Yes I was one of the first, and continue to be, a harsh critic of Ted Cruz. Even so, I would be remiss to not give credit where credit is due. I was a witness to a situation where a close friend of his made several attempts to mislead the public on a constitutional matter and Cruz refused to play along. When a candidate like Cruz comes along purporting to be a staunch constitutionalist and using that as a major selling point of his packaged campaign persona it is our duty to closely monitor his actions on all matters constitutional. I do that, but then, I do that with all public figures involved in our political process, after all, our Constitution was intended to be the basis for their activities so it is fair to use it for reference.

Recall back when Mark Levin wrote his book, The Liberty Amendments? The book detailed Levin’s Grand Plan for saving America, at least that is how he promoted it. I have always been amused by these national superstar radio hosts. They are on air for 3 hours a day, they talk non-stop about politics and the people involved and that is not enough time to share what is on their minds? They have to write and sell books to tell you what they’re thinking? These people are masters at squeezing every nickel out of adoring fans, huh? Guests such as Cruz are often used to help promote sales of these books.

Here is how it works; the show host writes a book, once it hits the bookstores they begin pushing it non-stop throughout every program. As they discuss news and events they make every attempt to use their own book as a reference or a guide to explaining whatever subject they turn their show towards. When a high profile guest like Cruz is live on air they bring the book up to create the subliminal message to listeners, Look, my guest, your hero reads my book, you should too. It is all marketing tactics which is fair, let the buyer beware, right?

After writing and releasing The Liberty Amendments Levin went into months of pushing the book on his program using a variety of guests to support his plans and theories. Cruz became one of these guests.

The premise of the book was a series of 11 amendments Levin devised as a Master Plan for taking back government. At least that is the spin he used, his real goal was to channel frustration at the failures of the GOP away from the party and redirect it by offering a pathway for action which required GOP allegiance for success. Levin was trying to use this book to provide a new direction for the GOP and in doing so was hoping to satisfy his deeply held personal dream of writing at least one amendment that would wind up as part of our Constitution. Surely out of 11 attempts at least one would survive to create his legacy as Lord and Master of the Levin Amendment.

Article 5 of our Constitution loosely defines a process of State Conventions coming into play as a backdoor ratification process for amendments which forces feds to accept changes they cannot be coaxed into making on their own. The process is from the bottom up instead of top down. Levin created a minor stir among his radio fans that purchased this book, gobbled up every detail without applying one iota of critical thinking skills then began demanding a series of 50 State Conventions to shove Levins 11 Amendments into law.

What Levin failed to mention was that our last new amendment took 200 years to get through the process and become part of our Constitution. Imagine trying to get 11 of them through. The entire idea was ludicrous to the point of madness but Levin wants to save the GOP and also make himself a historical figure, just one Levin Amendment and hes there! To validate his plan and the book he had to lie about our Constitution, Founder’s vision and basic American principles. He was hoping to enlist Cruz to help him do this but Cruz shut him down cold. This was the best thing I have seen Cruz do under pressure on a matter of historical and constitutional significance.

Here is what happened; Levin scheduled Cruz as a guest shortly after the book went on sale. Everyone knows most of the Cruz image is based on his claims to be a pure constitutionalist, the same fraudulent claim Levin uses to sell himself. Cruz is beholding to Levin, Beck and Rush because without their non-stop crony promotion of him none of us would even know who Cruz is. Hed have never made it to the Senate or so quickly leapfrogged into his lifelong dream of running for the White House. When these 3 radio hosts tell Cruz they need him on air he steps up. It is one more chance for him to be live on air nationally and he owes those 3 for making him a household name. They call, he jumps. He just doesn’t jump as far as Levin thought he would.

Cruz went on air with Levin and they began with small talk of the latest DC disasters and criticism of the Obama Administration. So far, so good, there is always plenty of meat on that bone. Then Levin dropped the Book Bomb. He began talking about the Liberty Amendments and trying to cajole Cruz into supporting him and agreeing live on air that this was our only path to salvation. Cruz refused to bite and it became very awkward. It was obvious that Cruz had not expected this turn of events and he was completely unprepared for it. Levin put Cruz in a very bad place and it wasn’t easy for Cruz to navigate his way around it without insulting Levin.

Levin was using the same pitch he used all along with this book; he was claiming that an Art 5 Convention of States was THE ONLY solution for our mess provided by our Constitution. He was also twisting and spinning words and works of our Founders to advance this lie. It was extremely unfair of him to put Cruz, a loyal friend, in such an uncomfortable position then dial up the pressure when Cruz began to dodge the issue. The entire Liberty Amendment book is loaded with lies and half-truths about our Founders and Constitution. It is pure spin of the sleaziest kind woven for the sole purpose of achieving personal agenda items for Levin. Cruz got blindsided but held his ground.

Levin made several attempts to get Cruz on board and he got nowhere. In typical lawyer fashion he tried different tactics to steer the conversation. Levin mentioned a few of the amendments and on paper several of them make very valid points. The ridiculous aspect of it all is these amendments are designed to force Congress, the Courts and Presidents to adhere to the Constitution they now ignore. Cruz detected this, how can a new amendment force them to stop ignoring old ones? They cant. Levin tried repeatedly to get Cruz to agree that an Art 5 Convention is our only hope, Cruz never took the bait. The Art 5 Convention process in our time is a ridiculous proposition that would accomplish nothing more than making Levin a national news figure instead of just a radio host with an obscure foundation.

Cruz is educated enough to know we have no limits on what citizens can do to peacefully change our leadership, direction of the Courts or even the personnel and parties that govern us. THAT is our truth from Founders and our Constitution. Our Constitution limits what government bodies can do and how they do it but it never limits the People. Nowhere does it imply our only pathway lies behind the actions of 50 teams of lawyers in every state pushing new amendments through the process for decades in the hope solutions come before our destruction does.

Jump ahead to now and even Levin has given up on his own stupid and self-serving process of chasing his 11 Liberty Amendments. His fans who briefly fell into rank supporting his scam have fallen silent and moved on to other causes. Levin made millions from the book and it is already forgotten, thank God. Cruz refused to play along and for that Cruz deserves his credit. Sure, he never once corrected Levin or explained why the entire concept was flawed spin but they are friends and such is life. In this one single instance I did see Cruz refuse to put himself at risk of future condemnation by falling prey to temptations by one of his closest compadres. He did not defend our Constitution or refute the temptation with truth but at least he did not play along. For that he deserves some credit, he avoided being tied to the failure the Liberty Amendments were destined to become.