By Rick Manning
There must have been an old school phone booth somewhere near Ted Cruz’ D.C. office, as the Senator from Texas seemed to have gone into superhero mode on Nov. 4. Let’s recap the loquacious one’s most excellent day.
In the morning, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cruz grilled Stuart Delery, Obama’s nominee for U.S. Associate Attorney General, who in his current role at the Justice Department approved the Operation Choke Point initiative that sought to deny banking services to gun dealers and other businesses.
Cruz explained his opposition to Delery’s nomination because of this political weaponization of Obama’s Justice Department telling the nominee, “The DOJ has a long and bipartisan tradition of staying out of politics, of defending the law and the Constitution, and not acting simply as a partisan arm of whatever president happens to be in the White House. I believe the DOJ has violated that tradition of staying out of politics. The DOJ has an obligation to defend the Constitution, and instead, this Administration’s DOJ has consistently violated the constitutional rights of American citizens and has treated the Bill of Rights with contempt.”
Cruz continued his assault on Obama’s abuse of liberty saying, “By cutting off financial resources to lawful small businesses, Operation Choke Point is an abuse of power that undermines the integrity of the DOJ.”
Not resting on his laurels, Cruz then headed for the Senate floor where he delivered an eloquent statement urging his colleagues to allow Kate’s Law to be considered on the floor. The bill is named after a California woman, Kate Steinle, who died in the arms of her father on a San Francisco pier, murdered by an illegal alien who had been deported five times after several felony convictions. The killer had once again been released by the San Francisco Sheriff’s office under that city’s sanctuary city policy.
Cruz’ Kate’s Law defense came directly on the heels of San Francisco County voters overwhelmingly defeating the sitting Sheriff as a direct result of his handling of this case and subsequent statements supporting the city and county’s illegal alien sanctuary status.
Former San Francisco Mayor and notable anti-Second Amendment crusader Dianne Feinstein objected to Cruz’ attempt to restore sanity to cities that refuse to follow federal law by engaging in catch and release for violent felons due to their special illegal alien status, and through her objection, she denied the nation an up or down Senate vote on the legislation.
In the same debate, Cruz attempted to get the Senate to agree to another common sense measure that would rename the plaza in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C as “Liu Xiaobo Plaza.” Dr. Liu Xiaobo is the Nobel Peace Prize winner who the Chinese government has jailed due to the dissident’s continued work for basic political rights for the people of China.
Cruz struck up the chord of human rights in China with his impassioned plea for the symbolic but important gesture saying, “In America, we should stand with victims of oppression. In America, we should stand with Christians being persecuted by the brutal communist totalitarian dictatorship. In America, we should stand for women’s rights, for women being forced to commit forced abortions. These are horrific acts of brutality. They are inhumane. They are contrary not only to American values, but to human rights across the globe, and they are carried out as a matter of policy.”
Inexplicably, once again Feinstein objected, denying the unanimous consent needed to take a similar stand against China’s oppression that Congress took in the 1980s when Congress named a street in front of the Soviet Embassy after political dissident Andrei Sakharov. Feinstein’s objection also failed to note that the renaming of the plaza after Dr. Lu Xiaobo enjoyed the support of D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton when it was introduced in the House by Representative Frank Wolf in 2014.
Finally, Senator Cruz chaired his Judiciary Subcommittee hearing reminding America about the many murders of American citizens by Iranian and Palestinian terrorists. The hearing coincided with the anniversary of the Iranian takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, which began their thirty six year Iranian war against the U.S.
After detailing a history of murder and mayhem perpetrated against U.S. citizens by Palestinian and Iranian terrorists, Cruz dropped the bombshell that his office had obtained declassified information provided to his office by the U.S. Central Command that Iran was responsible for 196 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq by Iranian made explosive form penetrators from 2003 to 2011. Additionally, Iranian activities were responsible for approximately 500 additional U.S. combat deaths in Iraq according to General Joseph Dumford — 14 percent of the total number of U.S. deaths in Iraq.
Cruz summarized the situation saying, “Although the United States is not at war with Iran, there is no question that Iran has been and still is at war with the United States. Yet despite the slaughter and maiming of an untold number of United States citizens, at the hands of Palestinian and Iranian terrorists, the United States government has rather shockingly failed time and time again to fulfill its sovereign duty to obtain justice for its citizens.”
Stunningly, Cruz’ hearing revealed that the U.S. DOJ Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism, which was created by Congress to ensure the investigation and prosecution of terror attacks against American citizens abroad has failed to prosecute a single terrorist since Obama took office. The charge was leveled not by Cruz, but by the family of Koby Mandell who was brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 2001. Significantly the Office that has failed to bring justice to victims of terrorism is named after Koby Mandell.
Cruz further outlined how the United States government has become the obstacle for U.S. victims of these acts of terror to even use the law to gain restitution and relief from state sponsors of terror like Iran.
Nov. 4, 2015, the day Ted Cruz took on sanctuary cities, Chinese oppression, Obama’s attempt to put a financial chokehold on gun shops, and the failure of the Obama Administration to prosecute the war on terror.
Being a Senator is not just about having your name put on a piece of legislation that is so watered down that it passes. It is about using the unique bully pulpit to shine a spotlight on issues that matter. It is about using your Committee assignments to fight against abuse of power and for freedom. It is about pushing your colleagues to rise above the stench of business as usual and fighting for a restoration of our Constitution after decades of decline.
The barrage of Obama-induced problems must often feel to Republican Members of Congress like they are drinking from a fire hose. On November 4, 2015, Senator Ted Cruz turned the fire hose on the Obama Administration in an unrelenting show of mental strength and, political savvy.
It was a most excellent day for Ted.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
