Whoring for Big Oil

Ted Cruz's Festival of Fraud

By Steve Chapman, RealClear Politics
December 13, 2015

You have to feel sorry for Ted Cruz. Donald Trump has hogged so much airtime with his cynical demagoguery that the senator from Texas has had a hard time capturing the attention of Republican voters. That is surprising, because when it comes to cynical demagoguery, this is the first time Cruz has ever lost out to anyone.

His patented formula is a mix of repellent ingredients: misrepresentation of facts, baseless smears, exaggerated sincerity and pretended solidarity with the average person. If Cruz tells you it's raining, you can leave your umbrella at home.

Most candidates need a full-length speech or a 45-minute town hall meeting to show off all the qualities that should disqualify them. But an interview he did with NPR the other day captured the essence of Cruz in six minutes of nonstop mendacity.

The topic was global warming. Every major scientific body has confirmed its existence, but as "the son of two mathematicians and computer programmers and scientists," he feels particularly qualified to debunk it.

"The scientific evidence doesn't support global warming," he informed NPR. "For the last 18 years, the satellite data -- we have satellites that monitor the atmosphere. The satellites that actually measure the temperature showed no significant warming whatsoever."

(Continued here.  See also "Surging Cruz Is Big Oil's New Crush as Donors Cool to Bush".)