Is Milton Wolf the next Ted Cruz?

As the government shutdown enters its tenth day, Democrats and moderate Republicans across the country could be forgiven for thinking there were already enough Tea Party-backed lawmakers to go around in Washington. A certain cousin of President Obama thinks they're wrong. So much so, in fact, that he's willing to take on a long-term Republican senator in a bid to become the country's next Ted Cruz — a Tea Party-backed senator from Texas who Fox News host Megyn Kelly just branded "the most hated man in America."

Dr. Milton Wolf, a radiologist and distant cousin of Obama, announced last night that he would challenge Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a three-term senator who has been ranked as one of the country's most conservative lawmakers. As Roberts' campaign manager points out, "It will be pretty hard for anyone to get on the conservative side of Pat Roberts." Wolf is going to give it his best shot.

Wolf started by using his announcement event to lay into Roberts' record of voting 11 times in the past to raise the debt ceiling. Plus, Wolf argued, Roberts has been around for way too long. "I'm sorry," he added, but "not even Moses should be in Congress for four decades."

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"We need more senators like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee," Wolf argued.

Wolf has already proven himself on two crucial Tea Party fronts:

He has been suitably "outspoken" on outlets like Hannity, Fox & Friends, and Rush Limbaugh's show, and is good at making candid, folksy statements about being a regular guy, not a career politician, a man who speaks his mind. These are the sort of statements perfected by the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin. Things like, "I don't beat around the bush; I don't ask for for A to get to B, and I don't apologize for telling the truth"; or, "I thank the consultants for their advice, but I'm still the same guy I was growing up in Lyons, [Kan.]"

He's also bona fide Obama-hater. Just take a look at some of the things he has to say about his distant relative:

• "If I had a cousin who intercepts every phone call in America but won't take a phone call from the Navy Seals in their hour of need, he'd look like Barack."
• "If I had a cousin that doesn't trust law-abiding Americans to arm themselves and yet arms the Muslim Brotherhood with fighter jets and Mexican drug lords with fast and furious guns, he'd look like Barack."
• "If I had a cousin whose policies were trying to turn America into Detroit, he'd look like Barack."

You get the picture. Apparently blood isn't thicker than water.

In the view of John Celock at the Huffington Post, Wolf still faces an uphill struggle if he wants to join Cruz and Co. in the Senate. Kansas GOP leaders are ready to get behind Roberts, and Wolf himself has acknowledged he needs at least $4 million to present a viable challenge.

But he's not giving up. "We are building the Wolf Pack," he declares. "An Army of Davids to defeat the Goliaths!"