It’s no secret that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz loves movies and in particularly “The Godfather” trilogy.

He’s brought up the movies during campaign stops going back for years, and did it again Tuesday at a Senate hearing on term limits. Cruz explained to the Senate how members of Congress are like Michael Corleone, the lead character played by Al Pacino.

Cruz, a longtime advocate of term limits for Congress, said he believes most members of Congress go to Washington with good intentions, but then the dominant desire becomes getting re-elected.

“And they find themselves, a little bit like the wonderful movie series “The Godfather,” wherein each of those movies is the story of Michael Corleone; the good son making decisions, each of which seems on its own perfectly reasonable and perfectly rational,” Cruz said. “Michael steps forward to save his father. His father’s going to be murdered. But each of those small rationalizations leads him down the road to becoming a mass murderer. In much the same way, I think elected members of Congress, they make small concessions too.”

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Cruz said members say they want to do something big, like balance the budget or address the national debt, but rationalize that, “I got to get elected first.”

Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who was testifying in support of term limits, offered a level of agreement with Cruz’s point, but with a clear caveat.

“I don’t think anyone of us want to suggest that our un-term-limited colleagues are mass murderers,” DeMint said as Cruz laughed.

Since he was elected, Cruz has been pushing for term limits in Congress. His latest bill calls for limiting members of the Senate to two 6-year terms and members of the House to three 2-year terms.

But those limits wouldn’t prevent Cruz, already in his second term, or any other current members from running again. His bill does not make term limits retroactive and instead starts the term limits once the legislation becomes law.

Cruz is the chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee where the term limit hearing was held on Tuesday.