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You are here: Home / Exile on K Street

Exile on K Street

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I was talking to a Latino friend of mine about Rubio a few months ago and I predicted that Rubio would eventually go the “we Cubans aren’t like you wetbacks” route and fuck up whatever chance he had of helping Republicans with Latino voters at the national level. Sure enough:

That ethnic calculus was further complicated by records, reported by The Washington Post last week, showing that Rubio had incorrectly portrayed his parents as exiles who fled Cuba after the rise of Fidel Castro. In fact, their experience more closely resembles that of millions of non-Cuban immigrants: They entered the United States 2 1 / 2 years before Castro’s ascent for apparent economic reasons.

Rubio made the exile story a central theme of his political biography, telling one audience during his Senate campaign, “Nothing against immigrants, but my parents are exiles.” A video, apparently produced for the conservative site RedState.com, shows black-and-white footage of Castro as Rubio speaks.

Even after the new reports of his parents’ entry, Rubio has said he remains the “son of exiles,” saying his parents had hoped to return to the island but did not because of the rise of a Communist state.

But in elevating exile roots over the apparent reality of his parents’ more conventional exodus, Rubio risks setting up a tension point with the country’s Hispanic voters — most of whom are Mexican American and have immigrant friends or ancestors who did not have access to the virtually instant legal status now granted to Cubans who make it into the United States.

“If he does take that mantle, there’ll be a lot of clarification that he’ll have to make on a whole lot of issues,” said Lionel Sosa, a longtime GOP strategist.

Rubio has future Bayh/Tauzin K Street douchebag written all over him, not future vice-president. I’d say what a fucking idiot for not keeping his mouth shut and identifying with other Latinos, but he’s probably better off this way than at taking a real shot at being the great brown hope. He’s a bilingual Paul Ryan, at best.

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  1. 1.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I always like it when you return to the classics. Have you read Life? It’s quite fascinating, even in its candor about some of the awful parts. Those guys are getting old – I fully expect the next tour to be the “we know we left our reading glasses in one of these stadiums” tour.

  3. 3.

    Mark S.

    So are we to believe that Cuba wasn’t a capitalist paradise before Castro? This will no doubt be confusing to people who rely on Sean Hannity’s coloring book of American history.

  4. 4.

    Nutella

    Rubio’s just a particularly clear example of the weird nativist attitude that’s so common here in a nation of immigrants and descendents of immigrants. Only a Native American can be anti-immigrant without a debilitating quantity of cognitive dissonance but somehow even some people who have immigrant parents (aka anchor babies) manage to do it.

  6. 6.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    I’d say what a fucking idiot for not keeping his mouth shut and identifying with other Latinos

    That assumes (incorrectly) that people from points between 30N & 50S* in this part of the world see themselves as one big happy family.

    I’d no more expect Latinos as a group to go for Rubio (even if he wasn’t a douche) than I would expect Asians as a group to go for Bobby Jindal.

    *Offer does not apply in some portions of the Gulf of Mexico, which is another issue but still central to my point.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Nutella:

    It’s fascinating that a guy like Tom Tancredo doesn’t get that 40 years or so ago he was not a “real murkin” because his last name ends in a vowel.

  8. 8.

    Martin

    @Mark S.:

    This will no doubt be confusing to people who rely on Sean Hannity’s coloring book of American history.

    Is it really a coloring book if the only crayon he gives you is a white one?

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    “A bilingual Paul Ryan at best”

    Oh yes, this is gonna be appropriated for future water cooler convos, you bet!

  11. 11.

    lamh34

    the story actually gets murkier. Rubio continually says that his parents ALWAYS planned to go back home to Cuba, but on the via application all those many years ago, when asked how long they plan to stay in US, the checked off “permanently”, which is no big deal I guess, but it just comes after the obviously omissions and doesn’t make Rubi look any better.

    I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine this week about Rubio. She Puerto Rican and she expressed no love lost for the Cuban Rubio. In fact, she was really animated about her dislike of “rich Cubans” who had the money to leave Cuba while the poorer residents were unable to leave…

    Another friend who’s Mexican American, has never heard of Marco Rubio, but when you mention that he’s Cubsn, then he is even less impressed with him.

    The idea that Rubio will automatically brings Hispanics to GOP side is almost as ludicrous as nominated a Black guy and expected Blacks to automatically start voting GOP…Oh wait, maybe that’s not so ludicrous to them after all.

  13. 13.

    Martin

    @lamh34:

    The idea that Rubio will automatically brings Hispanics to GOP side is almost as ludicrous as nominated a Black guy and expected Blacks to automatically start voting GOP…Oh wait, maybe that’s not so ludicrous to them after all.

    Rubio is supposed to bring Florida – that’s it. Florida is an important get in the electoral calculus.

  14. 14.

    Steve

    Rubio is a pretty good politician. Sure, a lot of what he says is just dumb conservative slogans, but what else is new? I think it’s a mistake to think that the only way he can get anywhere is by being a Hispanic Politician [tm].

    But yeah, the number of Hispanics who will switch to GOP just because a Hispanic (be he Cuban or Mexican or whatever) is the VP candidate is probably comparable to the number of women who will switch for Palin. It just doesn’t work that way in closely watched elections.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    He’s a bilingual Paul Ryan, at best.

    LOL. That made me laugh. But does he have Ryan’s pretty, pretty blue eyes that make Ryan a Serious Politician?

  16. 16.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @lamh34: The “Hispanic/Latino” demographic is about as anti-monolithic as you are going to find, as your conversations with your friends demonstrate. While there’s not a lot of love lost between the Puerto Rican folks and those from central and south America (usually undistinguished by the GOP as all “Mexicans”), both of those groups really dislike the Cubans. So it’s truly a joke to thin Rubio is gonna help, except among the already GOP favoring Cubans in Florida. Once again, the bigotry of the Confederates prevents them from understand the factual dynamics of the populations they think they’re attracting. See, e.g., Palin, Sarah 2008.

  18. 18.

    Martin

    @Jeffro: I thought this thing I read today would make a pretty effective theme for campaign ads:

    Murdoch explains that at the retreat, Jobs was “very blunt and critical of what newspapers were doing in technology.” At a later dinner, the biography claims that Jobs told Murdoch that he was “blowing it” with Fox News. “The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destructive people,” Jobs is quoted as saying. “Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not careful.”/blockquote>

    Turning liberal/conservative or Democratic/Republican into constructive/destructive could be a very effective campaign theme for Democrats – particularly for reaching out to non-partisan voters – and builds nicely off the ‘Yes We Can’ theme.

    There’s plenty of material there to work from and could create a common fabric to build presidential, senate, and congressional campaigns off of.

  20. 20.

    lamh34

    @Martin: so is the Cuban vote in Florida that powerful. What percentage of the vote are they? Also, aren’t the younger Cuban’s more liberal than their parents are?

    Why is it assumed that Rubio would bring Florida? As I recall Rubio won mainly because the votes splitting between Crist and Meeks right???

    Who’s to say if Rubio had a tougher Dem opponent and Crist wasn’t in the race that Rubio would have still won.

    How often does it occur that the 2nd person on the ticket can deliver their state?

  21. 21.

    suzanne

    I hate to say it, but if Latino voters don’t turn out in droves, this shit will keep happening, And I think Marco Rubio wins the nomination in 2016 or 2020.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    @lamh34:

    Rubio continually says that his parents ALWAYS planned to go back home to Cuba,

    I’ve heard a clip of Rubio saying this, and what I don’t understand is why the interviewer doesn’t then say, “Really? America wasn’t good enough for them? They always wanted to leave?” Because among the USANUMBERONE!1!1! crowd, doesn’t the fact that his parents planned to leave mean that they’re not Real Murkins?

  23. 23.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    So Rubio’s parents fled Cuba, which was then being run into the ground by Batista, to take up permanent residence in the USA? Rubio has been abusing their immigration here to say that it was the fault of Castro and the Commies in an attempt to build him some Repub street cred?

    Batista, with ‘assistance’ from the United States, the Mafia and multinational companies, was the reason Castro came into power. Batista’s police state was imprisoning, torturing and killing Cuban citizens, making life in Cuba a living hell for them. The mob was controlling prostitution, gambling and the drug market, the multinational corporations were draining the country dry with massive payoffs to Batista and the US government was supplying him with the materials necessary to oppress his citizens.

    No wonder his parents fled Cuba. It’s clear to me that Rubio is a liar (surprise!) who will misrepresent anything to make himself look good and to profit from it.

    IOW, he’s the perfect Republican. No wonder they want him to run for the Presidency one day, he’s one of them.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @lamh34: Cubans are about half a million voters in Florida, out of a total of 11 million registered, but they turn out at a higher than average rate. So, about 5%. It’s a pretty big voting block because if you can shift that block from one party to the other, you’ll probably win the state unless some other block shifts comparably. Further those votes are concentrated in a subset of congressional districts there so they get quite a lot (and rightfully so) of attention politically.

  25. 25.

    Jay

    What a take – down, DougJ. That was truly some “Mortal Kombat” – caliber shit you pulled, and the beauty of it is, you didn’t have to do alot of work.

  26. 26.

    Martin

    @lamh34:

    How often does it occur that the 2nd person on the ticket can deliver their state?

    Forgot that part:

    It depends on how they deliver it. Homestate advantage doesn’t mean much in the 2nd slot. For most states, it doesn’t mean much in the top slot either. For example, I can’t think of a CA Republican that could carry CA even at the top of the ticket.

    But I think certain key populations to delivering a state can be carried by the top or 2nd slot on the ticket. I think a VP candidate that resonates strongly and positively with a key underserved demographic group could boost turnout enough to flip a state – so a cuban candiate in Florida, a latino candidate in Texas/Arizona/Nevada/California, a Mormon candidate in Nevada possibly, etc.

    The key is ‘underserved’, and it needs to cut across the grain of the overall electoral calculus. Obama didn’t do that terribly much because there weren’t many African Americans to flip from Republican votes, but he did boost turnout. What would have been interesting (because I’m a geek this way) is if Cain had been the first African American at the top of a major party ticket. How many black voters would have pulled the lever for him, simply because of the historic nature of the vote, and how many black voters would have stayed home because they couldn’t vote for a Republican and couldn’t bear to vote against what could turn out to be the first black president? (I’m glad we never ran that experiment, but it would have been all kinds of interesting)

  27. 27.

    John S.

    @Martin:

    As a long time South Floridian, I can tell you that your theories are all fine and good, but they won’t hold up in practice. The Cuban vote isn’t what it used to be here, and the only Cubans that are really a lock for the GOP are the ones over 50. In other words, they are Latino teabaggers.

    The only way they have a disproportionate effect on the Florida vote is for Democrats to stay home. That may have worked in 2010, but it ain’t gonna work in 2012. Floridians fucking despise Prick Scott, and will turn out en masse to vote against the GOP. That alone will wipe out any Cuban advantage here. It may be close, but mark my words, Florida will be going to Obama again.

  28. 28.

    John S.

    @lamh34:

    You recall correctly. Rubio won with 48.9% of the vote. If Meek hadn’t been committed to waging his vanity campaign to nowhere, Crist would be our Senator and Rubio would be working for some bullshit PAC somewhere.

  29. 29.

    ant

    Floridians fucking despise Prick Scott, and will turn out en masse to vote against the GOP.

    Heh. I can’t help but get the same feeling here in Wisconsin. The teabag governors that were elected in 2010 sure aren’t helping Republican chances for taking the white house in 2012.

    Just for shits and giggles, go to 270towin.com, and put FL, WI, OH, and MI blue. Then see what it takes for the Republicans to get to 270….

    That’s a HELL of a path to the white house.

  30. 30.

    El Cid

    Maybe he’s the son of a mill worker, a sugar mill worker, or at least that’s the way he wants to see it.

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    Ot, but Krugman got a pretty good jab in at Tom Friedman today:

    I’m in Iceland for this IMF-sponsored conference … the sun is finally out, so soon I’ll get out and about, and find a wise taxi driver to explain everything walk around and probably learn nothing, since I’m mainly a numbers guy.

    Heh.

    .

  34. 34.

    El Cid

    There might ought be some interest in the whole “Yes it’s really out in the open Pakistan really is still training & arming the Taliban” thing.

    ..the BBC documentary series Secret Pakistan has spoken to a number of middle-ranking – and still active – Taliban commanders who provide detailed evidence of how the Pakistan ISI has rebuilt, trained and supported the Taliban throughout its war on the US in Afghanistan.
    __
    “For a fighter there are two important things – supplies and a place to hide,” said one Taliban commander, who fights under the name Mullah Qaseem. “Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. Secondly, they provide us with weapons.”…
    __
    After 15 days training, he was sent into Afghanistan.
    __
    “There were three of us. We were put into a black vehicle with black windows. The police did not stop the car because it was obviously ISI. No-one dares stop their cars. They told me… you will receive your explosive waistcoat, and then go and explode it.”
    __
    The man recruited to be a suicide bomber changed his mind at the last minute and was later captured by the Afghan intelligence service.
    __
    But his story is consistent with a mass of intelligence which has convinced the Americans that, as they suspected, for the last decade Pakistan has been secretly arming and supporting the Taliban in its attempt to regain control of Afghanistan.

    Also,

    A former head of Afghan intelligence told the BBC Afghan officials gave Musharraf information in 2006 suggesting bin Laden was hiding in Mansehra, a town just 12 miles (20 km) from Abbottabad, where bin Laden was killed by US forces in May, but that the information was not acted upon.
    __
    Amrullah Saleh, head of Afghan intelligence from 2004 to 2010, said Syed Akbar, a Pakistani believed to be smuggling guns to the Taliban, told Afghan intelligence he had escorted bin Laden from one location to another.
    __
    “The information we had was suggesting Mansehra was the town where bin Laden was hiding … It happens after so many years that bin Laden was about 12 miles from that location,” he said.
    __
    Saleh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the evidence to Musharraf who, according to Saleh, reacted angrily.
    __
    “He (Musharraf) banged the table and looked at President Karzai and said, ‘Am I president of a banana republic? If not, then how can you tell me bin Laden is hiding in a settled area of Pakistan’. I said ‘Well, this is the information so you can go and check it.’,” said Saleh, who quit last year after disagreeing with Karzai over plans to talk to the Taliban.

  36. 36.

    soonergrunt

    @El Cid: but, but, but I thought we had all agreed that the problems in Afghanistan were exclusively the result of blood thirsty murdering and raping Americans!
    Man, you’re fucking up the narrative!

  37. 37.

    BGinCHI

    Doug, WTF?

    Paul Ryan is bilingual. He speaks English and Fucking Dickhead fluently. He also speaks Selfish, but he often doesn’t know what he’s talking about

  41. 41.

    Martin

    @John S.: Oh, I agree, I don’t think that it’ll work. I don’t think Rubio does this: ‘resonates strongly and positively with a key underserved demographic group’. But the GOP probably think that he does, or at least did before this mess.

    But the GOP most certainly has given up on trying to win latinos broadly, at least to any degree to turn battleground states (of which there are few that latinos would play a role). Nevada, maybe Arizona. That’s pretty much it, and that’s not many EVs. There are better ways for the GOP to hold Texas than trying to win latinos, and there’s no fucking way they’re even making it to first base in CA. Nah, they’ve already committed to the nativist path. There’s no time for them to unwind it, and they lose too much in other states by doing so.

  43. 43.

    BGinCHI

    @Judas Escargot: I certainly don’t blame folks for trying to get him recalled. But I’m afraid that due to the time and effort it’s taking, it’s giving him cover as a victim. He looks beset by this adversity and it’s making a lot of news when it ought to be about how terrible he and his GOP colleagues are for WI.

    So, if he wins the recall, I’d expect him to get beat by a good Dem challenger next election. If the people of WI don’t turn out to repeal the cuts that are turning them into Wississippi, they aren’t ever going to get their shit together.

  48. 48.

    Jenny

    That’s TWO big Exposé within a week against Rubio.

    First the fake exile lies. And now this.

    Someone is FedEx-ing their their op-research to Kaplan.

    I wonder who. I’m betting on Axelrod. He didn’t earn the moniker “Axe” for nothing.

  51. 51.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It’s fascinating that a guy like Tom Tancredo doesn’t get that 40 years or so ago he was not a “real murkin” because his last name ends in a vowel.

    Oh, I think he gets that just fine; he’s just happy that now he gets to shit on people instead of being shat on.

  52. 52.

    Tyro

    Wow. “I’m not one of you ‘immigrants’, my family are ‘exiles'”? That’s not going to make him any friends.

  53. 53.

    vanya

    I don’t get conservatives at all. From their point of view isn’t an exile WORSE? After all, an immigrant has freely chosen to come the US and presumably chooses to adopt American values, etc. etc. An exile is someone who longs to return to the mother country. Rubio is basically telling us that his real loyalty is to Cuba, and he and his family will hop the first flight back to Havana as soon as Castro is gone. Nothing wrong with that, but is that who conservatives now consider a patriotic American leader?

  54. 54.

    John S.

    @Martin:

    I believe you are 100% correct, and given how demographics are trending, it does not bode well. Hence all the voter suppression tactics, which may buttress their rump party for another cycle or two before the damn breaks. Like I said to the two African-Americans behind me when I voted in 2010 – Please, keep voting and save me from the crazy white people.

    @Judas Escargot:

    Apparently, folks from Wisconsin are far more gullible than here in Florida. Even though Scott’s approval is up to a personal high of 37%, the internals look grisly for him. He has basically lost every Democrat in the state, and his unpopularity with Independents has gone up considerably. The only reason his numbers are up is because disaffected Republicans are coming home to him – presumably to piss off liberals.

    Considering he squeaked by with 48% of the vote the first time around (thanks 3rd party morons), that isn’t a recipe for success. And fired up Dems/Indies on election day 2012 is good news for McCain Obama.

  55. 55.

    lou

    Republicans make the frequent mistake of lumping Cubans in with other Latino groups. And there is a lot of resentment from other Hispanic groups, that Cubans get this free card to immigrate to the U.S. while they don’t. (speaking as a former South Floridian)

  56. 56.

    rikryah

    So, it seems as if Senator Marco ‘Anchor Baby’ Rubio’s ‘ American Dream’ Story isn’t quite what it was made out to be.

    In actuality, it’s nothing but a lie.

    His parents weren’t poor patriots, run out of Cuba by the evil Fidel Castro.

    He truly is nothing but an Anchor Baby, plain and simple.

    1. he is, by definition that the right -wing, which tried to push this clown, while at the same time, talking birtherism bullshyt about the President – an ANCHOR BABY

    2. not only is he an Anchor Baby, but he has the NERVE to NOT be the sponsor of the DREAM ACT in the Senate. …go so far as to say ‘ it doesn’t concern him.’

    DOESN’T CONCERN HIM?

    For me, as a Black person, looking at this clown, the equivalent would be to have a Black Senator during the time of the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, telling Black folks that ‘ it wasn’t his concern’.

    Black folk would have been, ‘ Nigra, what the —- are you talking about?’

    Maybe he has it today, but until recently Senator Grifting Anchor Baby Rubio didn’t even have a section on his website for IMMIGRATION.

    I’ll say it again: he’s nothing but a grifting (check the stories in the Florida press about how he made money while in public office) Anchor Baby.

    And, if he hadn’t of come to prominence while kissing the ass of folks who peddled in birtherism and the ‘ What about if you ain’t White, don’t you understand’ Laws, then we could leave Senator Anchor Baby alone. As is, when you push yourself up, and won’t help the folks that you will later try and pimp yourself to in order to get votes for the GOP, well…

    Black folks know what to call folks like Senator Anchor Baby….maybe the Latino community is more ‘ understanding’ of folks like Senator Anchor Baby.

    the Cubans now know that they were pimped by Rubio.

  57. 57.

    shortstop

    All the credible explanations of Rubio’s limited vote-getting powers notwithstanding, Mitt’s going to put him on the ticket. Done deal — he’s got a plan and that plan is to get a younger, sexier, Mexican-or-whatever guy in there to attract the Hispanish vote and the ladies. This is how they think.

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