Ted's Jedi Moves: "These Are Not the Innocent Children You're Looking For, Morons"

Some of the brighter lights in the lefty media just can't help themselves.  They keep doing stupid, reprehensible things.  One might be tempted to conclude that they're not so bright, after all.  But that simply can't be.  Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes has a Pulitzer Prize, so she must be a friggin' genius.  Still, when she explained yesterday why she had drawn a cartoon depicting U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Ted Cruz's two young daughters as performing monkeys on leashes, she offered one of the most unsupportable and tenuous excuses imaginable.

She claimed that putting his children in a campaign video - a Christmas video - meant that they were "fair game."  She claimed this, at least in her one statement that was somewhat coherent, despite the obvious fact, known to everyone, that sitting President Barack Obama's two daughters have routinely shown up in campaign spots, photos and videos.  Yet, they have never - not even once - been depicted as monkeys.  The mind reels at the very thought of the universal outrage that would happen if it had been attempted even once.

This choice on the part of Ms. Telnaes was so bad that there's some doubt that her career will survive it.  Last I checked, the cartoon was yanked and only Wonkette (no link - sorry) was defending her.  Even Meghan McCain got enthusiastically behind Cruz on this one, and that's something I thought I'd never see.

But even as this is a spectacularly boneheaded example of media footicide-by-gunshot, I have to admire Ted Cruz for his crazy Jedi Master skills on this one.  Fellow poll-topper Donald Trump has been getting lots of credit for deflecting fake scandals that normally leave other Republicans in messy disarray, but Cruz has proven himself to be a survivor of the Media's long knives in his own right.  In the past, this has largely been a result of the wise strategy of staying on Donald Trump's good side - mostly.  But in addition to staying close, I think we can conclude that Mr. Cruz has learned a few survival skills from Trump, and that's encouraging.  Especially if he survives at the expense of morons like Ann Telnaes.