What the hell does Marco Rubio think he’s doing?
JM: If you were in the Arizona state legislature, would you have voted for the law?
MR: The second one that passed hit the right note. Yes.
Rubio also rejected the notion of a “path to citizenship” or “amnesty,” despite “the human stories.”
Opposing this bill should be a no-brainer for any Republican who can get away with it in the primaries, especially in a state with a large Latino population. I’ve heard a lot of talk about Marco Rubio being a star who will someday be president. He won’t be.
Gregory
Rancid reference ftw
Kirk Spencer
Rubio thinks the historical cuban-american connection to the Republicans will protect him.
And by the time he seeks the white house, this’ll be the way it is everywhere, so who cares?
geg6
Political suicide by tea bag.
Awesome.
Allison W.
No way is he going to be president. I know many people said that about Obama, but Rubio ain’t no Obama.
Ash Can
Rush Limbaugh must have left a horse head in his bed.
Alex S.
No! You made me go to politico! But I just had to read the stupidity for myself.
NobodySpecial
Holy shit, did he just say that to the Cuban-American community?
How do you translate ‘I got mine, fuck you’ into Spanish?
EFroh
You said it yourself
“for any Republican who can get away with it”.
He knows his “base” will not let him get away with it. Which means the only way the GOP will win state/national offices is if they pretend they are more moderate than they are and liberal voters don’t turn out (e.g., McDonnell in VA).
Felonious Wench
Awesome post title. That song is one of my 7 year-old’s favorites.
FormerSwingVoter
You have a lot more faith in the American electorate than I do. “Brown people suck” is a disturbingly effective campaign slogan.
A Guest
Aren’t you shy a “Rubi”?
El Cid
Lieberman and the Republicans should change the Constitution so that no one is a citizen until nominated & approved by a committee set up by Lieberman and the GOP.
Morbo
Rubio, you fool, you forgot to fit “common sense” into that sentence!
cat48
If there are enough white folks he might be
Davis X. Machina
“tengo el mio — jodase!”
John Arbuthnot Fisher
Will Florida Cuban-American Republicans actually, actively and vocally criticize Rubio for this? If not, he’s essentially having his cake and eating it too.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Bu-but, he’s tanned toned and cut!
OK, dove into the Poolitico and fished out this steaming turd:
Compassionate Commonsense Conservatism, also!
cat48
@Allison W.: Would be difficult/Speech at CPAC would be enough to sink him/I wouldn’t vote for him
Davis X. Machina
@John Arbuthnot Fisher:
Nein, naturlich. Sie sind immer vor allem parteitreu.</i.
DougJ
@Alex S.:
Ben Smith’s blog is fine. I still link to it.
DougJ
@A Guest:
Damn! You’re right.
Culture of Truth
I’ve heard a lot of talk about Marco Rubio being a star who will someday be president.
That depends. How big are his shoulders?
Lev
I feel for Rubio. Basically, Arizona flipped the bird to every Hispanic in the nation, which obviously includes him. But he’s in a party that has been coddling racists and xenophobes for decades. Quite a conundrum. Of course, he could actually say what he thinks, even if it costs him support. That would be, you know, courageous. Which is not exactly what the GOP is known for these days.
The wages of being a Republican congressperson at this point really are your soul. Happily for them, plenty of people who want to be Republican leaders had no soul to begin with, so it’s no big deal.
Karen S.
Well, he may not be elected president someday, but that doesn’t mean he can’t become a powerful political hack on the national stage, what with the media lap dogs willing to add his act to their circus.
Alex S.
@DougJ:
Agreed, I guess I have to make another Ezra-Klein-exception.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@John Arbuthnot Fisher: If not, he’s essentially having his cake and eating it too.
I suspect that A) he’s not too bright, and B) he’s counting on enough hard-right Cubans and ethnicity-as-single-issue hispanics to set off any losses he gets from sucking up to the Tea Baggers (yeah, I said it).
August J. Pollak
I know it’s changed, but Rubio was losing Hispanic voters to Meek and Crist in March. The reality is that Rubio needs whites to come to his side far more than he needs Cuban-Americans.
Triangulating on the Arizona law also forces Crist to address it to keep the white voters he desperately needs. Essentially Rubio is gambling that Crist loses more voters taking a position than he will.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Culture of Truth: You could land the sea plane Rush Limbaugh uses for Dominican sex tourism on Marco Rubio’s shoulders.
Who do you think would make the first “I’m not gay but…” reveal in an interview with Senator Rubio? Tweety or Doocey?
dmsilev
Live by the tea bag, die by the tea bag.
dms
maus
@NobodySpecial:
Many settled middle classed or upwardly mobile older Cubans are fine with this. See how they handle the Haitians, or how they sneer at the Mexican guest workers in Homestead. Many others make the claims that their families came over legally and went through bigotry, therefore newer Cuban immigrants have it “easy”.
While unverifiable, some still believe that immigration reform belittles their families’ struggles.
It’s stupid, but those sorts of attitudes are what being a Republican is all about.
(Former Miamian)
Zifnab
From George Allen to George Bush to Hailey Barbour to John McCain, it seems like the racial issue is the cross Republicans choose to die on again and again.
They make this big fuss inside the caucus, trying to demagogue the vote. And then they fight like mad to keep the racial demagoguery out of the general election. And then – one way or another – it always blows up in their faces. But they keep coming back to it.
It’s political Darwinism in action. This recessive trait that just refuses to die, even though it can’t help but kill the host so often.
August J. Pollak
Also:
Why would Republicans want any aspect of “bipartisan opposition” to an anti-immigration bill? Or any bill? Half the Senate GOP is readying to filibuster an immigration reform bill nearly identical to one they wrote and voted for only four years ago.
There’s no “no-braining” of any kind here. If Democrats are against it, they’re for it, and vice-versa. Repeat until there isn’t a Kenyan in the White House.
Lolis
It makes it worse for Rubio that this is a flip-flop. I really think Meeks has a shot in FL if he runs a good campaign.
Culture of Truth
Jim, if what you say is true, Tweety.
If he is merely handsome, but a true right wing nut, then Doocy.
PurpleGirl
The Cuban experience is very different than the experience of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. The Cubans are refugees from communism and that devil Castro. Our government (Democratic and Republican administrations) has treated them like royalty. A friend in college had a full scholarship because his family were refugees. He didn’t become a citizen until he had to in order to get a security clearance so he could work in certain areas of physics research.
Older Cubans, especially those with a family history going back to Spain, do not see themselves as being other than white.
Linda Featheringill
@Davis X. Machina: I went to an online Spanish slang dictionary and it seems that you have it right.
I suggest we make a tag line out of that phrase.
[And yes, this is very important stuff I am spending my time on!]
EvanSchenck
People who think Rubio could be president are probably the same people who think Latinos and African Americans should be Republicans since so many of them are religiously devout. Additionally they probably don’t realize that there are multiple varieties of Latino. The kind of people who believe just giving a couple speeches in Spanish is going to draw tons of votes away from the Democrats, regardless of what is said.
There’s a broad gap between the Florida Cuban-American community and other Latino communities in the United States. I doubt Rubio will be hurt in Florida by this statement, because conservative Cuban-Americans know that bills like SB1070 are aimed at immigrants from Central America, not at them. They’re Republican’s favorite minority for a lot of reasons: they’re political refugees from the commies, their properties was confiscated by the Cuban government (gasp!), many have a stated desire to go back to Cuba when the Castro regime falls, and having them in the tent makes Republicans feel a little less racist. “Why, we don’t hate Mexicans! Some of our best friends are Cuban!”
And Rubio won’t really be hurt in a prospective future national bid either, because he never actually had a chance there anyway.
Cacti
Rubio is just reitirating the basic Miami Gusano position.
As long as there’s a “wet feet, dry feet” rule for Cubans, all you Mexicans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, etc. can GFY.
Might be smart politics in Florida, but it will kill him if he has any national ambitions, as most U.S. Latinos are of the non-Cuban variety.
Karen S.
@maus:
I had wondered about this, having so little experience with Florida. The one Cuban American I knew when I was growing up was my high school Spanish teacher. She thought Cubans were the cat’s meow compared to others of Latino descent and couldn’t hide her disdain for Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, etc. For one thing, she felt they didn’t speak good Spanish. Some of my nastier classmates made fun of her accent when her back was turned (and sometimes when it wasn’t) and some complained they couldn’t understand her when she spoke English. Her snobbery kept me from having much sympathy for her, sad to say.
Midnight Marauder
@Lolis:
Real talk. The fact that Rubio reneged on his initial opposition to this law is what is going to really hurt him (in addition to being a know-nothing buffoon, that is). And it’s bad enough that he came out in support of the legislation after the changes were made, but the changes that he’s championing are pretty frightening:
Yep, because there weren’t enough problem areas with this law to begin with. Rubio is toast in the fall. I think this election is most definitely Meeks for the taking.
MikeJ
@Cacti: Does the position of younger Cubans differ from that of the older Cubans?
August J. Pollak
I, sadly, think Meek is completely screwed. It’s already present in the virtual anonymity he’s dealt with over the media’s last few weeks of passionate Crist/Rubio/GOP breakup drama. He’s the “who?” of the race and I don’t think that’s going to change.
The biggest problem is simply that Crist is polling higher than Meek. Unless that changes, Crist becomes the default not-Republican just like Joe Lieberman became the default not-Democrat. And while Meek might get Democratic campaign support, Crist might very well have the advantage of getting the support of fellow “independents” Joe Lieberman and Mike Bloomberg, in the one state in America where having right-moderate, old Jewish guys as your top constituency matters.
The race is going to end up being a fight between the anti-incumbent and teabagger coalition for Rubio and the “yeah, i guess he wasn’t that shitty a governor, let’s keep him, and lord knows I don’t want Rubio” crowd for Crist.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@August J. Pollak:
What I’ve been thinking, too. At this point (and six months is a long-ass time in politics) I think the best we can hope for is that Crist really wants to screw the GOP.
Third Eye Open
Meeks can’t win, mostly because we don’t elect Democrats to state-wide office if they are left of Nelson. Meeks will extract whatever concessions from Crist he thinks he can get, and all us DFHs will dutifully vote for Crist, just to be the firewall between mediocrity and outright uber-guano. Where is Ralph Nader when you need him…
Cacti
@MikeJ:
That, I don’t know.
Third Eye Open
@MikeJ: As a member of the “younger Cuban” population, yes. The ones I have met don’t care that their parents or, increasingly, their grandparents escaped a communist hell-hole, its more of just a story to tell the admissions officer and scholarship people. One thing they will not abide though, is being looked at like second class citizens. Cubans tend to flock, this is why you see large communities in places like Oklahoma, North Carolina and New York. We may be Americans, but we have gotten used to the idea that we are “special” in the Latin community (even though we aren’t) and Gods have mercy on anyone who thinks we aren’t. We fucking own Miami fer-christsakes, and we are working on the Orlando and Tampa areas (Ybor City, anyone?). Oh, and don’t call us Puerto Rican or Mexican, unless you want to meet our little friends…(pun intended)
licensed to kill time
__
Well, in Mexico you might say ” Yo tengo mio, vete a la chingada!”
Roger Moore
@Lev:
I don’t feel for him at all. As you point out, Rubio has had ample notice that he’s in the party of racist asshats. If that truly bothers him, he’s had more than enough chance to flip them the bird and join a party that doesn’t think some Americans are more equal than others. Anyone who’s been in politics for as long as Rubio has and is still in good standing with the Republican party obviously doesn’t give a damn about fair treatment of minorities.
eric
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Couple of points: Crist will convert to Dem if he wins and moderate his views. He is too ambitious to stop at US Senate. A dem senator from florida that knows how to raise money and has never been a true believer could very well end up on the post-obama dem ticket. He has NO future in the GOP. At the very least he will caucus with the dems because the GOP is taking his money.
Plus, as I have said before, I think the Arizona law is not an automatic win for the Dems because it is so easy to say “look at how bad border security is there.” If you are counting on the MSM to call BS, then good luck with that.
Finally, there is a better than 50-50 chance that immigration wont be “the” issue six months from now.
I know that Crist has no natural money constituency right now, but I think he will get a ton of free media.
He is still liked in Florida by the much sought after “independent” voter.
eric
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, he wants to. He really, really, really wants to. Of that I have no doubts whatsoever. None.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/crist-hinting-at-possible-veto-of-anti-abortion-bill.php
Omnes Omnibus
@Third Eye Open:
That is now mine. I have stolen it.
eric
One other point, combine crist with Reid (Bowden’s implosion and arizona’s immigration law), and the dems look much better than they did a few weeks ago.
Kentucky could still be really interesting.
eric
Alex
I think Kendrick Meek might have a better chance if people would get his name right. I don’t have much hope for him, but hell, if Crist and Rubio spend six months tearing each other down, then who knows. Did anyone know Scott Brown’s name on January 1, 2010?
August J. Pollak
Possibly, but that doesn’t matter. The Democrats will control the Senate in 2011. The GOP has to flip nine seats, NOT including Florida, to make it 50-50. There’s no model that would give them that many victories (or even 8 plus a Lieberman flip) that doesn’t include a crushing win for Rubio anyway.
Point being, if Crist enters the Senate he’s doing it under a Democratic Majority Leader. While vengeance is a motivating factor, logic is a much better one. If Crist wins, he’ll caucus with the Democrats because they’ll be the majority party and give him better panel seats. Republicans have literally nothing to offer him anymore.
eric
@Alex: speaking of Brown, I have yet to hear anyone explain how he is gonna raise major money and keep from getting bad GOP press for a real election while NOT taking uber-right positions in MA……
eric
Third Eye Open
@Omnes Omnibus: stick it down someone’s throat while you throw them under the shit-sandwich bus. Cheers!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eric:
I hope you’re right. I’m a blogosphere-lefty who thinks Reid gets a bad rap. We’re having our annual convention in a phonebooth. Not that he’s a hero or my ideal, but given his circumstances, I don’t think he deserves the shit he gets. I think Ohio and New Hampshire are key. They’re at the top of my out-of-state donations this years.
Sentient Puddle
@August J. Pollak:
So what? Crist’s current polling is his high water mark. He can’t can’t hire a seasoned campaign staff, because they all work for the parties. His fundraising potential is going to be rather strained for the same reason. His ability to campaign is utterly crippled without the backing of a party.
I don’t see why anyone is looking at maybe a week’s worth of polling, no trendlines, and extrapolating that Crist is going to kick ass in November. It’s just not grounded in any reality I’m aware of.
August J. Pollak
If by that you mean six months’ worth of polling in which Crist has done nothing but gained over Meek, then, yeah.
sparky
@Third Eye Open: for myself i look forward to a steel cage match between the Cubans and the Argentinians: only one can survive!
incidentally, i think Charlie actually has a better shot at winning now that he doesn’t have to make nice with an increasingly off-the-rails GOP in Tallahassee. crazy plays really well in the statehouse but not so well statewide.
my guess at the moment is that it will be a matter of turnout–if the people who voted for Obama stay home (assuming they would vote for Meek if they voted), then Charlie will win, though not by much.* after all he did win handily in 2006.
*one significant wrinkle is the system of reviewing votes. nominally independent but in truth generally managed by the Rs and the Ds, neither of which want to see CC win.
Ella in NM
Dude, as long whites are the majority, it’s NOT a no-brainer, doncha see?
asiangrrlMN
@geg6: Mmmmm, I’m savoring the smell of a man scorned. Thanks for that link. I sorely needed it after the last two blog entries. And this one, come to think of it. I need a drink.
@Ella in NM: This is the first year in which minorities are projected to have more babies than white people will. I think this tipping scale is part of what is freaking out the older, more conservative white people so badly.
Third Eye Open
@sparky: Sucka Please! I will take a Calle Ocho-hardened Cubano over whatever the hell this is, anyday ;-)
But you’re right, Crist is going to rely on turnout. Although, I really do think that most of the Democrats (who outside of cities tend to be state-workers) will vote for anyone not associated with Jeb Bush. Dems will eat ALL of this shit-sandwich, and then smile, gah-run-tee it!
scotty c
OMG RANCID FTW!
Remember November
WHy hasn’t he changed his name to Mark Rube yet?
Rubio is the “anti-Crist”, for sure.
he’s got the mark of the beast. only it says “siete-siete-siete”
someguy
Have any of you read the act? It’s no more racist than federal immigration law.
That doesn’t make it good. It’s still insanely racist. But the next talking point you’re about to be hit with will probably involve quotes from the immigration and naturalization act. Well, assuming they can find a Republican who knows how to read.
Remember November
@maus:
sure, they came over legally, in boats and rafts and huddled in temporary camps as political asylumees. If you call that legal.
revenga!
Brachiator
@NobodySpecial:
This is not necessarily a problem for Rubio. As others have noted, Cubans can use a “fleeing from Communism” cover.
Nor is this necessarily a slam dunk disaster for Republicans.
People who want to immediately go for amnesty, uh, I mean “comprehensive immigration reform” try to gloss over an essential unfairness on dubious humanitarian grounds. It’s all fine to say that if millions are here, we might just as well legalize them, but this also delivers a big FU to all the suckers, uh, I mean, potential residents who wasted their time enduring long waits and filling out applications. Plans to streamline and speed-up the process are largely fanciful.
And while I enjoy all the demographic dancing going on, speakers at the most recent rallies in Southern California emphasized a point that has been made before, and one which gets continually ignored by poll predictors.
Activists talked about wanting to come to the US to work, and demanding to be left alone. Or, a subtle variation that being a hard worker alone means that you have earned the right to stay in this country.
Views like this were far more common than the idea that they were hot to become citizens, let alone voters.
@PurpleGirl:
This is a complex psychological issue that some Latinos, not just Cubans, get caught up in. They like to pretend that their African or indigenous heritage does not exist and that they are really “Spanish.” And hell, not even being “pure” Spanish means as much as some might believe or pretend.
Tenzil Kem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ll see you at that convention. Reid got 60 votes for health care reform in a Senate where there were only 60 possible votes for health care reform. Show me another majority leader who did anything that tough.
lou
Maus took the words right out of my mouth. Older Cuban Americans think they’re a special case because of their flight from communism. Mario won’t lose any points there and that’s probably why he took the gamble.
But the Miami Cuban community isn’t the only Latino community in Florida any more. Plenty of Venezuealans, Colombians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Dominicans now live in Florida. Miami is the gateway to South America and all that. And as Third Eye Open pointed out, younger gen doesn’t necessarily follow their olds. Mario might be in for a surprise.
Sentient Puddle
@August J. Pollak:
But how relevant is most of that data? Polling an actual race is one thing, but everything before late April was polling a hypothetical. I’d take everything before April or so (when an independent bid began looking realistic) with a brick of salt, and everything from there until April 29 with a grain.
Gus
Now that’s funny.
PurpleGirl
@Remember November: There are a number of older Cuban immigrants who came by private plane/boat by way of Jamaica after they arranged to transfer their family businesses and assets to the US. Many of them had advance information about when the final fall of Batista would occur and were preparing for the move. The friend I mentioned in my earlier comment was from such a family (lower aristocracy in Spain 300 or so years ago, upper-middle class and in the Cuban government). He was sent ahead to Jamaica with his nanny and 6-8 months later his parents picked him up on their way to NY.
Remember November
@PurpleGirl:
I’m aware, I was being sarcastic. I was referring to post-Castro takeover Cubanos from say the 60’s and 70’s.
Edward G. Talbot
I think Rubio is making a gamble here. Thus the variety of opinion in this thread. he might hang on to enough older Cubans and solidify his base and have it more than offset his losses with independent voters who might have considered him.
Or, the whole thing might snowball, a lot of negative stories of the law’s implementation start coming out of arizona and Rubio’s gamble will have backfired.
In a lot of ways this election is going to come down to how Crist and meeks run, not how Rubio runs. Rubio’s got most of his voters already, but 70% of the population would consider voting for either Crist or Meeks under certain circumstances. If Meeks starts to get marginalized then this position becomes a big problem for Rubio.
Paul in KY
@maus: Agreed. I lived in Miami for 3 years & as long as you are ‘Death to Castro’, they don’t give a shit about any of your other positions.