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Posted: 2023-10-04T21:36:13Z | Updated: 2023-10-04T21:36:13Z

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday accused one of President Joe Bidens judicial nominees of being a Marxist and read aloud some bad poetry he wrote 30 years ago as proof that he is far out of the mainstream.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Cruz told Oregon district court nominee Mustafa Kasubhai that he was intrigued that Kasubhai had denied to another Republican committee member, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), that he is a Marxist.

You said, and I wrote it down, I have not praised Marxist ideas, Cruz said, obviously preparing to tee up something to the contrary. As you know in law, there is the fact of evidence.

And then, straight out of an English lit majors nightmare, he began reading aloud a poem that Kasubhai wrote decades ago, when he was a student in law school, called Sensualized Property Theory.

Intimate knowing, the lovers kissed, familiar and ever-exciting, passionate transcendence beyond the physical exhilaration lies a burning light and our limbs are hearts. Floating, flying, falling in every direction, amorphous and wonderful, time-stretching, space-curving, exquisitely explosive eros, and yet, I timidly tremble every time, Cruz read to the room.

He paused briefly to note, Now, somehow this is about property, which is not immediately evident as to why.

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Then, the Texas Republican carried on reading as Kasubhai sat there, almost certainly mortified to hear his old poetry being critiqued in a Senate confirmation hearing.

Property is not simply a relationship between an owner and an object of ownership, Cruz continued, reading aloud Kasubhais comparisons of philosophers John Locke, Jeremy Bentham and Karl Marx. The process towards integrating all three may provide a framework for relationships that enhances each unique self. The aspiration towards intimate knowing the intimate knowing of ones self and others is a creative struggle towards redefining property.

What the hell does that mean? Cruz demanded to know.

Kasubhai, who has been magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon since 2018 and was a country judge from 2007 to 2018, was clearly embarrassed.

Senator, he said, when I was preparing and reviewing my materials for this hearing and for the process, I also have to admit that that writing was far from clear or articulate.

The poetry was definitely not good, Kasubhai said.