RAW STORY
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and some of his Republicans ended their
filibuster-style speech Wednesday against Obamacare after more than 21
hours.
The tea party-backed Texas senator began speaking at 2:41 p.m.
Tuesday and continued until shortly after noon Wednesday, in a speech
that covered a wide range of unrelated topics,
such as Dr. Seuss stories, Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” Toby Keith song
lyrics and multiple references to an awards acceptance speech given by
actor Ashton Kutcher.
He also compared Senate Republicans to the Rebel Alliance in the Star
Wars movies and wondered whether a masked, Darth Vader-like figure
would emerge to make disturbing comment to his closest Senate ally,
Utah’s Sen. Mike Lee.
“Mike Lee, I am your father,” Cruz said, deepening his voice to deliver a variation on Vader’s signature line from the films.
The speech could not be officially considered a filibuster, however, because it did not delay Senate business.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he and Cruz reached an agreement
to allow the Republican first-term senator to speak before the Senate
voted on a measure to keep the government funded after the fiscal year
ends Monday.
Cruz acknowledged that Reid had the right to end his speech on the Senate floor, and he agreed to stop talking by noon.
As the hour neared, Reid offered to let Cruz and his Senate
supporters continue talking until 1 p.m., when a cloture vote is
scheduled on the government funding bill.
But Cruz stuck to his earlier agreement with the Senate’s top Democrat, perhaps because he had other plans.
According to RushLimbaugh.com, the Texas Republican was scheduled to appear at 1 p.m. on the prominent conservative’s radio program.
Cruz repeatedly referred to his speech as a “filibuster” during his
appearance on Limbaugh’s show, and he complained about his Republican
Senate colleagues “showboating” and making symbolic gestures for their
constituents.
“We don’t even talk about how to win a fight,” Cruz said.
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