AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Ted Cruz has said that after working on George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, being passed over for a senior position with the new administration was “a crushing blow.” Turns out, it was his own fault.
Cruz was offered a job as White House associate counsel shortly after Al Gore conceded the race in December, but he rejected it, members of the Bush transition team told The Associated Press. Cruz thought he was in line for the more senior role of deputy White House counsel.
The transition team members asked that their names not appear in print because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly for the Bush administration. They said that even before the associate counsel job was offered to Cruz, the deputy counsel position had been set aside for Timothy Flanigan, a veteran of the George H.W. Bush administration.
Though the titles are similar, the deputy counsel reported directly to then-White House counsel and future U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while the associate’s role was one of nine working under Flanigan.
The incident underscores a recurring theme of Cruz’s career, how his overt personal ambition rubbed colleagues the wrong way – sometimes to his professional and political detriment. By setting his eyes on a bigger prize and bypassing the chance to work as an administration lawyer in the White House, Cruz missed potentially invaluable experience and insight into the job he is now seeking.