Courts

They Do Anything For Clout: Unknown Texas Senator Found Starved Of Attention Post-Confirmation

No cure for inflammation of the ego, sadly.

By Chris Williams on March 24, 2022 10:02 am
Ted Cruz Holds Campaign Rally With Glenn Beck In Oklahoma City

(Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)

Say the line, Offset!

Ted Cruz, the Texas senator known best for deserting his constituency during an infrastructure crisis and being so unknown that he runs the risk of dethroning a set of Pokémon for the title, was caught dabbling in a bit of narcissism — nothing says “Did I do good Mommy?” quite like immediately searching your own name on Twitter after waxing inarticulate at a woman whose CV makes him look like pure applesauce.

Guess it goes to prove that even bad publicity is good publicity, which may explain why he put so much effort toward the S-tier buffoonery he showed off while pointing to his little exhibits and asking the next Supreme Court justice her thoughts on racist babies.

Or maybe it was just to get the endorphins going? Humans are the most dangerous game after all; my heart goes out to Teddy for having to find a new source of glee now that his time in the spotlight makes it a little harder to carry out his preferred endorphin rush. I say this all tongue in cheek — I know it, you know it — quite like how we all knew in the moment that Cruz’s line of questioning was never really about Ketanji Brown Jackson. This bout of yelling that would make preschoolers in dire need of nap time seem easy to corral was, somehow, a carefully calculated optics move meant to appease his constituency.

While I admit the content of this video may differ a little from what I remember him saying yesterday, I will go on record to say that whatever changes were made to his audio were not substantial. I hope his ploy for constituent attention did not work and, from what I can tell, it did not — most flavors of what I’ve seen tweeted about Cruz’s behavior in the Senate have ranged from “Wow he’s really being rude” to “This is who represents Texas?”

But who knows, maybe this is what the people want and he secured himself more time in the public eye yelling on TV. When it comes to me however, I’ll be thinking about this Nietzsche quote:

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”

I’m gonna be busy saying yes to Judge Jackson on this side.

Ted Cruz Photographed Checking His Twitter Mentions Immediately After Aggressive Questioning Of SCOTUS Nominee [Business Insider]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.