Bait and switch

It’s time for Cruz to go back to the job Texans traditionally elect senators to do.

Through its 1845 annexation treaty with the United States, Texas has the unique privilege of dividing itself into five separate states. Proponents of the idea through the years have contended that a Lone Star mitosis into a constellation of states would multiply the power and influence of Texas in Washington. Former Vice President John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner of Uvalde — best known for comparing the office he held under FDR to “a pitcher of warm spit” — maintained that slicing Texas into five states each the size of Arkansas would “transfer the balance of political power to the South and secure for the Southern States prestige and recognition.”

Garner envisioned an East Texas, West Texas, North Texas and South Texas, with just plain Texas in the middle. The idea went nowhere, largely because most Americans believed — and still believe — that one Texas was more than enough.

We concede that 10 Texas solons is a bit extreme, but we also maintain that one is not enough, since every other state, large and small, is represented by twice that number. And yet one is what we’ve had since 2012, when the relatively unknown Ted Cruz rode the Texas tea party wave to smashing victory over former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and, a few weeks later, over a hapless Democratic challenger. That campaign, albeit impressive, was a classic case of political bait and switch. Cruz had no interest in being a senator, no respect for the institution beyond the furtherance of his overweening ambition. His senior colleague in the Senate, the only one working for Texas, admitted as much in remarks he made earlier this week.

“Clearly, he didn’t come here to remain in the Senate. He came here to run for president. And I think that perhaps explains the difference in tactics,” Sen. John Cornyn told Dallas radio station KERA while discussing how he and his junior colleague differ.

Cornyn is right, of course, and that’s too bad for Texas. Few lawmakers in Washington are as conservative and as deeply suspicious of an intrusive federal government as the state’s senior senator, and yet even Cornyn recognizes that this big, complex place needs his involvement and influence on a host of important issues. Cruz isn’t interested, which leaves Texans short-changed.

With a larger-than-life businessman and reality-TV personality on the verge of being the Republican nominee, Cruz’s White House ambitions are about to be dashed (for 2016, at least). His Carly Fiorina gambit is, in the words of Donald Trump, “a pure waste of time.” Cruz is not going to be the GOP nominee (and his running mate won’t have to experience the warm-spit torture Cactus Jack endured).

Once the sturm und drang of the campaign finally goes quiet on California’s golden shores, once the young senator has spent some time back home in Houston relaxing and recharging, perhaps he’ll reconsider his role in Washington. In the tradition of his esteemed predecessors — Lyndon Johnson, Lloyd Bentsen, Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison immediately come to mind — we’d urge him to recommit to Texas. We know his disdain for governance, and yet plenty of issues important to Texans could use his attention, among them stormsurge protection, flooding issues, border infrastructure, comprehensive immigration reform, transportation, health issues, NASA, medical research, environmental protection and criminal justice reform, to name a few.

Cruz owes it to his fellow Texans. He baited them four years ago; now it’s time for him to switch back to the job we traditionally elect senators to do.

He has the time. At 45, he could be running for president for the next 20 years, could still be in the Senate two decades and more beyond that. He could still be in the Senate, in fact, when Texas celebrates the bicentennial of that 1845 annexation treaty, when he’ll be Bernie Sanders’ age — and the state will still be needing two committed U.S. senators.