Posted on 11/13/2006 3:17:45 PM PST by MindBender26
Please pardon the Vanity, but Mel Martinez is a friend and I thought FReepers might like some insight in him.
Mel Martinez and his wife Kitty are outstanding people. Mel was born in Cuba. At 10 and 11 years old, with Castro in power, he wouldn’t take off his Catholic scapula. Other boys would hit him during basketball games because he wouldn’t disown his religion, as Castro demanded.
Mel came to this country under Kennedy’s Pedro Pan program. Imagine arriving in Miami with nothing, absolutely nothing!
I’ll cut to the chase; 25 years later, a very successful and honest lawyer, he has the happiest day of his life when he and his beautiful wife, and their kids, welcome his mother on her escape from Cuba, into the house they bought for her.
In 2000, he was recruited to run for he House seat being vacated by Bill McCollum, but said no, because he didn't want to be away from his family 3 nights a week.
When the RNC needed someone to debate Charlie Rangel, Fidel Castro's favorite congressman, on Larry King Live on CNN, we recruited Mel with just a few hours warning. Mel was the Orange County [Orlando area] mayor at the time and Rangel made the fatal mistake of underestimating him. After 60 minutes of debate, not even Larry King's "assistance" could help Rangel score even one point against Mel. In plain English, on the issue of the Elian Gonzalez, Mel Martinez had Charlie Rangel for lunch on live TV!
The Bush family saw him on Larry King and the rest is history. The president chose Mel to be HUD Secretary in his new administration, and in what is probably one of the toughest jobs in Washington, was the most successful HUD secretary was seen in 30 years.
Mel then returned to Florida and ran an uphill battle to be our senator. He beat a reasonably strong opponent, and even more importantly than that, never once veered away from his long-held principles. He is an adamant opponent of abortion, understands that the most important thing in America today is to defeat terrorism and return a sense of personal responsibility to each and every American.
I had the pleasure of flying with Mel back to Washington the day after the election. Trust me on this one, he sharp, conservative, understands the issues better than 99% of the people in Washington... and most importantly, has seen the vicious or press the nature of communism and other leftist governments up close. If there is one man in the United States that Hugo Chavez fears more than anyone else, it's Mel Martinez.... and it would be a smart if the Islamic terrorists and their fellow travelers feared him too!
There are many more wonderful things Mel has done during his career in public life, and before but I won't go into them here.
With the Hispanic vote critically important for any success in any future national election, (and growing faster than the Black vote) , the selection of Mel Martinez as a new RNC chair is a brilliant move.
We can not win by abandoning conservative values, last Tuesday proved that.
Here is the supreme irony; all we read on this forum are "real, true conservatives" demanding their pound of flesh from Bush day after day -- "We put him in office and he's deserted us!" -- blah blah blah.
When, in fact, it was the Hispanics who put Bush in office in 2000 and 2004, not the "real, true" conservatives.
I once tried to point out to an unappeasable "I'm gonna take my vote and stay home if Bush doesn't..." poster that usuing his own rational, the Hispanics were entitled to demand things from Bush, too..........but do you think they saw it that way?
"So we are still playing the "get votes" game instead of advancing conservatism?"
Bush is completely preoccupied with his illegal alien bill. This proves it.
Are you under the impression that you're somebody I'm interested discussing the facts with?
If you are, disuade yourself of that notion as fast as you can.
To me, RNC head is a position akin to that of congressional whip, and I don't think Mel has the constitution for the job.
The "legal" Hispanic middle class (those several generations old) may vote with us. Puerto Ricans will vote Democrat, except maybe those that come right from the island. The rest have brains rotted from NYC.
Cubans, which are a small minority compared to the rest, will vote Republican. Amazing what having family live in a communist country does to one's outlook where socialists (Democrats) are concerned.
Mexicans and South Americans will vote Democrat as they see Democrats as the party of freebies. Free health care, free driver's license, free gathering places, free rides back to the border, etc. Democrats have done a great job of turning the US into a Worker's Paradise - as long as you're not a US citizen.
Couldn't have a Black Republican in charge of the RNC don-cha know.
short of shooting them on sight.
I thought that's exactly what they wanted........LOL.
I know....heck, I live on the California coast and would be willing to see wall to wall oil rigs if we could get out of our dependency on the Middle East.
I'm tired of the Saudis buying all our politicians.
bookmark
His VOTING record (aside from his liberal pro-amnesty views) is pretty solid.
His LEADERSHIP abilities are mediocre. This is the moron who HANDED the "Terry Schivio talking points" memo to the ENEMY so they could claim it was all a GOP publicity stunt. This is the moron who flip flopped on Club Gitmo when he the bad ol' media confronted him on the issue. This is the moron who started speaking "en espanol" on the floor of the U.S. Senate for the benefit of TV cameras when the audience in the room actually had no clue what he was saying (Good going reinforcing the Democrats agenda to make America "bi-lingual", Mel) This is the "100% pro-life" moron who happily donated to pro-abortion liberals like Fritz Hollings and then conviently joined the GOP when it was politically advantageous to do so in FL.
The consensus has been universal on this forum that Mel Martinez has been a "disappointment" as Senator. And you wanna know why?
Mel Martinez is in the Senate for one reason and one reason alone, he has a "Hispanic" last name and the GOP needed him as their token "minority". Far more qualified candidates in FL were passed up in favor of Mel. His track record is extremely ho-hum and there's probably half a dozen cabinent members that would have made a better Senator than him.
Leave affirmation action to the Dems. Let the GOP pick minorities who have outstanding credentials and are the most qualified for the job. Michael Steele is a rising star. Mel Martinez is a GOP hack.
I'm against affirmation action and therefore certainly against this cipher getting promoted because his last name is "Martinez" instead of "Martin"
I appreciate the fact that you don't want to tell us who you work for in DC.
But if it's the Republican National Committee it might be better to tell us.
These days many are feeling isolated and I'm sure many would appreciate a visit from a RNC rep who shows a bit of personal attention to FR.
Are you unaware of the fact that this thread was posted by a Freeper given PERSONAL information he has about a friend?
It's a vanity and should be treated as that.
Or do you disagree that he's entitled to his opinion?
And just so you'll know, there are quite a few of us around here who value MindBender's opinion on things and they shouldn't be so lightly dismissed.
Thanks for the ping, Guen.
See post # 140 ...
Interestingly I just got a call (just now, no kidding) from the Republicans asking me to send them some money. I was able to say that until they get on the right side of the illegal alien issue I woudln't be sending them a dime. The guy was polite (so was I) and said thanks. Wonder if that comment will trickle up?
susie
Hayworth may not have lost there is still 185,000 absentee ballots to be counted.
Illegal immigration was not the issues Mitchell used against him, Mitchell himself ran on stronger borders, rather they used Abramoff, Stem Cells, his wife being a lobbiest against him.
FYI we passed an English only ammendment and no services for illegals handily last week, what didn't pass was the marriage ammendment...
You were the one who pinged me.......so you are not interested in discussing facts with me-- just hurling insults?
I figured that out....just surprised you admit it...
You are usually one the best at arguing facts. I know this election has people rattled, but this behavior of late is not helpful.
It would be refreshing if FREEPers would stop attacking each other...but I guess it will take a while longer for us all to start moving forward again...
I don't know enough about the Senator to comment on his new position.
But, how can Martinez possibly do both jobs well?
Hopefully the environmentalists won't stop drilling in the Utah desert, the find there is predicted to be as large as the Saudi fields.
Great post. Thank you so much for doing htis. Already I am seeing a bunch of negative comments about him and its nice to see the other side.
As to this immigration issue enough. I think its pretty clear that Americans don't want open borders and want security at the border. However on the other hand they are not thrilled with the hardline Tancredo approach or deport them all big or small thought either.
I got hopefully many decades left on this planet. I don't want to see that we lose all the latino vote and we go the way of the whigs. If this man can help us reach out to hispanics and latinos(I am sure he has other talents by the way) then great.
I like this pick a great deal. We got some big issue ahead and a guy that has a 100 percent ACU rating sounds great to me.
LEts get hehind our new chairman of the party.
Well, that didn't take long - about 5-1/2 minutes.
Martinez, for lack of any better description of him, is my senator. He ran for office on the idea of opposing amnesty for illegal aliens, then joined Teddy Chappaquiddick, John McVain and Chuck Hagel in re-writing the "Break-Our-Laws-Win-Free-Citizenship" bill.
As if that wasn't enough, he joined Bill Nelson in opposing drilling offshore from Florida. Rather than take a stand and help resolve a problem that helps America, he joined the leftists - AGAIN!!
Don't know what criteria the ACU uses for its ratings, but if Martinez is 95% or even 100% by their estimate, they aren't a conservative organization.
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