Usually, speeches on the floor of the United States Senate are a pro-forma waste of everyone’s time, with histrionics ranging from “embarrassingly corny” to “overwrought self-aggrandizement.” This is, after all, the same place where Sen. Ted Cruz somberly read Green Eggs and Ham because he was just so gosh darned furious that then-President Barack Obama wanted to let people have healthcare.
But sometimes—in a few rare instances—they can be very good, too. Like today, when Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet absolutely tore Cruz a new one for being a hypocritical smarmy dick over the current government shutdown.
“Because of the senator from Texas, this government was shut down for politics,” Bennet practically screamed. “Then he surfed to a second place finish in the Iowa caucuses, but were [sic] of no help to the first responders, to the teachers, to the students whose schools were closed with the federal government that was shut down, because of the junior senator from Texas.”
Will Bennet’s impassioned dressing down of Cruz make a difference in the ongoing government shutdown stalemate? Probably not. Is it fun to watch someone yell at Cruz for being a creepy ghoul anyway? You’d better believe it.