MSNBC Looks into Evidence Disputing Florida Sen. Rubio’s Claim That He Is a ‘Son of Exiles’
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Tag: Campaign 2012
Husband of Sonny Bono’s Widow Announces Run for U.S. Senate in Florida
Rep. Bono Mack is the widow of Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame, which also makes her Chaz Bono’s stepmother. She represents California’s 36th District, which includes Palm Springs — a demographically odd stew of gays, Republican retirees, gay Republican retirees and, increasingly, Democrats. (And, for the benefit of non-Floridians, Connie Mack is a guy. His real name is Cornelius McGillicuddy IV.)
The story has a much different profile in Florida, of course. The most crucial difference is that the name Connie Mack is extremely well known there. Connie Mack’s great-grandfather, Connie Mack I, was a famous sports figure and his father, Connie Mack III, was a two-term Republican U.S. senator.
Here’s how the Orlando Sentinel, a newspaper that is notoriously in the bag for the GOP, reports Mack IV’s entry into the race:
The Line: October 28, 2011
Forbes Magazine publisher, flat tax advocate and failed ’96 presidential candidate Steve Forbes has endorsed Rick Perry, in part because Perry has released a half-cooked economic plan that includes a 20 percent flat tax. In an interview with political gossipist Lloyd Grove titled, “Forbes: ‘Perry Will Be the Nominee,'” Forbes said, “Whatever part of the Republican establishment has gone to Romney is almost by default — not because they really like him or because they’re writing big checks or bundling large amounts of money. So if Perry or somebody else comes along and catches fire, which I think Perry will, Romney is going to be stuck at his 23 percent or maybe even less.” - Ron Brownstein reminds us how Forbes’ flat-tax proposal flattened his campaign in 1996, paving the way for then Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to win their party’s nomination that year. In the general campaign, Pres. Bill Clinton’s tean cleverly paired (by then retired) Senate leader Dole with his uber-unpopular counterpart in the House, Speaker Newt Gingrich, and easily won reelection.
- Steve Benen notes that Perry is promising to add 2.5 million jobs if elected president — which, says Benen, means “Rick Perry believes he’ll be able to create the same number of jobs in four years that Barack Obama has created in a year and a half.”
- Even though Parah Salin (remember her?) is officially out of the running, David Corn reminds us that there is still an “openly mean” candidate vying for the GOP nomination. Here’s Corn’s collection of ugly things Speaker Gingrich has said over the past 33 years.
Call him “Miss Ross.” Apparently Herman Cain has taken a cue from Diva Diana. Ex-staffers say they were instructed by memo, “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to.”
Whence Herman Cain?
Herman Cain’s flip-flops on negotiating with Al Qaeda for the release of Guantanamo terrorists and getting the government out of decision-making when it comes to abortion should have yanked his approval rating down into Santorum territory. Failing that, releasing a strictly-from-amateur web ad that featured a stoned-out looking middle-aged guy smoking a cigarette and a cheesy musical riff right out of “Idiocracy” should have done the trick.
And yet, he’s still ahead in nationwide polling. Why? Andrew Sullivan suggests that…
The Line: October 27, 2011
Jonathan Chait dissects Republican pols’ facility at papering over facts they find to be inconvenient. They all do it but Chait fricassees the GOP’s Big Thimker, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose big speech at the Heritage Foundation yesterday on income equality (or whatever) turned out to be nothing more than a retread of the same manure Ryan has been spreading for years.- In a piece titled “John Galt Clutches His Pearls,” Digby marvels at Ryan’s speech, too: “One of my favorite right wing quirks is their ability to shape-shift from Rambo to Aunt Pittypat in the blink of an eye.”
- Elizabeth Warren did not take credit for #OccupyWallStreet, despite the right-wing propaganda ministry’s claims. Dave Weigel uses the right’s “dogpiling” on Warren as a case study in how they twist Democrats’ words to bolster their narrative that liberals are elitists, vain and out of touch. (Similarly, Al Gore never said he invented the Internet.)
If your candidate’s fumbling, befuddled debate performances are killing his campaign, what do you do? If you’re Rick Perry’s campaign team, you quietly announce that the candidate won’t be participating in any more debates. Kevin Drum reacts: “So there you have it. Perry’s not hiding from anything. He’s just choosing to stay off national TV because it makes his dimness a little too painfully obvious to voters who are trying to choose a leader of the free world. Better to focus instead on what he’s best at: attack ads and laughably flimsy policy proposals.”- New polls out in the congressional districts find 12 seats that are ripe for Democratic pickups, including five in California: Dan Lungren (CA-7), Jeff Denham (CA-10), Elton Gallegly (CA-26), Mary Bono Mack (CA-36), Brian Bilbray (CA-52). Relatedly, the district of GOP House Rules Committee Chair David Dreier (CLOSET-1) was disappeared by California’s new nonpartisan redistricting committee. Democrats need to win 25 seats to win control of the House next year.
- Via Pork News (seriously): The GOP’s drive to install racist Arizona-style “papers please” anti-immigrant laws in the Old Confederate states could result in losses in the tens of millions in agricultural production next year. Turns out, farmers can’t find “legal” Southerners who’ll take jobs doing back-breaking farm work in the fields.
- For the tenth anniversary of the USA PATRIOT Act, I have a piece up at Gore Vidal Now tracking some of Vidal’s writing about the act, which he described as being “as despotic as anything Hitler came up with — even using much of the same language.”
Documents Suggest Sen. Marco ‘Anchor Baby’ Rubio Has Lied about Parents’ Immigrant Status
On May 18, 1956, Mario and Oriales Rubio walked into the American Consulate in Havana and applied for immigrant visas. The form asked how long they intended to stay in the United States.
“Permanently,” Mr. Rubio answered.
Nine days later, the couple boarded a National Airlines flight to Miami, where a relative awaited.
So began a journey that seems as ordinary as any immigrant story, but decades later served as the foundation of an extraordinary and moving narrative told repeatedly by their third child as he became one of the most powerful politicians in Florida and then a national figure.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has come under fire for incorrectly linking his parents to the Cubans who fled Fidel Castro beginning in 1959. He insists they are exiles nonetheless and angrily denounced the suggestion he misled for political gain…
[The] visa documents cast clearer divisions between his parents, who came for economic reasons, and the Cubans who scrambled to leave their homeland but thought they could soon return. And the documents come to light amid new discrepancies since Rubio’s time line came under scrutiny last week.
Faux Outsider: Cain Was a Lobbyist In Bed with Big Tobacco
If you’re having trouble grocking Herman Cain, a recent article in the New York Times will make your mental light bulb shine.
Cain, who has been the next Reagan since he won the straw poll at Florida’s Presidency 5 confab in September, says his main virtue is that he is an outsider to politics. And while it’s true that Cain has never held elected office, he is only an outsider in the Jack Abramoff sense of that word.*
…the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.
Cain is Just Like Reagan, Supporter Says
He’s got a lot of Reagan qualities.
Rick Baker, former mayor of St. Petersburg, offering random Republican catnip to a reporter to explain why he’s backing Herman Cain for president. Which Reagan qualities might those be? “He’s a straight talker and he wants to be bold for the future.” Oh yeah, those.
Herman Cain Ad – Not the Onion
This is not (meant to be) a joke.
Days After Saying ‘No Longer Is [Economic] Policy Going to Be Dictated by K Street,’ Perry Seeks K Street Approval of His Economic Plan
1.During the Republican Party presidential debate in Las Vegas Wednesday night, Rick Perry said this about how economic policy will be crafted when he is elected president:
No longer is a policy going to be dictated by K Street… It’s going to come from main street!
2.The next morning, this item, sourced to an anonymous Perry campaign operative, appeared in the Washington Post:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry will travel to Washington on Friday for a series of economic and foreign policy meetings with dozens of lobbyists, trade association executives and conservative leaders, according to a source with knowledge of Perry’s schedule.
