The Cruzes of Canada

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With a big, honking caveat that this could be a bureaucratic mistake, there is reason to question Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency.  If it turns out that his mother was a Canadian and not a U.S. citizen when he was born, then Cruz is, well, crust. Josh Marshall explains.

17 thoughts on “The Cruzes of Canada”

  1. The plot sickens.

    Look, I can’t stand Teddy Cruz-ader.
    I can’t stand him to the point that, if he was on fire, the only way I’d pee on him to help put the fire out, is if no one else was around to help him first.
    I’d be the pee’er of last resort.

    But I won’t let my extreme loathing for the man make me blind to the fact that I think he’s obviously very, very damn smart, and not likely to go through the time, energy, and money to risk running for POTUS, knowing that there’s a potential huge embarrassment out there, waiting to bite him in his rather ample ass!
    But, one ever knows, do one?

    I’m going to wait and see, before I pass judgement. .
    And there’s no one with more incentive and money to get to the crux of this matter, than long-time Obama “Birther,” Dumb-‘n-old Chump.
    Of course, Chump is also a first-rate and notorious liar, so that will have to be factored in, too.

    It shouldn’t take long for US and Canadian officials to sort this out.
    And then, it being a Presidential election year, the media will never allow there be any shortage of controversy!

    In short, basically, all I ask is this, “Please, oh great FSM, don’t let there be a popcorn or whiskey shortage this year!!! Oh, and please make his mom be a Canadian citizen, at the time of Teddy Cruz-ader’s birth! I promise I’ll be extra good this year!”

  2. And if he was never naturalized as an American citizen he can’t have his Senate seat either. But really, if the really really crazy ones keep dropping out the repugs may actually be stuck with Trump. That would be awful, for them.

  3. @ Buckyblue: If we have to have a crazy as a Repub nominee or (FSM forfend) president, I’ll take Trump over Cruz absolutely any day. I’ve committed Mr. Blueloom to move out of the country (Canada? UK?) if Cruz becomes prez. We’ll just take our Social Security dollars and go spend them somewhere else.

  4. “I’ll take Trump over Cruz absolutely any day”

    I agree, in fact I’d take Trump over any of them, he’s a bigot and an asshole for sure and would certainly destroy any progress made in the last seven years but who among the current GOP field wouldn’t? The positive (besides the constant gaff fest) to having Trump would be that the house and senate would certainly flip, senate in 2016, house in 2018! I think its legitimate to question Cruz’s eligibility, unlike President Obama (who’s father also was not a citizen) Cruz was not born in this country, and the definition of “natural born” is not necessarily settled. Besides I love watching the Canadian anchor baby squirm!

  5. The obvious question for me is where Cruz’s mother was born, and it appears that the answer is Delaware. Based on that, I don’t mind granting that he’s a natural born citizen. I’d rather see him disqualified because he’s such a colossal prick than over some technicality.

  6. A) You would be a dual citizen unless you formally asked to have one of your your citizenships revoked
    B) Non-citizen residents of Canada are eligible to vote in Canadian elections

    And C) this takes literally a minute to look up. Josh Marshall didn’t spend, apparently, even a minute doing the most basic online search about this before jumping to a conclusion.

  7. Thanks, JDM!

    I’m glad someone wasn’t as lazy as I am, and decided to goggle-foo this info on the inter-tubes!

  8. I hope Trump runs Cruz’s ass into the ground over this issue. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Cruz is the one who delights in coming up with these types of constitutional conundrums when it serves his own purposes. The nebulous religious liberty type arguments where the only true answer to be found would be inside the heads of our founding fathers. The only other way to possibly arrive at a definitive interpretation would be through a Supreme Court decision.
    And Cruz, ever boastful of his prowess as a Constitutional scholar, would decry any rendering from the Supreme Court that didn’t suit his purpose as being nothing more than judicial activism from a bunch of appointed lawyers.

    I italicised the last part of that sentence because essentially that’s exact what Cruz said about the Supreme Court decision concerning same sex marriage. Here’s a guy who has been running around since his prepubescent days with a copy of the Constitution in his pocket seeking out debates on constitutional matters and he has the audacity to dismiss the Supreme Court as a bunch of nobodies when their ruling is at odds with his interpretation. It strikes me as disingenuous, or more exactly as artlessly deceitful to profess a reverence for a sacred document while denigrating the structural elements of which it is composed.
    I understand that criticising the individual members of the Supreme Court is fair game, but in Cruz’s case he attacked the validity of the entire body. And it makes me wonder how much dedication one can have to the Constitution if they can’t accept the power it affords from the abstract. The Supreme Court is the secular equivalent to Jesus.. and without the Supreme Court we have no Anchor, Cornerstone or foundation in law. There always has to be an ultimate authority whether we like it or not.
    I’d like to see a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of a natural born citizen..From my perspective it would mean born on American soil. At least as it pertains exclusively to the office of the Presidency.

  9. Uncledad: after living in Little North Korea for the last six years with our very own Kim Jung Un (only with a worse haircut) I heartily agree. I would rather take my chances with Trump and his racist xenophobic ass than Cruz, or the rest of them.

  11. By a lot of reports, Cruz is a pretty smart cookie. One big problem is that nowadays, it isn’t about how well informed or Solomonic a candidate is, it’s just about how well he/she plays the audience. For example, Cruz’s, or any Republican’s statements about global warming/climate change. They can be a complete load of bollocks (CLB!), but, they are the bollocks that the crowd wants to hear.

    So, you can find a raft of disinformation and misstatements from a given candidate and it may not have much to do with how informed or smart they are, it’s about which demographic they are trying to assemble and how well they woo them.

    Usually, I keep writing until I make a fool of myself, this time, I’ll try to stop early.

    Well put, Swami!

  13. By a lot of reports, Cruz is a pretty smart cookie.

    Yeah, primarily by his own narrative.. He never passes up an opportunity to blow his own horn. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen him being interviewed and when asked a simple question his answer will somehow incorporate the fact the he clerked for Justice Rehnquist or he argued several cases before the Supreme Court. I don’t deny him his accomplishments, but when he repeatedly lists his accomplishments in a dialogue where they have no relevance aside from self aggrandizement then it leads me to believe there is a major flaw in his personality. Either he’s insecure in who he is or he’s contemptuous of the intelligence of others.
    No doubt Cruz is slick and accomplished, but he doesn’t have the quality of sincerity.

    When it comes to Cruz the saying, If you’ve seen the father you’ve seen the son, comes to my mind..I don’t know what that means, but I sense there is a profound answer regarding Teddy in that saying.

  15. Well, the Cruzes were there long enough (8 years) to have permanent residency, which allows one to vote in Canada. But also Rafael Cruz at least became a Canadian citizen during that time. I don’t know if his wife also did, but it would seem likely enough, although as a US citizen she may have just gotten residency (Rafael didn’t have US citizenship then – he didn’t until 2005 – so he very likely wanted some non-Cuban citizenship to guarantee residency somewhere). Still, that doesn’t negate his wife’s US citizenship.

    So, a nothingburger with extra sauce.

  17. Swami,

    Thanks for the link, great article. Brooks writes: “Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace”, I agree with most of what Brooks writes here in regards to Cruz but he seems oblivious to the fact that the whole fucking GOP is just as bad. The difference is many GOP’ers talk a good game when it comes to compassion but their records show otherwise. Cruz like Trump is saying exactly what the base wants and what he intends to do. Brooks is one of these comfortable conservatives that would rather not think about what modern conservatism does to the average citizen!

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