After former House Speaker John Boehner told students at Stanford University in California on Wednesday that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz is “Lucifer in the flesh” and “a miserable son of a b**ch,” an editor at the liberal Huffington Post website decided to go to the source and find out if the Texas senator is really the devil.
According to an article by Sam Stein, the site's senior politics editor, the Post decided “to get to the bottom of this” by calling Lucien Greaves, a spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, who responded that “Boehner was basically 'full of it,' trying to absolve the worst of Christianity by calling him a product of Satanism.”
Stein began his post by stating: “A campaign dominated by big and difficult debates witnessed, perhaps, its most perplexing and certainly its most spiritual one yet on Thursday morning.” He noted that the question “Is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) actually Lucifer?” was “prompted not by conspiracy theorists who’ve wondered whether Cruz is the Zodiac Killer finally stepping out in public after decades in hiding.”
Instead of that ridiculous assertion, “the charge was leveled by someone with a bit more gravitas:” fellow Republican John Boehner.
“Of course, Cruz brushed off the insults at a press conference on Thursday morning, seeming at times to welcome the animus of a former lawmaker who embodied the Republican establishment," Stein noted.
“But what about the substance of the charge, dammit?” he demanded. “Is there, indeed, something satanic to the senator? Do Republicans in Congress see the dark threads of Luciferianism in their colleague from Texas?”
That led the Post editor to contact Greaves, who told Stein:
It is past time we stop blaming the activities of the upholders of the Christian faith on a Satanic philosophy.
Boehner is trying to convey that if it is bad, and he disagrees with it, it is of Satan and Lucifer, and if it is of good, it is of Christ. That is what is problematic with the Christian ideology.
“I don’t think Boehner is necessarily saying that he actually thinks Cruz is a Satanist because I just don’t think he is thinking that hard about the issues,” the spokesperson added. “These are simple-minded people. Our situation in U.S. politics is much worse than you can imagine.”
Stein then noted: “Lest you think that Greaves is a closet Cruz fan, lashing out at Boehner as a way to boost his candidate of choice, fret not. He despises the Texas Republican.”
“I think he is a real disaster,” the Satanist stated. “I think he is possibly one of the worst.”
“I think we have been on a race to the bottom for a long time now,” he continued, “and you keep thinking it can’t get worse and people would wise up after a clown like [Sarah] Palin or George Bush. But then you see people lining up around Ted Cruz.”
Boehner, an Ohio Republican who resigned last fall after pressure from conservatives on Capitol Hill, expanded on his comments in an article by Nick Gass of the Politico website, when the former speaker stated: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b**ch in my life.”
Regarding Donald Trump, Boehner remarked that he had golfed with the Republican businessman for years and that the two are “texting buddies.” It came as no surprise when Cruz used that comment to slam the former speaker.
“If you want someone that’s a texting and golfing buddy, if you’re happy with John Boehner as speaker of the House, and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump’s your man,” he told reporters during a stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The Texas senator insisted he never “worked with” Boehner and, in response to being called "Lucifer," Cruz added that Boehner “allowed his inner Trump to come out.” Boehner’s successor, Paul Ryan, has been neutral throughout the primary and said he has a better connection with Cruz than Boehner does.
“I have a very good relationship with both of these men,” he said. “I’m going to keep it that way.”
The controversy even drew a comment from conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who declared during his Thursday afternoon program:
Here's John Boehner, the former speaker of the House, who had to work with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama, and he says that Ted Cruz was the worst he ever had to work with? Isn't that a little bizarre?
One result of the incident is that Cruz has probably lost the Satanist vote, which he didn't try to win over anyway.
