September 24, 2013

"Ted Cruz Vows To Talk Against Obamacare 'Until I Am No Longer Able To Stand.'"

Filibuster action: watch it here.

UPDATE, 6:08 p.m.: Home from work, I'm catching up on the feed now. He's talking about tweets. He's reading #DefundObamacareBecause tweets. He could go on forever this way. But he could go on forever any number of ways. A filibuster, with a filibusterer worth his salt, will never run out of material. As the quote in the post title says, it goes on until the speaker physically fails.

42 comments:

knighterrant said...

Except Senate rules limit debate on this to 30 hours - 15 for Dems, 15 for Reps. The longer he talks the fewer Republicans will be able to speak.

It's a futile exercise that will simply anger others in the Republican caucus silenced by him.

Titus said...

drama queen

Titus said...

I do like that he doesn't want to associate with anyone other than Harvard, Yale or Princeton.

chickelit said...

I get the meme that Cruz must now be destroyed or Alinsky'd but getting cheap shots from the wrong people isn't going to help

Rick said...

Cruz is a monumental American intellect. He does not fit in.

MPH said...

#standwithron doesn't sound as rich as #standwithrand.

pm317 said...

May be we will finally know what was in it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I stand with Cruz - defund ObamaCare

Michael The Magnificent said...

Senator Cruz, you are not alone.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Cruz tortures a comfortable shoes story into a response to Rand uncomfortable question - do you want to shut down the government?

I'm Full of Soup said...

I assume the media will be very very interested in what kind of shoes he is wearing ala Wendy Davis, the Texas legislator.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

If he thinks he can out-filibuster Strom Thurmond, all I can say is that I hope his aides are plentifully supplied with coffee and buckets, the latter to be held, discreetly, just outside the Senate chamber. No one's kidneys are really up to that.

But I thought a modern filibuster didn't require such heroics.

Wayne said...

Go Ted Go!!!!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Oh shoot.

Is Ted Cruz pulling a fake but accurate stunt?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Even if its not a real filibuster... lets say that it could be a fake but accurate stunt.

If the law turns out to be the fiasco we are predicting, we will be able to point to the times we said loud and clear.

'Ted Cruz told you so'... (followed by the epithet that starts with a b)

It makes good sense politically.

Shantastik said...

Sen Cruz is a more consequential Senator in just a few short months than more lifetime politicians.

machine said...

It is not a filibuster....but it is economic terrorism.

Opus One Media said...

oh hasten sweet wind....

machine said...

"Fun fact: Senator Cruz pre-negotiated the terms of his #fakefilibuster with Senator Reid yesterday. Not exactly a Mr. Smith moment."

Indeed.

jr565 said...

It's a futile gesture. Even if he's ultimately right about the outcome that should happen.
It will not be defunded this way.

You know what MIGHT hav worked? getting a president in there in the first place who said the first order of business was to get rid of Obamacare.
Tea partiers who thought now was the time to vote for Gary Johnson really took their eyes off the ball.
So now we get... THIS.
I guess if it's the best you got, a futile gesture is better than nothing. But Ted looks like a real idiot for doing so.

And he's actually engaged in a lot of Obama demagoguery against people who are also against Obamacare but who think his idea is stupid and/or wont work.

jr565 said...

machine wrote:
"Fun fact: Senator Cruz pre-negotiated the terms of his #fakefilibuster with Senator Reid yesterday. Not exactly a Mr. Smith moment."

Indeed.

Link please.

By the way, you're probably right. I saw Ted do something similar with Syria. One week he was talking about how we need to go in there, get rid of hte dictator, secure the weapons, and then get out. ANd then a weel later he's all Rand Paulian about how its not our fight.

I hope for at least the appearance of legitimacy from politicians. But his authenticity looks like that of a used car saleman.

jr565 said...

Except Senate rules limit debate on this to 30 hours - 15 for Dems, 15 for Reps. The longer he talks the fewer Republicans will be able to speak.

SO his ability to stand will roughly coincide with the senate rules on how long he is able to. Wow. So, what are the odds that he gives up speaking at around hour 15?

jr565 said...

Lem wrote;
Even if its not a real filibuster... lets say that it could be a fake but accurate stunt.

If the law turns out to be the fiasco we are predicting, we will be able to point to the times we said loud and clear.

'Ted Cruz told you so'... (followed by the epithet that starts with a b)

But it's not as if republicans who aren't siding with Ted have been saying that Obamacare has been a good thing.

Romney said the first order of business as president was to get rid of the law. It's a lot easier to do so when the president wont veto any attempt to do, no?

Tea partiers who weren't on board for voting for the ONE GUY that would actually have a chance of doing so, really shouldnt be talking about the evils of Obamacare.
Yes we know. That's why they shouldn't have voted for obama....er... Gary Johnson.
(by the way that's a blanket indictment, not saying that you were that libertarian).

Titus said...

He's getting Alinsky dddd by republicans!

Rinos like the Kraut and all those republican house members!

Mark said...

This comment is hilarious given the fact he has ceded the podium to Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, James Imhofe and likely others that I haven't seen.

This is no Wendy Davis or Strom Thurmond filibuster, heck this isn't even technically a filibuster.

This is a whole bunch of hot air which in the end will be of no consequence.

Like the futile drumming of the WI Capitol in 2011 this is an exercise in pointlessness which will do little more than stroke the egos of the loudmouths [and their supporters]. Reminds me of some singers around here ...

Anonymous said...

I could only stand about five minutes of him droning on, reading Tweets. Good grief.

Browndog said...

I could only stand about five minutes of the political chattering class droning on, sipping scotch, sitting on their fat asses, while Ted Cruz gets off his, doing what he said he was going to do--represent his constituents, defending the country form what most understand is the monumental scourge named Obamacare.

traditionalguy said...

Cruz is fighting for the truth when all GOP non-tea partiers are sold out to $$$. That gets him respect that we used to see in men like Jackson and Truman.

traditionalguy said...

As for Jackson, he said he would kill the FED that had bribed every other politician known to man, and he did it.

As for Truman he said he would stop segregation in the United States military and tell the Dixie Democrats and the KKK where they could shove it, and he did it.

If Cruz says he will stop Nationalized Medicine in the USA, he will do it when we elect him.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Cruz has achieved more in the Senate in less than a year that Obama did in 3-4 years.

LilyBart said...


I love that he's shaking up government - our government needs shaking up.

Also---END Obamacare NOW - just pull the plug! I just got word that at my company, heathcare premiums will go up 54% over 2013!!!!!! Damn those idiots who voted for politicians who voted for this travesty.

LilyBart said...


Obamacare isn't about healthcare. Obama appointee Donald Berwick let the cat out of the bag when he said that government healthcare is about 'redistribution of wealth'.

Anonymous said...

That's why they call the mag "Popular" science apparently. If it's popular it's science for them. Not exactly a classical definition of science with testable hypotheses etc etc -- but shutup.

Opus One Media said...

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...
If he thinks he can out-filibuster Strom Thurmond, all I can say is that I hope his aides are plentifully supplied with coffee and buckets, the latter to be held, discreetly, just outside the Senate chamber."

Strom's dead but he seems to live on in this fella....who might be more useful in holding the piss bucket rather than using it.

Opus One Media said...

Doesn't a filibuster stop things cold...halt the business of the Senate until over?

So this is a faux-filibuster as there will be a vote tomorrow and this moron will lose but he did get on Faux Noise wall to wall so he got his moments of fame.

Anonymous said...

"Governor Walker in Michigan", lol. He must be getting tired.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The feed meter is at 602,000 and rising, after midnight in the east coast.

That's not bad.

Mark said...

Inga, think bagpipes. They're calling. They don't have to sound good.

jr565 said...

You know what also works to undermine Obamacare, republicans? OBAMACARE!
every day we get to add to the I told you so's. don't try to defund it, let that ship sail and then tie democrats to it as it starts pulling the whole country under.

Stop with the short term gimmicks and instead play the long game. Noting succeeds like success, and nothing fails more than failure.

Matt Sablan said...

I haven't watched a moment of his talk. It is nothing new, but that's true about pretty much any political speech. Any of Obama's speeches? Recycled hash that I could see regurgitated days before from left-wing partisans in a comment section. Cruz's speech? Nothing different from Ace of Spades' comment sections, without the dick and fart jokes.

Hagar said...

For a politician with an enterprise doomed to failure, Senator Cruz is certainly getting a lot of press attention, not to mention the opposition - in and out of the Republican Party.

I think I will wait a little and see just what kind of a briar patch he has jumped into.

Rusty said...

jr565 said...
You know what also works to undermine Obamacare, republicans? OBAMACARE!
every day we get to add to the I told you so's. don't try to defund it, let that ship sail and then tie democrats to it as it starts pulling the whole country under.

Stop with the short term

Cruz's little stunt is going to put the democrats on the spot for the 2014 elections. Which I think was the idea all along.