

Ted Cruz continued his slide into oblivion on Wednesday night and Thursday morning when he addressed the Republican National Convention, then the Texas delegation the following morning.

Cruz refused to endorse Donald Trump in his prime time speech Wednesday, to nobody’s surprise, then exited the stage to big time boos from the floor. The next morning, he reiterated his reasons for not backing Trump – the latter’s accusations that Ted’s father Rafael was pictured handing out anti-JFK literature, and the retweet of an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife Heidi during the primaries. Cruz is entitled to his reasons.

The debacle left many wondering how this positions Cruz in the future with Republicans. His brand is to get along with nobody, filibuster, then walk away with less that what he had when he started. He can’t coalition build to save is political life. He was rejected by evangelicals and the far right base be believed would propel him to victory in the primaries and fill in the voter deficit that doomed Romney. After the convention, even donors rejected him. Cruz is a man without an island now, except for those who are attracted to his repetitive exhortations about “freedom and the Constitution.” He seems to finish every political argument he makes with that now.

Cruz was touted as a formidable Supreme Court nominee, if the political stuff didn’t work out. Before politics, his bread and butter as an attorney in Texas was arguing – usually successfully – in front of the Supremes. Donald Trump even publicly floated the idea of nominating Cruz, during better days. Now one has to wonder whether Cruz has burned so many bridges that anybody would nominate him. The Texas delegation broke out in fights. Trump has talked about funding a primary challenge to him.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg unloaded on Trump a couple of weeks ago. She got a lot of blowback from speaking out of turn as a jurist on the nation’s highest court. Ginsburg walked it back.

Did Cruz go to far as well? Seems like a ridiculous question in an election year dominated by Trump, who speaks with no filters. But Trump is a victor, and his license to say ill-advised things can be seen as the spoils of victory. Cruz has to rebuild. He seems in denial about that. His act plays well at Blog Bash, but the people who would elevate him to a national stage seem to reject him. And he seems not to care.

Cruz can say whatever he wants as a politician. The arena of public opinion decides what goes too far. Ginsburg’s rules of the road for speaking out are decidedly more codified. But like Ginsburg, did Cruz go too far? Both of them came off like cranks. It’s incumbent on both of them to curb their speech, for different reasons, but neither seem to care.

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