Flip-flops feed GOP’s doubts about Rubio
WASHINGTON — When it comes to policy, Marco Rubio, the 43-yearold rookie senator from Florida and latest Republican presidential candidate, has taken the roller-coaster approach.
He won his Senate seat in 2010 surfing the Tea Party wave, fashioning himself as a right-wing conservative. But by 2013, he was showing all the hallmarks of a centrist, before the Tea Party jerked him back.
Then there were the all-too-memorable awkward moments, such as when he nervously ducked down to grab a glass of water while delivering on live TV the Republican rebuttal to the 2013 State of the Union Address. It earned him the moniker “water boy.”
Rubio also had a hard time getting his parents’ immigration date right. He claimed to reporters in 2009 and 2010 that his parents arrived from Cuba in 1959, fleeing the Castro regime. But when several newspaper checked it out, they found that naturalization papers showed they arrived in the U.S. in 1956 when Castro was still living in Mexico. His mother later said they emigrated for economic reasons.
In the most recent weird Rubio moment, he videotaped himself on Sunday standing alone by a roadway yelling above the din of traffic his intention to announce on Monday his decision to run for the presidency.
His choice of venue for the big announcement only seemed to emphasize his strange vicissitudes. He picked Miami’s Freedom Tower, which is often referred to as the Ellis Island of the South. Immigration may be the core of his personal narrative, but it also is the most stunning example of his bipolar political style.
As the son of successful Hispanic immigrants, his immigrant sympathies are just about the best thing he has going. Yet his flip-flop on this issue has become legendary.
In 2013, he joined a bipartisan group of eight senators in supporting an immigration plan that would award about 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.
Rubio was the group’s frontman. “Here generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass,” he said on the Senate floor, referring to his immigration-reform bill.
Even radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, one of the hard line conservatives who had denounced a similar Bush plan in 2007, applauded.
“What you are doing is admirable and noteworthy,” Limbaugh said. “You are recognizing reality.”
But the applause didn’t last. His Tea Party supporters rebelled, demanding that immigration laws be enforced and illegals sent packing.
Within two months Rubio, no doubt fearful of his own political expulsion, was in full retreat. He rejected his own bill. Hard words on border security replaced rhetoric about immigrant “dreams” of joining the “shining city on the hill.” He advocated “improving interior enforcement” and “tough but fair” ways to deal with illegals.
On the environment, he opposes regulating carbon emissions and denies there is a link between mankind’s burning of fossil fuels and climate change.
Rubio, who has a law degree from the University of Florida, is a former state lawmaker in Florida. He served as speaker of the house from 2007 to 2009.
He claims his political mentor is former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a man who also has indicated his intention to run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Rubio’s political flip-flops have left many Republicans mesmerized as they wonder where he fits into the conservative mosaic. Is he centre, centre-right or a Southernstyle, far-right conservative?
Rubio’s problem is there’s not much room on the conservative wing. It’s already looking crowded with the likes of senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul plus potentials such as evangelist Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. All of these men are considered to have sounder conservative credentials than Rubio.
Which is probably why he lags in the polls. At the moment, only seven per cent of Republican voters support him — tied for dead last with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
But it’s a tight race. Jeb Bush tops the list at only 16 per cent.
Head-to-head against Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton, Rubio trails 55 to 42, according to a recent CNN poll. Then again, all the Republican hopefuls lag behind Clinton.