Turn-About Is Fair Play

After using his daughters as political props, Ted Cruz was mad as hell at a Washington Post cartoon which called him out for using his daughters as political props.

Cruz ran Christmas campaign ads featuring him and his little girls reading from faux-Dr. Seuss books like, "How Obamacare Stole Christmas" and "The Grinch Who Lost Her Emails."  The ads are uninspired, low-grade political parody, spiced up by his knowing exploitation of his daughters.

WaPo editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes reacted with her animated drawing of Santa Cruz as an organ grinder and his daughters as a pair of trained monkeys.

Thin-skinned Cruz cried foul -- "Don't mess with my kids!" -- but you can't have it both ways, Teddy Boy.  You messed with them first.  You broke the seal and used your kids in a campaign ad.  So shut up.

Ms. Telnaes did not back down and did not apologize.  Since Cruz made the first move by exploiting his own children, Telnaes then considered them "fair game" for editorial cartooning.  She is correct.


Unfortunately, the Post's editor did not support her.  He caved in to right-wing criticism and pulled the cartoon from the newspaper's website.

In the glory days of Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post was a leader in hard-hitting journalism.  That was a long time ago.  Today it is the plaything of billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos.  Somehow, just not the same.