Saturday, March 26, 2016

Breaking: #CruzSexScandal Lights Up Social Media - Now a New Twist

If you are a political junkie, you have no doubt checked out some of the kerfuffle developing over the past 48 hours concerning the National Enquirer's piece on a sex scandal and GOP Presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX).  Falling on Easter weekend, it is a particularly unsavory bit of tabloid fodder for the candidate in the race claiming to be the evangelical Christian conservative.


The story goes that Cruz enjoyed dalliances with five women all connected to life in politics, particularly Washington, D.C. politics. There's the first bit of irony, right? The guy who planned on running as the outsider in the race, (though that was always a silly pretense) only to be foiled by Donald Trump, is entwined with these women of Washington - allegedly. Where the guy found time for all that escapes me but that's the story.  As with all stories these days, social media was leading with the gossipy story.  It was all over Twitter, as you would expect, and that is where the firestorm ignited. 


Following on the heels of a back and forth between Cruz and Trump over their wives, this story took off.  Immediately Donald Trump was accused of driving the story because he is known to be close friends with the CEO of the National Enquirer.  What wasn't reasonable, though, was the immediate blame put on former candidate,  Senator Marco Rubio.  There is a very real Rubio derangement in social media by Cruz supporters - and to a lesser extent Trump supporters - and that derangement was in full bloom.  Finger pointing and anonymous sources of rumors was the order of the day on Good Friday.  Instead of tamping down the muck, Cruz chose to find a television camera ( as is his habit) and said the story was smut and that Trump was behind it, along with his "henchmen".  The loudest, nastiest Cruz supporters claimed all roads led to Marco Rubio.


Yeah, it was crazy.


Then an interesting tidbit developed Friday night.  Here in the Houston area, a local show on the Fox affiliate is shown live each Friday night.  The show host is Isiah Carey and the show is an interesting mix of local stories and politics, too.  Fellow conservative blogger, Kathleen McKinley, is a regular guest who speaks about conservative political opinion next to a local liberal woman.  Last night, Kathleen said that she spoke with a D.C. friend earlier and that person laid the blame of the #CruzSexScandal story at the feet of David Brock.  That makes a lot more sense than, frankly either Trump or Rubio promoting the story.  If you are older, like me, you remember that name from the days of the Republican Revolution in 1994 and the Clinton presidency.  Brock was a one time Republican loyalist to Newt Gingrich and the first Republican takeover of Congress in some 40 years.  Later, he decided he was a Democrat and left for greener pastures with the Clintonians in D.C.  He is a known dirty tricks operative.


Thanks, Kathleen, for bringing some sane perspective into the mix.  Let's hope some of the louder, uglier accusations on Twitter and Facebook take a pause and do a bit of reflection.  Whether there is any truth in any of these accusations against Cruz, the truth  will come to the surface eventually and everyone's life will go on.

1 comment:

Marla Hughes said...

Katrina Pierson is pushing this, too. Which might seem strange considering she's one of the bimbos in the eruption except for who she is and who she chose to work for.
Allum Bokhari, Brietbart's tech editor referred to it several times.
The first time was February 2nd: https://twitter.com/LibertarianBlue/status/694478209220546560?replies_view=true&cursor=AMDWFK5Iowk
Katrina Pierson deleted her comment on it but I have a screen shot.