High points of Ted Cruz talking:

 Comparison of his 21 hours with the “Bataan death march.”

 Comparison of people who think Obamacare cannot be repealed with the people who did not think Hitler could be stopped.

Image Gail Collins Credit... Earl Wilson/The New York Times

 Reading of “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss.

 Reading of a speech made by Ashton Kutcher at the Teen Choice Awards.

The bit about Hitler appeasers drew an irate response from Senator John McCain. “I spoke to Senator Cruz about my dissatisfaction ... and he said he only intended it to be applied to pundits and not to members of the Senate,” McCain said. We would definitely have liked to be around for that conversation.

Cruz is basically a roadblock with a Princeton debate medal. But he’s managed to achieve what no one else, from the president to the American public, has been able to do in recent years: unite the vast majority of Congress around one great idea. Which is, in this case, hatred of Senator Ted Cruz.

His 21-hour performance, by the way, was apparently not an official filibuster. But since nobody wants to discuss Senate rules, let’s just recall “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” when Senator Jimmy Stewart stood up in defiance of his misguided or corrupt colleagues and filibustered until he collapsed on the floor. Then Senator Claude Rains ran out into the hall yelling “Expel me! Not him!” and “Every word of it is true! I’m not fit for office!”

Nothing this week was nearly that cool.

In his, um, extremely long speech, Cruz also claimed that the senators had spent “virtually zero time even talking about jobs and the economy.” Which isn’t true. For instance, they recently devoted quite a bit of time to a new budget for transportation and housing that would have added a lot of jobs to the economy. It died when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled the plug at the last minute.

We stop here now for a moment to recall some of the other sensible pieces of legislation that have passed away for no discernible reason except political insanity. It will be a quick, quiet trip, similar to the one the finalists on “Survivor” take to remember all the people who have been voted off the island.