If you ever wondered if Ted Cruz is popular among his colleagues in the Senate, I think you now have an answer.
When senators arrived at the Senate gym on Wednesday morning, they found that one of them had taped memes on the lockers welcoming Cruz home and showing him in the short-sleeve polo shirt, jeans and Texas-flag mask that he had at the airport, according to two people familiar with the prank. “Bienvenido de Nuevo, Ted!” was the “welcome back” message typed at the top of the color printouts, one of which was viewed by NBC News.
The rendering featured a manipulated photo of Cruz from his well-documented trip to Mexico, dragging his luggage across an arctic landscape while holding a tropical cocktail garnished with a slice of fruit in his other hand. He is shown walking toward an image of a masked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. with his arms crossed and wearing striped, knitted gloves — a pose famously captured during January’s inauguration.
Unfortunately, he just won another six-year term, so his colleagues are stuck with him.
It’s amazing that this guy is a now a 2-term US senator, given the fact that at every stage of his life he has been mocked and reviled by the people around him. But that’s the nature of today’s Republican party. It is a natural home for charlatans and scoundrels.
Every time I saw him mocked on Twitter about this, I kept seeing in my mind all those pictures of him in the airport and on the airplane. And in almost every one of those pictures his big pot belly is hanging over his belt and he looks like the prototypical doughy and soft white American. And with that swirling in my mind I keep trying to imagine just what the hell he does in the Senate gym? In my younger days I belonged to a gym, and I remember all those guys who looked like Cruz coming in hanging around the weight room and track for a couple of hours, bullshitting and acting like they were really there for some exercise, when the reality is the only sweat they broke was when they went from the whirlpool to the sauna, then to the shower and out the door. All told they probably burned about 80 calories but hey, they were “at the gym” for two hours. I picture him being one of the guys in the Order of the Caribou lodge from Everybody Loves Raymond, sitting in the steam room sweating it out with Frank, Garvin, and Stan.
I’ve been reading your stuff for the better part of two decades and this might be the most horrifying picture that’s ever welcomed me upon visiting your site.
It could have been worse–he could have posted a picture of Ted with his beard.
Biden has approved emergency declarations and visited TX–in part to see what else he could do. Cruz was on stage in FL whining (CPAC).