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Why Canadian citizenship is a scourge for Ted Cruz
Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:34 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:Ted Cruz, the Calgary-born Texas senator, insists he has “nothing against Canada.” That’s about as astonishing as the flame-throwing Republican’s claim that he only recently discovered that he is as Canadian as butter tarts. How could a Harvard Law School graduate, considered one of the best lawyers of his generation, be so clueless about his own citizenship status? “The Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship,” the 42-year-old first-term Republican senator said after he was outed this week as a full-fledged Canuck. “Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship.” It’s not like the nakedly ambitious Mr. Cruz, who is already laying the groundwork for a long-shot bid at the 2016 GOP nomination, shouldn’t have seen it coming. After all the bile the “birthers” spewed about Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency, it would be pure hypocrisy for them not to subject Mr. Cruz to equal scrutiny – even if he isn’t black or Democratic. A year ago, at the party’s convention in Tampa, I chased after Mr. Cruz naively hoping for an anecdote about his roots in Calgary, where he spent his first four years while his parents ran a seismic data business catering to the oil patch. Asked about his dual citizenship, he responded with an icy stare worthy of Hannibal Lecter. “Houston has been my home and where I grew up,” he relented, unable to escape the narrow security perimeter in which we were impounded outside the convention centre. “Texas is my home.” Back then, Mr. Cruz was the Tea Party’s newest idol. He had just knocked off the establishment candidate in the GOP Senate primary in Texas. A former state solicitor general, ranked as one of the best litigators in the country, Mr. Cruz would go on to a landslide win in the November election. Some people still head to Washington to solve problems. Mr. Cruz went to blow the place up. When you consider government a force of evil, you don’t want it to work. So, Mr. Cruz has spent his first months in the U.S. capital as a thorn not only in the side of Democrats – his grandstanding and obstructionism drive fellow Republicans up the wall, too. He is now on a “Cruzade” to block funding for Mr. Obama’s signature health-care law. If that means shutting down the federal government (by preventing the passage of an essential budget bill), so be it. Mr. Cruz considers Obamacare, the law aimed at subsidizing health insurance for 32 million Americans without it, “the greatest threat to our liberty we have ever seen.” Most Republicans think allowing a government shutdown would be suicidal for their party. The last time it happened, when then-speaker Newt Gingrich blocked Bill Clinton’s budget in 1995, voters blamed the GOP for the fallout. But Mr. Cruz is even more bombastic and selfish than Newt. He appears less interested in his party’s fortunes than boosting his own profile – and future earning power as a Fox News celebrity. Despite his rock-star status among social conservatives, Mr. Cruz has no better chance of winning the 2016 nomination than Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum did the last time around. But that won’t stop the punditocracy from pretending he is a contender. The permanent U.S. election campaign rolls onward. Mr. Cruz, who is stuck with being a Canadian until a citizenship judge here removes the scourge, says he has nothing against the land of his birth. But what about our universal health care, marriage equality, respect for a woman’s right to choose and restrictions on buying a gun? Mr. Cruz thinks Obamacare is aimed at getting Americans “addicted to the sugar” of subsidized health care. He torpedoed a bill to implement universal background checks for gun purchasers. He accused abortion rights advocates of trying to “protect the ability to take yet more lives.” And his father warmed up the evangelical crowd at an Iowa conference by calling “homosexual marriage” a socialist plot. Finding out he is one of us must have knocked Mr. Cruz’s socks off. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/why-canadian-citizenship-is-a-scourge-for-ted-cruz/article13903186/
Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:44 AM
AURAPTOR
America loves a winner!
Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:56 AM
Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:45 AM
NEWOLDBROWNCOAT
Thursday, August 22, 2013 5:14 PM
Thursday, August 22, 2013 5:51 PM
MAGONSDAUGHTER
Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:21 PM
MAL4PREZ
Quote:Originally posted by Magonsdaughter: Oh no, a Canadian in your government. This is the slippery slope to communism, you hear...
Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:25 PM
1KIKI
Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.
Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:17 PM
Quote:The junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz (R), has released his Canadian birth certificate, issued by the city of Edmonton, Alberta. Here it is: image of Ted Cruz' birth certificate Why might he do such a thing, as he is a senator and it doesn't matter where a senator was born as long as he or she is 30, has been a citizen for 9 years, and lives in the state he or she is representing? The exact text of Art. I, Sec. 3, Clause 3 of the Constitution reads: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. Since no one is suggesting Cruz is ineligible to serve in the Senate, he is clearly thinking about running for President in 2016 and wants to get that pesky "natural born citizen" thing out of the way now. It seems to come up with some regularity. John McCain was not born in the United States. He is a Zonian, but both of his parents were American citizens at the time of his birth, which automatically made him a citizen at birth. Mitt Romney was born in Michigan, but his father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, even though he was born in Mexico to American Mormon missionaries. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii after it became a state, but some people refuse to believe it. Cruz is a more interesting and complicated case. Most media reports about him have it wrong, so pay attention. Cruz was born on Dec. 22, 1970 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His father, Rafael Cruz, was born in Cuba and fought with Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista. The senior Cruz later moved to Canada with his wife (Ted Cruz' mother, Eleanor Darragh), who was born in Wilmington, DL. Under U.S. law at the time, a baby born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent and a noncitizen parent is automatically a U.S. citizen (and presumably natural born) provided that the citizen parent meets two other conditions as stated here on the State Department's Website. The two conditions are: 1. The citizen parent must have lived in the U.S. for 10 years before the birth. 2. Five of those years must have been after the age of 14. Thus the fact that Cruz' mother was born in Delaware is not sufficient to transmit her U.S. citizenship to her son. She would have to have met the above tests as well. If Cruz is serious about proving his status as a natural born citizen, he needs to document her whereabouts for 10 years in the U.S. from before 1970. It is far from clear what might constitute proof. She graduated from Rice University in 1956, but that diploma probably doesn't state how long she attended Rice. She might have transferred in from the University of Alberta in her senior year. It is fairly likely that Darragh met the requirements, but Democrats who are tired of Republicans bringing up Obama's birthplace long after he released his long-form birth certificate, could continue to hound Cruz for proof about where his mother lived. That may not be so easy to obtain any more. His mother is still alive, but she may not have saved her utility bills from before 1970. Cruz has another problem besides finding his mother's phone bills. Since he was born in Canada, he is a natural born Canadian citizen. Some people might even call him an "anchor baby." He can vote in Canada, request a Canadian passport, or run for Parliament. Legally, he could even be President of the United States and Prime Minister of Canada at the same time. Assuming that his mother meets the above physical presence tests, Cruz is a dual national. Now there is nothing in the Constitution or U.S. law that prohibits a dual national from being President, but the "America first" crowd may not be happy with "America tied for first." Cruz can easily renounce his Canadian citizenship and reports say he will do that to get that out of the way so that in 2016 it will be old news. This whole matter of "natural born citizen" has become absurd, but it is unlikely the Constitution is going to be amended any time soon to delete the words "natural born." Unfortunately for the Republicans, who dogged Obama for years about his birth, they are probably going to have to face years of "Let's see Mom's phone bills."
Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:46 PM
Friday, August 23, 2013 2:53 AM
Friday, August 23, 2013 7:13 AM
Quote:Unfortunately for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, you can’t just say you renounce your Canadian citizenship. According to the Canadian government, there are six steps to prove eligibility for renouncing one’s citizenship. Once eligibility is ascertained, Cruz would have to fill out an application and fork over a $100 fee. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/08/20/what-ted-cruz-actually-needs-to-do-to-renounce-canadian-citizenship/
Friday, August 23, 2013 8:27 AM
STORYMARK
Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor: Will be funny as hell when he's elected President.
Friday, August 23, 2013 1:03 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: Quote:Unfortunately for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, you can’t just say you renounce your Canadian citizenship. According to the Canadian government, there are six steps to prove eligibility for renouncing one’s citizenship. Once eligibility is ascertained, Cruz would have to fill out an application and fork over a $100 fee. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/08/20/what-ted-cruz-actually-needs-to-do-to-renounce-canadian-citizenship/
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