MORALS-CHALLENGED CRUZ, PAXTON, TAKE SHOTS AT TALARICO

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Ted Cruz said James Talarico isn't "masculine," and Talarico answered with a list of what real men never do. 

The smear came Monday on Fox News, where Cruz declared that if you were making a list of 1,000 adjectives to describe the Texas Democrat, "masculine" would not be one of them, then added that a stiff breeze would blow him over like a feather.

The attack was not a one-off. Since Talarico won the Democratic nomination and pulled ahead of Ken Paxton in the polls, the Republican machine has gone all in on manhood.

Paxton called him "too low-T for Texas." White House aide Stephen Miller falsely claimed Democrats had nominated "their first transgender senate candidate," a lie about a man who is neither transgender nor, for the record, the vegan they also keep insisting he is.

None of it touches his actual record. That is the point.

On MS NOW with Jen Psaki on Thursday, Talarico took the question head on, and he answered it with a lawn mower.

He told the story of Mark Talarico, the adoptive father who gave him his last name.
Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, whether he wanted to or not, his dad mowed the family's lawn. Then, without anyone asking, he walked next door and mowed the lawn of their neighbor, an elderly widow.

He never talked about it. He just did it.
That, Talarico said, is what a man does.

A man takes responsibility. A man upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors. A man does what's right even when no one is watching.

Then came the other half. "They don't lie and cheat their way through life. They don't sell their soul to the highest bidder. They don't steal from other people in order to enrich themselves."

Real men serve others, he said. Weak men serve themselves. And he closed the door on his way out: he doesn't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.

The list reads differently considering who it was aimed at.

Cruz spent 2016 watching Donald Trump publicly mock his wife's appearance, then endorsed him and became one of his most loyal soldiers.

When a deadly winter storm froze Texas in 2021, Cruz boarded a flight to Cancun.

Paxton was impeached on bribery and corruption charges by his own Republican colleagues in the Texas House, and his wife filed for divorce last year citing adultery.

Mark Talarico never talked about the widow's lawn. He just mowed it. Some men do what's right when no one is watching.

Ted Cruz does Fox News.