MovieChat Forums > Advise & Consent (1962) Discussion > Ted Cruz = Fred Van Ackerman?

Ted Cruz = Fred Van Ackerman?

posted 9 years ago by hobnob53
3 replies | jump to latest

Though polar opposites politically, the fictional Van Ackerman and the real-life Cruz both have many things in common.

>>Each is on the extreme wing of his party -- Van Ackerman a far-left Democrat, Cruz an extreme right-wing Republican.

>>Each has run afoul of his Majority Leader, been shunned by his colleagues in his own party, and lost what little influence in the Senate he had.

>>Each is a vicious demagogue and liar with no legislative accomplishments of any kind.

>>Each tried to use the rules of the Senate for his own political purposes -- Van Ackerman to force a premature vote on Leffingwell, Cruz to shut down the government, though Cruz succeeded where Van Ackerman failed.

>>I gather this is in one of the successor novels and it's not in the movie, but I understand Van Ackerman eventually ran for President -- and won, I believe? Cruz is running for President too, of course, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for him to win. Thank God.

On the plus side, Fred Van Ackerman never thought of cooking bacon by laying it on the nozzle of a "machine gun" and firing until the heat cooked it. Just what we need in a President. By the way, it wasn't a machine gun, Senator Cruz.

>>Oh, yeah, yeah, right! Then of course, Senator Van Ackerman's blackmail of Senator Anderson resulted in that notorious scene where Anderson flies up to New York and has to "cruise" the gay bars looking for Ray, so there's that similarity.

[–] Eric-62-2 9 years ago

No, I would nominate a certain Senator from Nevada for my present-day parallel. :) (and I don't mean Dean Heller)

(All the best to you, Hob. Things I talked about in the PM are a lot better now BTW)

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

Sorry, but ideology aside the Reid comparison makes no sense. For one thing, Reid hasn't attacked or been shunned by himself, nor by his colleagues. That's just meaningless partisanship, my friend. Nor is he a hard-line leftist by any sane measure of such things. Actually the Cruz parallel is pretty exact, given the vacuousness of his record, his demagoguery, and most of all his terrible relations with virtually the entire caucus, starting with McConnell, none of whom like or trust him. He's on his way out.

Very glad to hear your other good news, more importantly. 

[–] Eric-62-2 9 years ago

Thanks, Hob. It's touch and go in a lot of ways and it still has a lot of rough roads ahead, but at least I don't feel like I'm headed for emotional collapse myself any longer.

The only thing about Harry I'll mention (out of many things I could) are his lies on the Senate floor about Romney and his tax returns and then justifying his lies with a smug, "Romney didn't win did he?"

Of course if being shunned by colleagues would qualify for Van Ackerman comparisons, I guess that would mean Jimmy Stewart was playing Van Ackerman in 1939. :) (and wasn't he threatening a government shutdown too?) :)

That's it for me on this one. All the best to you.