Cruz's Cancún text message fiasco just keeps getting hilariously worse

As a general rule I don't participate very often in group texts, not for the least of reasons that I find such discussions annoying as hell. These things have a habit of going on and on, pinging away endlessly, with someone inevitably thinking they're either the most important, funniest, or most intelligent person in the group. These folks do their damndest to have the last word, long after most everyone else's interest in whatever the subject matter originally was about has waned.

But I appreciate that I may be in a minority here. There are in fact people who, like Heidi Cruz, have a group of friends who share gossip through this type of medium. Because she's the wife of a U.S. senator, she probably has a bit more cachet than others in her little texting group. This position may or may not have prompted her to invite members of that coterie to join her and her family in their delightful escape to Cancún last week, while the rest of the state of Texas suffered crippling power outages amid subzero temperatures, leaving many with severe property damage and astronomical electric bills (not to mention hypothermia). I rather suspect that the invitation was not meant to be taken seriously and was simply a politely boastful way of expressing glee at the expense of other people's inability to make a similar getaway.

Although annoying, such behavior is innocent enough, and would have likely gone unnoticed, had Heidi not been married to a reflexive liar named Sen. Ted Cruz. Once the story broke about the Cruzes' excellent Cancún adventure, shaming the entire Cruz brood, Ted thought he could redefine the situation as a misunderstanding, by claiming the family had simply been catering to a sudden whim of their children. It was his tween daughters who had cajoled their parents into making the trip on a moment's notice, said the Texas senator; after dropping them off at the Ritz-Carlton, he always intended to return the very next evening and help his constituents. His only mistake was "trying to be a good dad."

Unfortunately, Cruz didn't have the faintest clue what his wife had texted to her group just before his clan left for Cancún.

Had he known, he might have sternly cautioned her not to reveal too much exuberance about the fact that they'd be leaving their state in the lurch. He certainly would have warned her not to send out any cutesy faux invitations urging people to join them. Instead, a more-informed Cruz absolutely would have told Heidi to tell her group text pals that the trip was all the kids' idea.

Above all, as reported by Cristina Cabrera for Talking Points Memo, Cruz would have told his wife to remove the numbers of any meddling "Democrats" out of the group before she hit "Send."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reported on Tuesday morning that his wife, Heidi, is less than thrilled that at least two people in her group chat leaked her tone-deaf texts about the Cruz family's Cancún vacation in the middle of Texas' snowstorm crisis last week.

"I will say, Heidi's pretty pissed at that," Cruz said during an interview on the conservative "Ruthless" podcast.

The group chat participants were the Cruzs' neighbors, according to the senator. He speculated that the moles could've been some of the Democrats on their street.

Cruz bases this accusation on the fact that some of his neighbors had Beto O'Rourke signs in their yards during the 2018 election, which Cruz barely won, and speculation that some of those same neighbors were on his wife's group text list.

The Daily Beast has more on Cruz's newest attempt to shift responsibility for the entire sorry episode from himself.

Cruz appeared to lay the blame for the leaks on his Democrat-supporting neighbors, saying the leak was a sign of "how ridiculously politicized and nasty" politics has become in the nation and, more specifically, on his street. "Here's a suggestion, just don't be assholes," said the senator. "Treat each other as human beings, have some degree, some modicum of respect." Cruz also said that those getting angry about the trip "need to laugh a little bit—you know, loosen up."

Cruz bases this accusation on the fact that some of his neighbors had Beto O'Rourke signs in their yards during the 2018 election, which Cruz barely won, and speculation that some of those same neighbors were on his wife's group text list.

The Daily Beast has more on Cruz's newest attempt to shift responsibility for the entire sorry episode from himself.

Cruz appeared to lay the blame for the leaks on his Democrat-supporting neighbors, saying the leak was a sign of "how ridiculously politicized and nasty" politics has become in the nation and, more specifically, on his street. "Here's a suggestion, just don't be assholes," said the senator. "Treat each other as human beings, have some degree, some modicum of respect." Cruz also said that those getting angry about the trip "need to laugh a little bit—you know, loosen up."

Strong words. But had Cruz followed his own advice and treated his own constituents with the same "modicum of respect" that he now demands from his neighbors, he wouldn't have found himself in this predicament in the first place.

Let's assume—without any evidence—that it was, in fact, the Cruzes' "Democratic" neighbors who blew the whistle on his family's trip-planning. This raises the obvious question—what kind of friends does Heidi Cruz think she has?

Cabrera, for TPM, highlights a tweet that puts this into context.

There are several lessons someone with a "modicum" of intelligence could take away from this episode: lessons involving honesty, integrity, and even social etiquette and modesty.

But instead of taking responsibility, it appears that the Cruzes—who remain "pissed" at neighbors they now call "assholes"—haven't learned any lesson at all.