Rubio reconnects with tea party activists
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Marco Rubio is renewing his outreach to tea party supporters and his advocacy for GOP causes as he struggles to repair his image as a conservative standard-bearer.
The shift comes after the potential 2016 presidential candidate pushed the Senate to approve an immigration overhaul bill that’s been panned by some on the right who could be crucial to his future.
Rubio joined about 50 conservative activists and other lawmakers Tuesday at a meeting of the Senate’s tea party caucus, putting him in a room with representatives of grassroots activists who helped fuel his unlikely Senate victory in 2010.
The Florida senator, considered a formidable presidential candidate in 2016 if he seeks the White House, spent months advocating for a comprehensive immigration reform proposal but has been largely absent from lobbying efforts since the process moved to the House. Instead, he has returned to conservative causes he has supported in the past, highlighting his opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care law by pushing for an elimination of its funding, backing a measure to place more restrictions on U.S. funding of the United Nations and opposing the White House’s choice to lead the Labor Department. SOURCE
Marco Rubio may have a few good points in his favor, he did start off well, but Rubio didn’t take long to prove to REAL Conservatives that he is nothing less than a RINO, a Republican In Name Only, and if the TEA Party is so desperate that they would take this *John McCain wannabe* back under their wing, then the TEA Party has truly proven that it is as useless as I have long believed it to be.
It comes as some of his supporters cite frustration with his backing of the Senate immigration plan.
“His immigration bill is much more of a letdown than him taking a sip of water in the response to the State of the Union,” said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, referring to the senator’s reach for a water bottle during his February speech.
I didn’t have an issue with him taking a sip of water, if you’re thirsty, you’re thirsty, but a lot of people made a big nasty deal about that sip of water.
I was NOT one of them, I concentrate on issues that matter.
I have however blasted Rubio for his *sucking up* to Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Robert Menendez, Sen. Dick Durbin and his fellow RINOs Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Jeff Flake, and the King of the RINOs, Sen. John McCain.
It appears to me that Rubio took to the RINO side of politics in a big hurry, so much so that many have already said he was a *dead issue* in future political endeavors.
Eighteen months before voters begin considering the Republican field, it remains difficult to predict whether Rubio’s stance on immigration could be a liability with voters. Two potential Senate rivals, Cruz and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the immigration reform bill and have been critical of the measure as they begin appearing in early voting states like Iowa and South Carolina. In Iowa on Friday, Cruz said the Senate bill continued “the same mistakes of the past,” citing a 1986 reform law that is anathema to conservatives now.
If the TEA Party tries to pass Marco Rubio off as a Conservative, and the GOP, and the Conservatives in this nation fall for it, one of two things will happen;
1. Rubio may get elected POTUS and almost immediately will be found to be in *over his head* as he founders just as much as has Barack Hussein Obama. OR…
2. Rubio will be an abject failure at the polls and will hand the nation to the Democrats once again, thus effectively ending the United States of America as we have known it.
I am going to say this as bluntly as I can because I want people to wake up and understand the seriousness of this issue; I am here to express strong political opinions, I am NOT here to make friends by kissing the asses of the TEA Party or the GOP, so, here it is. A while back the GOP ran John McCain for POTUS.
Of course he lost.
Many of us were convinced that McCain was nothing more than a *waffling* RINO, and in this current term in the U.S. Senate McCain has proven those suspicions beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I am convinced that Marco Rubio has learned from the Master RINO, and learned well.
There’s no excuse for sending a potential McCain clone into the fray, the GOP can do a lot better than this. We have far too much to lose to take that chance.
Good analysis as always. According to my spies in Florida, Rubio has lost some ground there in terms of his popularity, but I suspect as you do that he will become a Latino version of John McCain if he doesn’t return to real conservative principles. He HAD promise, but I doubt he can run for President in 2016…not with Ted Cruz in the race.
You know I didn’t support Cruz in the Texas primaries but I did after it came down to him and the other guy, but I have to tell you, since he hit D.C. I have gained a TON of respect for the man!
If he keeps doing what he’s doing now and doesn’t pull a stupid Weineresque faux pas, I think he has as good a chance as anyone the GOP can offer…
And can you imagine Cruz and Allen West? OH HELL YEAH!
If I gave Rubio any thought, I’d say “F*** him.”
He’s so despised in this household, I won’t waste the energy getting angry at him. And I *LIKE* getting angry. As Mrs. Bluto says, “I don’t hate him, I *nothing* him. He doesn’t even deserve hate energy”.
I never liked Rubio right from the git go… I never trusted him, I had NO confidence in him and after HE hit D.C. he proved himself to be the RINO I suspected him to be…
Rubio showed his true colors with the immigration bill and he will not get my vote. A Cruz/West versus a Hillary/???? in 2016 will be a real showdown and will definitely show where the American people stand. A definite line will be drawn in the sand and there will be no middle ground…bring it on!
A lot of people seem to like that Cruz/West ticket idea, I am one of them, but I have to tell you, I would love to see the Dems try to run Hillary Clinton in 2016.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes Sir, I want that evil BITCH to run in 2016… Please run… That one line will be her entire undoing…
It appears to me that Marco Rubio has followed the path laid down by so many before him. Once he landed in Washington, political expediency became more important than conservative values.
And I expected that from him too, I never liked him and had no trust in him..
I wonder if the fact that his maternal grandfather apparently had undocumented status for 4 years before applying for legal residency has influenced his support of this immigration travesty: his maternal grandfather came to the US sans visa (our embassy in Cuba being closed), was ordered deported but “eventually was allowed to stay in the U.S. when the Cuban Adjustment Act was passed in 1966, but it’s unclear what happened in between.
The National Archive provided Garcia’s immigration records to The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. No other immigration records exist for Garcia from 1962 until he applied for residency four years later, meaning he likely remained illegally.
The U.S. immigration system was very different back then. Few immigrants were deported regardless of their origin.
A spokesman for Rubio said Garcia was like thousands of other refugees who often don’t arrive with all the necessary visas. He added that the U.S. allowed Cubans to stay.
http://www.wpbf.com/news/politics/Marco-Rubio-s-grandfather-ordered-deported-to-Cuba-in-1962/-/8788770/11841162/-/1yggv2z/-/index.html#ixzz2a3Lkfuz8
I could never support someone who is working in support of a bill which has such catastrophic consequences for our country. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice? I wouldn’t bet on it, Rubio.
As quickly as Rubio went RINO I think someone has SOMETHING on him. I did not like him at the start and once he joined up with Schumer and the other ‘gang’ members I knew I was right in my initial assessment. He was never going to get my vote.
On Cruz…WOW!! If he just does not *f-up* he will be a MAJOR powerhouse in the coming years. Like you said Fred, Cruz & West would be a duo that would, in my opinion, be unbeatable!!
Lets Keep The Faith!! and Stay Locked & Loaded!!
Something *on him*? Quite possible, but you know, so many of these clowns are just there for themselves, RINO may be what he really was but some were afraid to call him on it..
Rubio = McCain; An equation that even the densest can understand!
You would think … but look at that asswipe Anthony Weiner in NYC…
Of course he is a Democrat but we have a lot of BLIND folks on the RIGHT too..
Too late Rubio, you made your bed. Stick with your best bud McRino.
I hope the good folks of Florida have the good sense to run him off.. That’s a lot more than can be said about McCain and the voters of Arizona..
Those folks are very PRO-Gun and 2A but when it comes to McCain they are as dumb as ANY Dem ever was..
Rubio allowed himself to be controlled by long time sitting senators like McCain and Schumner. He was taken in and that’s not good. We don’t need senators who are taken in and controlled. We need men like Ted Cruise who as a freshman senator has stood his ground against those who have been there way too long.
Well, y’all may disagree with me on this one, but….
I view Rubio as nothing more than another Obama - somebody that can speak well in public and captures the public eye because he’s a minority. And just like Obama, once the speech is done, it’s nothing more than empty promises. It’s the same coin, Obama on one side & Rubio on the other.
Identity politics is a bunch of crap.
Frankly, I ain’t interested in any of Rubio’s pivoting so that he can position himself to run for POTUS.