(Newser) – Likening Ted Cruz to "Lucifer in the flesh" is deeply unfair to the Dark One, according to annoyed Satanists. After John Boehner made the comparison, adding that he had "never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch," the Satanic Temple was quick to distance itself from Cruz, Raw Story reports. "Cruz's failures of reason, compassion, decency, and humanity are products of his Christian pandering, if not an actual Christian faith," a temple spokesman tells the Friendly Atheist blog. "It grows tedious when pedophile priests and loathsome politicians are conveniently dismissed as Satanic, even as they spew biblical verse and prostrate themselves before the cross, recruiting the Christian faithful. Satanists will have nothing to do with any of them."

Cruz is notoriously unpopular among his fellow Republicans, some of whom agreed that Boehner was doing Satan a disservice, Politico reports. "Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz," New York Rep. Peter King said. "Listen, what John Boehner was most concerned about was Ted Cruz perpetrated a fraud and a hoax when he brought about the shutdown of the government on some kind of a vague promise that he was gonna be able to take ObamaCare out of the budget or to end ObamaCare." The Oregonian reports that in a development that may anger Satanists further, the domain Lucifer2016.com now redirects to Cruz's new CruzCarly.com website. (Read more Ted Cruz stories.)

