Ted Cruz, Family Man

Other People's Children

Commandant at Home with wife, child and dog

Auschwitz Guards' Families Enjoying Their Time at the Camp

Commandant's children

He's nice to his dog. Not so much to people. 

Oh, how I love Green Eggs and Ham And I'm Nice to My Dog

Watching the Ted Cruz show on CNN last night Mad Dog was struck by how much time Mr. Cruz spent establishing his Family Man credentials, the long homilies about how much he loves his little daughters, right down to reading Green Eggs and Ham to them from the podium, because, in the interests of serving his nation, he could not be home with his daughters to read them their bedtime story.

It pulled at the heart strings, really did.

What a nice man. He loves his little daughters.
Of course, he doesn't care a whit for the daughters who will be denied health insurance, or for their parents, across the land, if he gets his way.

It reminds me of the book by Piotr Setkiewicz, Private Life of the SS in Auschwitz, in which he related story after story about the split between what the commandants and guards at the concentration camps did at work and how they became doting, engaged parents once they walked across their own thresholds at home.
Typical was the commandant who would beat prisoners to death and then go home, in a fresh uniform, and play hide and seek with his children.

Others were very indulgent with their dogs, and yet they murdered human beings at work mercilessly.

It is almost the "protest too much" aspect of the proclamation of paternal love. Somewhere, deep down in the dark recesses of his heart and brain, the man knows he is sinning against his fellow man, but if he loves his children, if he is kind to his dog, it makes up for everything else. 

So, somehow, Mr. Cruz, Mad Dog is not convinced. He is not convinced you are the loving, cuddly man you say you are. Others have trod that loving father path before you, down the lane to a horror at the other end.