Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ted Cruz, future Texas Attorney General

Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who is gearing up to run for Texas Attorney General, has a glowing profile in National Review.

Ted Cruz has a top-notch resume (magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, and has authored over seventy U.S. Supreme Court briefs, among other illustrious items), and has a solid record of standing up for conservative principles. He defended the Ten Commandments on Texas Statehouse grounds, defended the Second Amendment in the DC v Heller case, and authored a Supreme Court brief successfully defending "under God" the Pledge of Allegiance. He is on The Texas Review of Law & Politics advisory board, is a member of the Federalist society, and did a stint as a Bush 2000 Domestic Policy Advisor. He has been Texas Solicitor General for the State of Texas under Attorney General Greg Abbott since 2003.

Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, has all these stellar accomplishments yet is only 38 years old. NR's take on Ted Cruz: "This rising star is extremely intelligent, a gifted communicator and a true conservative."

Two key things that Cruz 'gets'. First, he says: "I think what we misunderstand is that the ability to persuade and inspire is the single most important tool any public leader has." Agreed. Second, he recognizes the importance of being principled: "Credibility is the single most important asset anybody ever has," he told his students. (He is adjunct professor at UT law School.) "Be principled, be the voice of reason." Republican office-holders have lost their way on both counts and suffered defeat accordingly.

Two easy predictions: Ted Cruz will one day be Attorney General of Texas, and Ted Cruz will do a great job at it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

FYI, Ted graduated from law school magna cum laude, not summa cum laude: www.tedcruz.org/about.html.

Still VERY impressive.

It is extraordinarily rare for anyone to graduate summa cum laude from Harvard Law School. I think it happens about once a decade.

Anonymous said...

"magna cum laude, not summa cum laude"

Correction made.

PBBOOO said...

I met Ted Cruz at a political meet up group. It is fair to say that I haven't been this impressed with anyone in a long time. He is smart and a really nice individual. I wish him well - he'll be great.

Anonymous said...

For those of us that worked with him at the Attorney General's office... he was less than pleasant. Always nice to and sucked up to anyone with power and down right rude to everyone else. Elitist in every sense of the word. Also, his record as an appellate lawyer is impressive, but what else has he ever done? No military experience, no executive experience, no real world experience at all.