorite phrases. Cruz lost the Republican nomination for president to Trump in a bitter battle last year.

In a 2015 speech on the Senate floor, Cruz accused his own leader, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of lying. The Senate prides itself on its decorum and its rules prohibiting personal jibes at colleagues. Cruz's fellow senators of both parties rebuked him later that year by twice refusing to grant his requests for routine procedural courtesies on the Senate floor.

In the past, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has called Cruz ineffective, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said he needs to learn how to get along with people.

But Cruz was clearly in his element at CPAC, pausing between sentences to enjoy the applause as he called out the rest of Washington for being corrupt and out of touch with voters.

"You look across this country, people are fed up with Washington," he said.

He also called liberals "bat-crap crazy."

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