So apparently liberals don’t like Ted Cruz (nor do establishment Republicans either from what I read). But I think one of the more amusing things I’ve read so far is this one by Josh Marshall, who admits that he doesn’t really remember Ted but his wife does and–here’s his big news hook–all of Josh Marshall’s friends thought Ted was an “Unbelievable A#*hole.” To which he adds:
Over the last few months I did some poking around too in Ted’s last past his late 20s. Unlike his college and law school years when I had tons of mutual acquaintances I could go to, here I had fewer. But the gist was the same.
And this is why I’ve been saying since Ted Cruz replaced Michele Bachmann as the King of the Tea Partiers that the reaction to Cruz in the senate is simply the reaction Ted’s gotten at least at every stage of his life since he arrived at college in 1988. An incredibly bright guy who’s an arrogant jerk who basically everybody ends up hating.
So a poll of Josh Marshall’s friends finds that “basically everybody” ends up hating Ted.
I didn’t know Ted until I succeeded him at the FTC 10 years ago so I can’t speak to his earlier life, but I know him and I know a lot of other people who actually know him… but somehow I’m guessing that Mr. Marshall didn’t actually speak to any of Ted’s friends when he wrote his little article? As far as I can tell, neither did Jason Zengerle when he wrote his article for GQ. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to find some people who, you know, are actually friends with Ted. Or maybe it was.
Obviously Ted doesn’t need anyone to defend him, and that’s not my point. The comedy here to me, of course, is that Josh Marshall could conclude that “basically everybody” ends up hating Ted says far more about Josh Marshall and GQ (and their ideological ilk, I suppose) than it does about Ted. And the parochial liberal echo chamber that considers this to be “journalism.” In fact, there is one other freshman Senator who fits the description far better than Ted in my personal experience–but I definitely don’t consider my experience (and others who agree with me) to be “basically everyone” (nor do I expect a similarly-spirited profile in GQ anytime soon).