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02-15-2013, 09:09 PM #1Senior Member
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A Canadian born, Very Junior Senator Delivers a Jolt
A Very Junior Senator Delivers a Jolt
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Senator Ted Cruz entered an elevator on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
Published: February 15, 2013 173 Comments
WASHINGTON — As the Senate edged toward a nasty filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber — his voice robbed by laryngitis — as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.
Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz’s own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator’s relentless pursuit of speeches, financial records or any other documents with Mr. Hagel’s name on them going back at least five years. Some Republicans praised the work of the brash newcomer, but others joined Democrats in saying that Mr. Cruz had gone too far.
Without naming names, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, offered a biting label for the Texan’s accusatory crusade: McCarthyism.
“It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,’ and, of course, nothing was in the pocket,” she said, a reference to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s bloody pursuit of Communists in the 1950s. “It was reminiscent of some bad times.”
In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, confronted the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.
He could not be more pleased. Washington’s new bad boy feels good.
“I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo,” he said in e-mailed answers to questions in lieu of a speaking voice. “That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me.”
In a body known for comity, Mr. Cruz is taking confrontational Tea Party sensibilities to new heights — or lows, depending on one’s perspective. Wowed conservatives hail him as a hero, but even some Republican colleagues are growing publicly frustrated with a man who has taken the zeal of the prosecutor and applied it to the decorous quarters of the Senate.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said that some of the demands Mr. Cruz made of Mr. Hagel were “out of bounds, quite frankly.” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, issued a public rebuke after Mr. Cruz suggested, with no evidence, that Mr. Hagel had accepted honorariums from North Korea.
“All I can say is that the appropriate way to treat Senator Hagel is to be as tough as you want to be, but don’t be disrespectful or malign his character,” Mr. McCain said in an interview.
Democrats were more blunt.
“He basically came out and made the accusation about money from North Korea or money from our enemies, and he just laid out there all of this accusatory verbiage without a shred of evidence,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri.
“In this country we had a terrible experience with innuendo and inference when Joe McCarthy hung out in the United States Senate, and I just think we have to be more careful.”
Mr. Cruz, a Canadian-born lawyer who won an upset primary victory last year, is adamant in his own defense. He said his focus at hearings had been on policy, not personality. With Mr. Hagel, whose nomination is set for a Senate vote the week of Feb. 25, he said his request for financial disclosures were backed by 24 other senators. As for his statement that Mr. Hagel may have received honorariums from nefarious sources, “the suggestions I have made in my arguments have been merely to raise examples for why I believe Senator Hagel’s financial disclosure is so important,” he said.
“Comity does not mean avoiding the truth,” he added. “And it would be wrong to avoid speaking the truth about someone’s record and past policy positions, even if doing so inevitably subjects me to personal criticism from Democrats and the media.”
To the growing core of ardent conservatives in the Senate, Mr. Cruz has offered a jolt of positive energy.
“If you don’t ruffle any feathers, you’re not doing anything right,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who garnered similar attention in his opening weeks in the Senate two years ago.
Mr. Cruz was among the 22 senators who voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, among the 34 who voted against raising the debt ceiling, among the 19 who tried to cut off military sales to Egypt, among the 36 who opposed a relief package for the regions hit by Hurricane Sandy, and among the three senators who voted against Mr. Kerry’s confirmation, as he looked on.
“I was compelled to vote no on Senator Kerry’s nomination because of his longstanding less-than-vigorous defense of U.S. national security issues,” said Mr. Cruz, who also questioned the commitment of Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hagel to the armed forces, though both served in Vietnam and he has no record of military service.
Chris Chocola, the president of the Club for Growth, a conservative free-market political action committee that strongly backed Mr. Cruz in his victory last year against the establishment’s favorite, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said the new senator was doing precisely what he had expected. The growing caucus of “pro-growth” conservatives — Mr. Cruz, Mr. Paul, Marco Rubio of Florida, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Tim Scott of South Carolina — has begun reshaping what it means to be a Republican in the Senate, he said.
“The last thing we need is another status quo senator or congressman who will go along to get along,” said former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who pumped money into Mr. Cruz’s campaign, then left the Senate to lead the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Last month, Mr. Cruz faced off aggressively with Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York on a Sunday talk show. When Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago wrote to the chiefs of big banks urging them not to invest in gun manufacturers, Mr. Cruz followed up with letters criticizing the “bullying” of a political “Godfather.”
After she raised the specter of McCarthyism, Ms. McCaskill was asked if she had spoken to Mr. Cruz about her concerns.
“I’m not sure it would do any good,” she said. “Do you?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/us/politics/a-very-junior-senators-bomb-throwing-debut.html?_r=0NO AMNESTY
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02-15-2013, 09:11 PM #2Senior Member
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Looks like the New World Order is taking over.
A hispanic Canadian in the U.S. Congress.
Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is an American politician and the junior United States Senator for the state of Texas. A Republican, Cruz defeated the Democrat Paul Sadler in the November 6, 2012, United States Senate election. Wikipedia
Born: December 22, 1970 (age 42), Calgary
Office: Senator (R-TX) since 2013
Spouse: Heidi Nelson Cruz
Parents: Eleanor Darragh, Rafael Cruz
Nationality: American, Canadian
Education: Princeton University, Harvard University, Harvard Law SchoolNO AMNESTY
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02-15-2013, 09:30 PM #3Senior Member
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List of foreign-born United States politicians
[edit] Mayors
This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2010)
Mayor Place of Birth Positions Held Jimmy Delshad 
IranMayor of Beverly Hills
[edit] Members of Congress
Member of Congress Place of Birth Positions Held Michael Bennet 
IndiaU.S. Senator from Colorado Mazie Hirono 
JapanU.S. Senator from Hawaii Ron Barber 
United KingdomU.S Representative from Arizona Diana DeGette JapanU.S Representative from Colorado Geoff Davis 
CanadaU.S Representative from Kentucky Jim Himes 
PeruU.S Representative from Connecticut Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 
CubaU.S. Representative from Florida Albio Sires CubaU.S. Representative from New Jersey Chris Van Hollen 
PakistanU.S. Representative from Maryland
[edit] Others
Name Place of Birth Positions Held Seamus McCaffery United KingdomSupreme Court of Pennsylvania Justice Marian P. Opala 
PolandOklahoma Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton 
ThailandOhio Supreme Court Justice
[edit] Former
[edit] Historical
Name Country of Birth Positions Held Christian Febiger Denmark fmr.Treasurer of Pennsylvania Thomas Fitzsimons Ireland fmr.Continental Congressman Felix Frankfurter Austria fmr. Supreme Court Justice Albert Gallatin Switzerland fmr. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton Nevis fmr. Secretary of the Treasury Carl Schurz Germany fmr. Secretary of the Interior
John Henry Sununu (born July 2, 1939)was born in Havana, Cuba served as the 75th Governor of New Hampshire (1983–89) and later White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (also known as Ileana Ros; born Ileana Ros y Adato; July 15, 1952) born in Havana Cuba is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 18th congressional district, serving since 1989. She is a member of the Republican Party.
Marco Rubio the junior United States Senator from Florida, serving since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (2007–2009), interned under Ros-Lehtinen in 1996.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign-born_United_States_politiciansNO AMNESTY
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