Republican Jackass of the Week

Meet Junior Senator from Texas, Rafael "Ted" Cruz (R).

Although Junior has only been in the US Senate for  6 months, he already has presidential aspirations. He's supported by the farthest, fringiest rightwing Teabaggers that his party contains. And they drool at the thought of this guy running for president, despite the fact that he was born in Canada.

Now, you may recall that for the last 5 years these same rightwing Teabaggers have insisted, in their deranged, hatred-induced frenzy, that President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, and whose mother was also born in the USA, was somehow not eligible for the office. Yet Junior, who was born in Canada, is unquestionably fit to be president because all it takes is to have a USA-born mother.

Don't spend too much time trying to figure them out. You'll only end up with a headache.

Here's their "thought" process:

Barack Obama: born in USA.
Obama's mother: born in USA.
Therefore: Barack is Kenyan and not eligible.

Rafael Cruz: born in Canada.
Cruz's mother: born in USA.
Therefore: of course he's eligible to be president!

But back to the reason Rafael gets to be this week's Jackass.

He recently said at a fundraiser hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, "It's every bit as true now as it was then.  We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the US Senate."

Let that sink in for a moment.

Jesse Helms, the longest-serving senator from N. Carolina, was the most prominently and proudly racist member of the US Senate.

Jesse Helms was infamous for speaking out, in no uncertain terms, against civil rights, voting rights, gay rights and women's privacy rights. He once led a two-week filibuster to prevent the senate from approving Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday. He said civil rights legislation was the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in congress. He tried to stop the regular renewal of the Voting Rights Act, which passed almost unanimously since becoming law. He referred to gay people as morally sick, weak wretches. He opposed federal financing of AIDS research.

And to show how hateful and spiteful Helms was, in 1973 when Carol Moseley Braun -- the first black woman in the senate and the only black senator at the time -- stepped into the "senators only" elevator with him, he turned to Orrin Hatch and said, "Watch this. I'm gonna make her cry.  I'm gonna sing 'Dixie' until she cries." At which time he began singing the tune recalling the "good old days" of slavery.

But despite all that, Junior thinks we need a senate full of Jesse Helmses. Matter of fact, according to Think Progress, Junior said his first political donation was to Jesse Helms' campaign, and he's been following in his footsteps ever since.

But, as Think Progress states, if Jesse was alive today, the admiration might not be mutual. You see, back in the mid 80s when Jesse visited Mexico, he was met with protests and stated, "All Latins are volatile people, hence I was not surprised at the volatile reaction."

Yeah Junior, let's have 100 more like that guy.

This is what you get when you stay home on election day and allow Regressives to elect far rightwing fringe Teabaggers like Rafael "Ted" Cruz -- our Republican Jackass of the Week.