At the tail end of Ted Cruz’s 21-hour* filibuster, the senator from Texas offered thanks to the staffers who had been forced to keep at their stations all day and all of the night. According to Cruz, they’d suffered through “this Bataan death march” and deserved thanks.
It was only the second wince-inducing World War II reference of the speech. The winner remained Cruz’s comparison of Republican moderates to Neville Chamberlain, which he apologized for quickly. But it was enough to spur a filmed meeting with Filipino veterans, who got the full Cruz treatment as he apologized profusely for accidentally making light of the death march.
I call this the “full Cruz” because the senator pivots quickly to some anecdotes that anyone who’s seen him speak will be familiar with. He can understand their suffering, because his father suffered in Cuba. He fights for veterans, as he did when fought for the right to display crosses for soldiers on public land. Not really sure that the lobbyists made the sale on their legislation.
*I just keep asterisk-ing because other senators helped fill some time.
Read the rest of Slate’s coverage of the government shutdown.
