Robert Francis Beto O’Rourke not an ethnic Mexican, yet that is his nombre

Down around Texas last year, one of the key political races involved that of Beto O’Rourke, a member of Congress from El Paso, trying to take down the politically unpopular Ted Cruz.

O'ROURKE: Could we have President Beto?

It didn’t happen. Cruz managed to narrowly win the election, with enough people deciding they’d rather have a Republican – even one as goofy and irrational as Ted.

WHICH MEANS THAT Beto O’Rourke may well have decided if he’s to have a political future, he’s going to have to work his way UP the political ladder – as in his announcement this week that he’s going to be one of the many political hopefuls seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

It also means we’re likely to get the spreading of the ultimate in “phony” issues in coming months.

We’re going to be told that O’Rourke is a fraud, trying to pass himself off as being of Mexican origins even though he isn’t.

His family has its background in Ireland and Wales, and were amongst the many white people to flood their way into Texas in hopes of finding a better life.

AS TO THE nickname of “Beto,” it’s a common one in Spanish. It’s short for Roberto, or Robert in English. Basically, “Beto” could translate into something like “Bobby.”

CRUZ: Could his '18 victory lead to Beto rise?

As for why the O’Rourkes would turn to Spanish when it came to their kid, it was because he was named for his grandfather. And it means they were influenced enough by the heavy-Spanish population of the border region in which they lived – and which O’Rourke grew up.

So is Beto O’Rourke trying to pull off some sort of fraud in trying to pass himself off as a Mexican-American? Not likely. Personally, I don’t think anybody would believe it if he tried – particularly since amongst the other presidential hopefuls in the running is one-time San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro – who also served as Housing and Urban Development secretary during the Barack Obama presidency.

CASTRO: A 'real' Mexican candidate

But I have no doubt we’re going to hear a lot of trash talk trying to take him down.

PERSONALLY, I SUSPECT that what really bothers these people is that someone would think to look to Spanish culture as something positive. Most likely, these people are amongst the outspoken minority of the Age of Trump that really wants him to succeed in erecting that border wall.

As though they want to put up as many barricades as possible to anything existing from Mexican-American culture.

Even though if one is completely honest, the Spanish conquistadores laid claim to parts of what is now United States decades before the English did. I’m actually working my way through a book, El Norte by Carrie Gibson, that attempts to document this very phenomenon.

But such stories and anecdotes just don’t fit into their vision. I’m sure they see someone like Beto O’Rourke as challenging their very definition of what is a “real” American.

I’M SURE THEY’RE more comfortable with the one-time governor of Louisiana, Piyush Jindal, who when his family came to the United States from India tried to take on a “more American” identity and he renamed himself “Bobby.

JINDAL: Ideologues ideal of a proper foreigner pol

Maybe they think Beto O’Rourke should be more like Bobby Jindal – even though one could argue that all O’Rourke is doing is trying to have a political life under the very identity that his parents gave him.

And one in which the voters of El Paso elected him to posts on the City Council AND the 16^th Texas congressional district.

Which is my way of saying I think anybody who tries to make an issue of this is really doing nothing more than showing us their own absurd hang-ups, The best thing we could do is disregard it, and judge the potential of a “President Beto” on his own merits.

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How weak is the so-called “Party of Lincoln” in the “Land of Lincoln?”

What's the point of Party of Rauner?

It really shouldn’t be a wonder that Gov. Bruce Rauner isn’t willing to publicly denounce Republican congressional candidate Art Jones – a white supremacist who literally used to run around wearing Swastika armbands and pledging “Heil!” to Adolf Hitler.

Jones, who managed to win the Republican primary to run for Congress from the 3^rd Illinois district (Chicago's Southwest Side and surrounding suburbs) because no one else tried seeking the GOP nomination, is a political embarrassment.

What would Lincoln think of GOP?

NOT ONLY TO Chicago’s Southwest Side (he’s a reminder of those days of about four decades ago when the area around the city’s Marquette Park was home to many willing to see a role model in Hitler to try to scare off black people from moving anywhere near their neighborhood) or to Illinois.

But to the Republican Party themselves. Which is why Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas who made his own presidential bid two years ago and whom some consider somewhat of an embarrassment himself, came out recently with his cry denouncing Jones’ presence on his political party’s ballot.

If Rauner was competent, neither Jones ...

He came out and called Jones’ presence “horrific,” and said people should vote come Nov. 6 either to re-elect Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., or no one. Zero votes for Jones, is his goal.

Rauner’s response this week was something along the lines of telling Cruz to mind his own business. Personally, I have no problem with telling a Texan to, “Butt out!”

BUT I DON’T think it’s because Rauner really thinks people will pay that much attention to Cruz. Most likely, it’s because Cruz is scoring political points for himself by drawing direct attention to just how weak the Republican Party is in Illinois.

… nor McCann would be on ballot

It’s a party that literally couldn’t find a token candidate to bear the GOP banner back in March, and also couldn’t get itself organized enough to challenge the ballot status of Jones – who based on his past attempts at running for government office has a fringe campaign that isn’t capable of running a serious effort to win office.

But no matter how incompetent Team Jones IS this time around, it would seem that Team Rauner is even worse off.

Yes, I think it accurate to call the Illinois Republicans Team Rauner, largely because the only reason there is a Republican Party in our state is because of all his own money the governor has thrown in to prop up GOP candidates.

MOSTLY BECAUSE HE wants to have political allies to support his ideals for government. Yet what he has is a state Legislature solidly in opposition to him – one where as little as we think of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, we think even less of “Governor Bruce.”

Which is why many of the would-be Republican partisans are thinking of shifting over to a third-party political candidate for governor – that of the newly-created Conservative Party that plans to run state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, for governor.

CRUZ: For once, Texas has a point

Considering how difficult it is for an outside entity to get itself on the ballot (there are too many political tricks that can kick political dreamers away), it ought to be considered further evidence of Illinois Republican ineptitude that McCann WILL challenge Rauner, along with Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Libertarian Kash Jackson.

It actually is sad that in Illinois, a place that likes to think it was influential (because of Lincoln) in creating the Republican Party, the GOP has become so inconsequential. To the point where outspoken Chicago Republican William Kelly, it could be said, wouldn't be any more inept if he ever were elected to office.

BUT THAT IS the status of our political scene, where it seems we have a Democratic Party that represents the two-thirds of the state population that views itself as urban, and another third that is rural and, in its isolation, seems quite confused.

KELLY: Would he be any worse than Rauner?

The “Party of Rauner” is one that doesn’t seem capable of accomplishing the tasks that, quite honestly, are a political party’s only reason for existing.

It makes me wonder what Rauner really thinks he has accomplished during his three years in office, and why he thinks anything would be significantly different for Illinois if he were to somehow miraculously be elected to a second term in office.

Unless, that is, if he can somehow write off all the money he put into Republican political candidates as a financial loss. Which would be exactly the kind of action I would expect from our federal government during this Age of Trump we’re now in.

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Well, duh! Who’d you think Ted Cruz would wind up casting a ballot for?

One of the drawbacks to being a part of the newsgathering racket is that there are times you can see the way stories get reported and you know it’s nonsense. Yet it still winds up turning out that way.
 

Mission Accomplished - name is in the papers

I couldn’t help but think that about the news reports that went out Friday that tried to make it seem like a dramatic moment in the story of Election ’16 – former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz will vote for Donald Trump for president.

IF YOU THINK about it seriously, who’s he really going to vote for?

This is one of those tea party-type dinks whose political philosophy is based so heavily on believing that Hillary Clinton (and her husband Bill) are exactly what is wrong with this country.

I’m sure that in the mind of the senator from Texas, his biggest regret is that it won’t be himself who gets to take on Hillary and drive a political stake through her heart. He probably would enjoy that image, and would love to go down in the history books as the guy who beat Clinton.

Of course, that’s not going to happen. Because Cruz wound up being a part of that mass of Republican candidates who couldn’t rise above the pack – resulting in the GOP giving its presidential nomination to Trump.

ADMITTEDLY, CRUZ WAS the last of all those 18 people to drop out. He was the final holdout. And some people who remember his performance at the Republican National Convention seriously wanted to believe that Ted was somehow acting on some sort of anti-Trump principle.

Which of these candidates ...

He wasn’t.

What bothered him was that he lost. History won’t record the concept of “President Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz,” at least not in this election cycle. He’s exactly the type who may try running again in future years.

For all we know, he may actually get the nomination. Or maybe he’s just destined to be a perennial joke – constantly appearing on the ballot and screeching to steadily declining crowds as the years pass by.

... makes your blood boil over?

HE’LL PROBABLY MAKE the focal point of his future campaigns the chance to rant and rage about all the actions that will be committed in the next few years by “President Hillary R. Clinton” – if that concept becomes a reality.

The idea that Cruz would ever back Clinton was an absurdity.

If anything, this election cycle is becoming one less about radical change. The idea that people would suddenly vote against their usual political interests isn’t going to happen.

Many Democrats are finding it in them to accept the idea of Clinton as president, while many Republicans (including the Ricketts family, although there’s evidence that daughter Laura thinks that father J. Joe can stick it) are finding it within themselves to back Donald.

THE BIG SHIFT may be those so-called “alt-right” (real people call them “white supremacist”) voters who usually think the Republicans are too wimpy to take seriously. Many of them think Trump has balls enough to stand up to the foreigners and perverts and racial mongrels (which they would phrase more crudely) and all other people who aren’t just like themselves.

 

Really??!?

Could they wind up giving Trump enough political support to win come Nov. 8? Particularly if combined with apathy from certain segments who theoretically should be Hillary-backers?

A lot of it will depend on the incumbent President, who according to the Gallup Organization had a 52 percent approval rating as of Friday. The more people like the idea of Obama, the more they will want to ensure his philosophies will be carried on by the next U.S. president.

That will wind up being what decides the upcoming election – not anything that Ted Cruz would have said or done as he tries to figure out how to remain politically relevant. Which really is the only reason he bothered to make a statement Friday to begin with.

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It's sad that ideologues have waited for years for this moment to demonize Hillary Rodham Clinton reputation

Many people have made much of the failure of Ted Cruz to explicitly endorse Donald Trump for president and the plagiarism of potential first lady Melania that took place during this year’s Republican National Convention.

 

CLINTON: Her moment to shine comes next week

But what was truly notable about the events of the week just ended were the sentiments expressed about likely Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

FROM THE MOCK “trial” of the one-time Ms. Rodham by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to the repetitious chants of “Lock her up!” that could be heard throughout the Quicken Loans Arena all week, this was not a friendly audience for the one-time first lady and secretary of state.

Not that a nominating convention audience is ever sympathetic toward the political challenger. But this was most definitely a crowd that has anxiously been awaiting, probably for years, for a chance to vote “no” to the idea of Hillary Rodham Clinton as our nation’s 45^th chief executive.

Although I wonder how much of the anger that was seething throughout the hall (overcoming the feel-good vibe that ought to exist in the building that is the home of the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers) is devoted to hatred of Hillary, as opposed to having to vote for Trump as president because she’s the only legitimate choice on the ballot.

In this year of 2016, the one with the Election season whose unofficial (but all-too-truthful) theme is “Who Do I Hate the Most?!?,” it became clear that the hatred level of Hillary Clinton runs high.

 

CHRISTIE: Should Hillary put him on trial?

I’M SURE THE people gathered in Cleveland this week to nominate Trump for the U.S. presidency are angered by the many polls that show Clinton favored by more potential voters across the country.

Because to them, there is no one worth despising more than Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s like these people feed off the hatred and negativity, which likely has built up for the past couple of decades since the days of Bill Clinton as president.

 

CRUZ: Not all like Trump

After all, these same ideologues managed to impeach (if not convict) Bill Clinton. He was supposed to wither away in disgrace, and take that despicable wench of a wife he has with him.

In fact, I don’t doubt there are some who think Bill Clinton’s punishment for being an unacceptable president ought to be to have to live the rest of his life with Hillary.

 

CLINTON: Origin of Hillary hatred?!?

INSTEAD, BILL CLINTON has become a prominent ex-president more highly regarded than either of the Bushes who comprise the former Republican presidents still living.

And now, if a majority of the electorate follows through with their belief that Trump is too stupid, bigoted, maniacal, racist (whichever word you prefer, I personally think egotistical is most accurate) to be president, then Bill Clinton will literally be back in the White House – even if just in the role of presidential spouse who becomes her unofficial top adviser (no actual title, but trying to tell her that Bill Kaine of Virginia ought to be the VP nominee) on issues of policy.

That, I’m sure, is a significant part of the anger we saw on display in Cleveland. If only the Republican Party were not so dysfunctional these days, perhaps it could have picked a better candidate to run against her.

Although the real fear (hope for salvation, amongst the Trump-ites) is that the sense that Hillary has this election wrapped up will cause a sense of apathy. One that results in many people not bothering to cast ballots, which could turn the Trump-ites into a real majority that could win.

FOR AS AN e-mail message from the CHC Bold PAC says, “Republicans LOVE Trump. Republicans WANT Trump to win. Republicans WON’T STOP until Trump is President.” Then, they hit me up for a contribution to the cause of electing Democrats.

 

The sentiment Clinton hopes to convey in Philly

Which is nonsense! The GOP is schizophrenic enough these days they don’t agree with Trump. What they agree upon is “Hillary bad” (although most likely, they substitute another “B” word to describe her).

Which, in a sense, means the Republicans this week failed to give us a single legitimate reason to vote FOR Donald Trump. It’s all about voting against “that woman!”

Which ought to make the true majority of our society take seriously the notion of casting a ballot for Hillary come Nov. 8 – even if it’s just to spite all the angry white guys on display this week. Who in all honesty are going to find something to be angry about no matter who wins this election cycle!

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EXTRA: Cruz is gone from GOP election – Ding dong, the Witch is dead!

I’ve gone out of my way in the past few months to openly ridicule the idea that anybody takes seriously the presidential aspirations of Donald Trump, which on Tuesday became a probability with his overwhelming victory in the Indiana primaries.

 

As 'the Hawk' would say, he's ovah!

Yet any disgust that I might feel at the thought that Trump will be the Republican candidate in the November general election truly is tempered by the reality of this day – Ted Cruz is gone.

CRUZ, THE SENATOR from Texas who got elected by ideologue Tea Party types and campaigned for president with the attitude that he was going to implement those social conservative ideals upon all of us regardless of whether we had any desire for them or not, is history.

His defeat in the Indiana primaries gives Trump so many more delegates at this late stage in the primary election cycle that it is next to impossible for Cruz to gain with the few primaries remaining.

So Cruz, the so-called Cuban Canadian who always tried to make it seem as though he was as true-blue Texan as any other white man in the southwest, stepped back.

He officially dropped out of the campaign. That leaves only John Kasich of Ohio, who is so far back that he can’t even dream of overcoming the real estate developer from New York who thinks the whole world needs buildings bearing his name.

I HAVE TO confess feeling joy at the idea of Cruz’s political failure. Back when there were 18 candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president, Cruz and his ideological temperament was the one that stood out in my mind – as in the absolute last one I would want to see gain the GOP nomination.

From my perspective, the fact that Cruz lasted so long and came so close, and wound up being perceived by the Republican establishment as the voice of reason compared to the ego-bloated nonsense of a Trump is truly the evidence of why I could never seriously consider myself as a Republican.

Not that I’m always “proud” to be a Democrat – the party has its share of knuckle-heads. But I feel like I’d have to seriously be brain-dead to have to choose from the Republican picks of 2016. I feel sorry for those who did do so.

It’s not so much the written list of stances that one could put together of where Cruz stands on certain issues. It’s more the attitude he gave off.

A CERTAIN SMUGNESS of how he was going to do what he wanted, didn’t care what others thought, and was prepared to ram his ideals down our throats. Kind of like some parent thoroughly smacking his or her kid about and telling them it was for their own good.

Of course, there’s also a part of my attitude toward Cruz that came from the fact I’m only a couple of years older than he is and that he and I were in college back about the same time (although I’m not claiming I ever met the future senator from the Lone Star State).

He reminds me of the kind of guy who used to annoy everybody else living on the floor of the college dormitory – the one who came home one day from a part-time job he had in town to find his bed, dresser and all personal belongings moved down the hall to the men’s room.

And whom the rest of us secretly laughed our behinds off at the sight of him having to move all his belongings back to his room all by himself.

NOW I DON’T know for sure if Cruz ever experienced anything like that in college. But he also reminds me of several people I knew back in college – the ones who viewed their education as the credential that would give them the right to think of themselves as better than everybody else.

I sense that Cruz on this Tuesday probably thinks his defeat was a great injustice that his “superior intellect” did not prevail. Then again, let’s remember “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” where Ricardo Montalban’s character had the superior intellect that failed to beat Captain Kirk and wound up being incinerated in an outer space explosion.

Perhaps if Cruz ever learns a little humility, he could have a political comeback.

That, and learns to take advantage of his father’s ethnic heritage (the Cubano side). Latinos were prepared to vote against him en masse come November because of the vibe he gives off of being anti- their interests – and probably would have claimed to be Canadian before he’d ever seek their voter support.

  -30-

Hoosier-land a haven for people who want the triviality of electoral politics

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence came out publicly recently as one of those cantankerous Republicans who can’t the thought of Donald Trump as their party’s presidential nominee.

PENCE: Backing Cruz

“I will be voting for Ted Cruz,” the governor said to reporter-types of his intentions in the Indiana primary elections coming up Tuesday.

TYPICALLY, GETTING A governor, no matter how ridiculous or absurd or disliked he may be, would be a significant plus for a campaign.

Yet Trump, the New York real estate developer with a taste for the garish, managed to one-up him; digging one-time Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight out of retirement to publicly endorse him.

It’s a sad commentary on our society that Bobby’s babbling about electoral politics probably was taken more seriously than anything Pence said.

Either that, or else the senator from Texas who some like to deride as a closet Canadian is just that pathetic a candidate that he’s likely to lose the Indiana primary.

THE ONLY REAL question is whether Hoosier voters will let him be competitive with Trump on Tuesday, or will Cruz get his clock cleaned – so to speak.

Of course, there also are those who were more impressed with the fact that former President William J. Clinton bothered to show up in the heart of downtown Gary on Saturday to express his own political love for his wife, the apparent Democratic presidential nominee Hillary R. Clinton. Of course, after all the aggravation he has caused his wife throughout their lives, he owes her a few hours of time spent in Gary.

Did the one-time Gary State Bank building located a block from City Hall, across the street from the dilapidated convention center and just down the street from the main entrance to the U.S. Steel plant look impressive enough with its recent restorations to make it worthy as the scenery for a presidential campaign visit.

Back in the news, for a day

Or did people wind up getting bogged down in the urban decay of the surrounding blocks?

PERHAPS WE SHOULD note who’s missing from this list of trivial appearances meant to tout presidential candidates. We didn’t get any prominent Bernie Sanders visits in recent days.

Does Sanders deep down sense that it’s over (even though he publicly insists he’s staying in the primary race to the very end – just as Clinton herself did back in 2008 even though it was clear she would lose to eventual President Barack Obama)?

CLINTON: Touting his wife in Gary

Or could it be that the idea of spending too much time in Indiana was too appalling for even “the Bern” to do this past weekend? A place where he’d already scaled back his campaign spending – despite the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that

showed Clinton with a 4 percent lead (and a 4 percent margin of error).

A statistical tie! If Sanders winds up losing Indiana on Tuesday by a mere point, he may wind up giving himself the ultimate kick in the behind for his lack of activity!

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: We in Illinois had our own presidential ballot chance back on March 15, and many of us were more obsessed with picking a new state’s attorney or senator to worry that we backed Clinton and Trump as the major political party nominees for the November general election. Which means we probably have little reason to mock Indiana if they wind up doing the same come Tuesday.

War of the women truly going to take down the GOP, no matter what they do

So Donald Trump decides to stomp all over what should have his big day of East Coast electoral victories by insisting the only reason Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is doing well is because of her gender.

Trump’s chief GOP challenger, Ted Cruz, retorts with an act of desperation by giving us his choice of a vice-presidential running mate – Carly Fiorina, the former HP CEO who had her own presidential dreams back in the days when there were 18 or so Republicans in the running.

I REALLY HAVE trouble figuring which of these two clowns comes across as more pathetic and which would be the most truly unpresidential person our nation could have as a choice for someone who deserves to legitimately live in the White House.

I’m inclined to think it’s Trump, just because he seems to have a lock on buffoonish behavior.

But you have to admit that the junior senator from Texas has truly adopted his state’s reputation for over-the-top behavior. He’d probably conduct himself with more decorum if he truly were a Canadian!

For it seems that as the Republicans are on the verge of having to admit failure in their effort to deprive New York real estate developer Trump of the ability to use their party’s presidential nominating convention in Cleveland into a personal pep rally for himself!

SO CRUZ COMES up with this image of his presidential campaign as something truly historic – a chance to have a top-of-the-ticket pairing that could put a woman in a place of significance.

It might, in their minds, make some people give up on the idea of voting for Hillary because her gender would be a political statement.

Reading through this probably makes you wonder what kind of medication I’m using to come up with such addled thoughts, and maybe the newly-prescribed blood pressure pills I have started taking is doing something.

But Cruz’ efforts to use the Fiorina image to bolster his own does little but drag him down.

FOR ONE THING, there were a few people who thought Carly would be fit for president. They may wind up provoking the concept that the wrong person was on top – just like it would have been a stupid mistake if Barack Obama back in 2008 had picked Clinton as a running mate.

Besides, we really don’t want to think about running mates until we know who the nominees are! I can’t believe Cruz thinks he can use Carly to bolster what has become his long-shot chances of stopping Trump from becoming the nominee.

Face it, 2016 will wind up being the year of Who Do We Hate More?!? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. It really makes me wonder if a viable third candidate will emerge who can take the votes of people who can’t bring themselves to cast ballots for either one of them.

And as far as the Republicans are concerned, I have to confess that back in the days when there were 18 candidates, Trump and Cruz were always the two who stood out in my mind as the absolute last ones I would want to see get the nomination.

THE FACT THAT they are the ones who have prevailed and that Cruz, the ultimate knee-jerk ideologue, is considered the more sensible of the two is – in my mind – the evidence as to why I can’t take seriously the modern-day Republican Party.

And why I wind up siding myself with a mediocrity like Hillary – who’s going to bring back the two-decade old lame gags about her husband.

I have to confess one potential joy to the notion of Trump feeling compelled to take pot shots at Hillary’s gender at a point when he’s on the verge of primary victory.

The fact that he feels this way means his defeat come November (losing to ‘that dame’) will probably hurt him deep down all the more.

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