Is Ted Cruz steering a course for the US presidency?

US Senator Ted Cruz talked himself into the middle of the No 1 political story in the United States, energized his party's conservative base and in turn became the most visible 2016 Republican presidential wannabe in an early - and crowded - field. Politicians live for these kinds of moments. A senator for less than a year, the Texas Republican is at the epicentre of the face-off between his party and the Democrats that may well lead to the government shutting down on October 1. Elected in November in his first bid for office, he started an unlikely crusade this summer to force House of Representatives Republicans to vote to defund the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - which they did last week. Cruz became the Senate point man in a long-shot but symbolic effort for "tea party" conservatives to champion a House bill that pairs a temporary funding of the federal government past October 1 with a defunding of Obamacare, their political bete noire. "He's not trying to win," said Bill Miller, an Austin, Texas-based political consultant with both Republican and Democratic clients, commenting on Cruz's Obamacare fight. "He's trying to make a statement. He's doing this for the attention." But his own party's Senate leadership is not on board with his strategy. More mainstream Republican conservatives have labeled it a fool's errand because it had virtually no chance of success and could very well lead to more bad press and public disfavour for the Republican Party. Indeed, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said that "top Republicans" had sent him opposition research "to hammer Cruz" during their televised interview. "I intend to speak until I am no longer able to stand," Cruz said as he began his 21 hours and 19 minutes long speech. Cruz talked about his father "flippin' pancakes", making "green eggs and ham", "the travesty of Obamacare", and, proudly, about his unpopularity among many fellow Republicans. "I now pick up the newspaper to learn what a scoundrel I am," he said. He drank only water, took no bathroom breaks and never sat down, as required by Senate rules. He yielded only periodically to supportive colleagues - chief among them his closest ally in the Senate, Republican Mike Lee - and two Democrats who politely challenged his remarks. As dawn approached, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, also a Tea Party conservative, took the lectern, giving Cruz a break, which he used to stretch with knee bends in the chamber. Cruz, an attorney who usually wears cowboy boots, said he'd "embarrassingly" decided not to wear his "argument boots", which he'd worn to his swearing-in last January. He wore black tennis shoes instead. Repeatedly, Cruz said that people were complaining about Obamacare but that "no one in D.C. is listening". At one point, he said to a largely empty Senate chamber, save for a smattering of tourists in the visitors' gallery: "Most Americans could not give a flying flick about what goes on in Washington." Cruz's efforts have helped re-energize a sizeable contingent of conservatives who felt leaderless and demoralised after Republicans lost seats in Congress and the White House in 2012. Groups like FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America and Tea Party Express have relished picking fights with Republicans like Corker, whom they dismiss as turncoats. And this week they mobilised as part of a carefully choreographed and mutually beneficial effort to rally conservatives behind Cruz's cause. But Cruz's marathon session did not win over senators from either party, and the drama ended with the unanimous vote to cut off debate and proceed to consideration of a bill passed by the House that would keep the government open past Monday. Cruz's "yes" vote angered fellow Senate Republicans, baffled Democrats and confused conservative activists who had mobilised to stand with him against any procedural step forward. The freshman lawmaker, who angered House Republicans earlier this month by publicly conceding a loss in the Democratic-controlled Senate, was looking beyond all that drama. "Senator Cruz clearly sees himself as a leader of the conservative movement, which is not quite the same as a leader of the Republican Party," said Bill Schneider, a distinguished senior fellow and resident scholar at Third Way, a politically centrist Washington think tank. "He is cultivating a following among grassroots conservatives. That kind of following could be useful for a presidential campaign." Sarah Palin, a Cruz mentor and Tea Party favourite who was the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential nominee, wrote in an op-ed last week on a conservative website that it was time for "the Senate to put itself on Cruz Control". Many say his endgame may well be a White House run in 2016. His office says he's focused on being a senator, despite trips to three key early and pivotal Republican Party primary states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. His moves follow the strategy that the Ivy League-trained lawyer used to great success in Texas. Ivy League-educated and known for his fiery oratory, Cruz is one of the nation's most prominent Latino Republicans at a time when his party is seeking to improve its standing among Hispanics. Still, he acknowledges speaking "lousy" Spanish. Cruz's father was a Cuban citizen who fled the country in 1957 and studied at the University of Texas. He and his wife were working in the oil business in Canada when their son was born. The elder Cruz became a US citizen in 2005. From the beginning, Cruz never played the traditional keep-your-head-down role of a Senate freshman. He has dismissively lectured senior members, like his patronising retort about the Constitution to Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein during an assault weapons debate earlier this year; or his claims against former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel during his confirmation hearing to become defence secretary that he took money from foreign governments. Dismissed by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona as a "wacko bird" when he sought to block John Brennan's nomination to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Cruz wears the criticism as a badge of honour. "The more appropriate avian metaphor would seem to be peacock," wrote Jason Zengerle in a profile of Cruz in the October edition of GQ magazine. How does his latest political gambit fit into his larger plans? "Cruz is thinking about gratifying the Tea Party wing in states with primaries," said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University. "He's interested in 2016 presidential possibilities. If he can't lock up the love of the Tea Party wing, he's not going to worry about the institutional wing." By positioning himself as the leading Republican to oppose the Affordable Care Act and by doing it in such a dramatic way, Cruz is attempting to grab the Tea Party mantle away from Paul, his closest conservative rival. "I think Cruz does have a strategy," said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential expert at the University of Texas in Austin. "He sees Obamacare … as his best vehicle for showing courageous leadership against all odds, which he perceives as his best chance (as a rookie) at the Republican presidential nomination." Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Reuters

Is Ted Cruz steering a course for the US presidency?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}His marathon speech in the US Senate took in Dr. Seuss and pancakes, but is Ted Cruz's real goal the Republican presidential nomination?

His marathon speech in the US Senate took in Dr. Seuss and pancakes, but is Ted Cruz's real goal the Republican presidential nomination?