Senator Cruz put on an impressive performance with his marathon speech on the floor of the Senate in opposition to Obamacare. As Senator Cruz rounded into the home stretch, I read on Twitter about his close encounter with the Senate’s Big Dick, i.e., Senate Majority Whip Durbin. I’ve been looking for an account of their exchange and finally found it in John Podhoretz’s New York Post column on Senator Cruz’s performance:
In the last hour, even as he said he grew “weary” as his time arguing against ObamaCare was coming to a close, he found himself in a debate with the able and smart Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin on the Congress’s generous health-care plan.
Durbin complained that Cruz wanted to deny health care to the uninsured; did he not, Durbin asked, enjoy the benefits of the generous congressional health-care package himself?
Cruz said he wouldn’t answer Durbin until Durbin first replied to three questions Cruz had posed. Durbin, with an “a-ha” gesture, responded by saying it was clear Cruz was simply refusing to answer his embarrassing question.
He’d walked into Cruz’s trap. For then Cruz said, no, Senator, I’m eligible for the congressional plan — but I’m not enrolled in it.
Durbin thought he had Cruz cornered by bringing up his reliance on the absurdly generous health package for Congress. But since Cruz doesn’t rely on it, Durbin humiliated himself in what was supposed to be his gotcha moment.
Despite his marathon of speaking and standing and arguing, after nearly a day on his feet, Cruz — there is no other term for it — squashed Durbin like a bug.
I hope to track down video of this exchange later today.
UPDATE: Here is the video. It’s great:
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