Posted on 11/06/2010 4:41:21 AM PDT by markomalley
Rising star Marco Rubio warned his fellow Republicans to stick to their principles in a weekly radio address delivered Saturday morning.
The remarks come as the first shot in what is expected to be a battle between Tea Party-supported conservatives such as Rubio and senior Republicans who have been enshrined in Washington for years.
“For too long, Washington has taken our country in the wrong direction: bigger government, reckless spending and run away debt,” Rubio, the Republican senator-elect from Florida, said in the weekly GOP address. “And though I’m a proud Republican, here’s the truth, both parties have been to blame.”
He said Republicans would “not squander” another chance to wield power in Congress.
Rubio’s speech drew a clear line between the policies of the Republican Congress under President George W. Bush — which passed a $500 billion Medicare prescription drug bill — and a new regime of fiscal authority that Tea Party voters have demanded.
In 2006, the last year Republicans controlled Congress, lawmakers approved $29 billion worth of earmarked projects, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.
Rubio said Republicans would not repeat the mistakes of the past.
“We Republicans would be mistaken if we misread these results as simply an embrace of the Republican Party,” he said. “The election is a second chance. A second chance for Republicans to be what we said we were going to be.”
Rubio called on voters to hold newly elected GOP lawmakers to the promises of fiscal discipline they made on the campaign trail.
“Hold us accountable to the ideas and principles we campaigned on,” he said. “This is our second chance to get this right.”
Spending and earmarks have created tension within the GOP in recent years. But it appears that fiscal hawks such as Rubio and Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have the momentum.
DeMint used his Senate Conservatives Fund to promote strongly ideological conservatives in Republican Senate races.
“I decided that I did not want to be here with the same people that I’ve been with before, Democrats, Republicans, everybody,” DeMint told The Hill last year. “I want some people [in the Senate] who are willing to stand up and go where America is going.”
DeMint famously declared at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference: “I would rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters,” referring to the Republican-turned-Democratic senator from Pennsylvania.
Rubio, whom some Republicans have touted as a possible future presidential candidate, warned that President Obama has set a dangerous course for the nation.
“The past two years provided a frightening glimpse at what could become of our great nation if we continue down the current path: wasteful spending, a growing debt and a government reaching ever further into our lives, even into our healthcare decisions,” Rubio said.
Rubio extolled the American dream, citing his working-class origins as the son of a bartender and a maid.
He said it has created a “sacred obligation to leave the next generation of Americans a better America than the one we inherited.”
He said winning elections is only the first step for Republican candidates.
“Our focus must not be simply on winning elections,” he said. “It must be to ensure the next generation inherits a strong, free and prosperous America.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has also warned his party against overconfidence and to focus carefully on the mandate they believe voters have given.
“This isn’t a reason for Republicans to gloat,” McConnell said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday.
“The voters didn’t suddenly fall in love with Republicans; they fell out of love with Democrats,” he said. “And while they may have voted to send more Republicans to Washington, they’re sending them here with clear marching orders: stop the big-government freight train and respect the will of the people who sent you there.”
Rubio echoed that sentiment.
“We Republicans would be mistaken if we misread these results as simply an embrace of the Republican Party."
He said GOP lawmakers would work to prevent tax increases, repeal and replace the sweeping healthcare reform bill, simplify the tax code and reduce the federal deficit.
“We will stand up and offer an alternative to the policies coming out of Washington for the past two years,” he said.
Whoo hoo! Great speech - I love the guy. When you hear most politicians say something, they’re never straight with you. Marco is the real deal and he’s absolutely right!
I find myself agreeing with DeMint: I prefer 60 Marco Rubios to 30 Arlen Specters. Principle and character matter more than electability and expediency. That’s what the GOP establishment doesn’t get. A party is not defined by how many people it elects but by their word and by their keeping faith with the people who elected them.
The Republican Party has been given a second chance. Let’s hope it gets it right this tine around.
Better listen to Rubio or be forced to join crist and company.
LLS
McConnel, Cornyn, Burr, Hatch, Cochran, Shelby, Grassley, Ensign, Chambliss and a few others are going to hate this guy LOL.
Rock on Rubio!
Fixed it.
I totally agree with you.
At this moment, without a congressional bill, without a presidential signature, the government is illegally taxing our wealth through intentional inflation.
Stopping this should be job #1.
.
Rubio is right. The people do not want the spending and power grabbing that has been the hallmark of Washington for decades and want to see immediate steps to get us out of this economic mess. If the Republicans fail to do this, there will be another housecleaning in 2012.
I think the man is magnificent. I can’t wait for his keynote speech to the Republican Convention.
Having said that, politics is the art of the possible.
We know from the past that many won’t accept or forgive pragmatic progress. Ideology gets in the way and they insist on getting the troops decimated by a foolish charge against entrenched artillery and machine guns.
Dead troops can’t win the battle, much less the war
That can’t be right. I thought Tea Parties only lost on Tuesday. How did Marco Rubio get there?
I bet the leadership is confused by his statements. They’ve been acting like they were responsible for Rubio’s emergence lately. Without us he isn’t in that chamber. Just don’t lose your way there Marco, don’t become like them.
To all of those praising Marco, I am proud to be one of the first to have seen him speak after his announcement to run for the Senate. The Florida 4th 2010 kickoff meeting was held in Lake City the first weekend of June 2009. I had heard of Marco and made the trip just to hear him speak in addition to any other interesting candidate.
He was simply marvelous at speaking with just a few note cards for what seemed to last a half hour. His ability to segway into a little side joke and not lose the place or intensity was remarkable. All the while his enthusiasm for conservative principles was all through his presentation. He was genuinely likable and one really had the sense he knew what he was talking about and was dead serious as to his principles.
His last campaign ad was the cherry on top as he was always on issues and never got into the gutter with Charlie. God bless Marco on the huge job at hand and may he never sink into the abiss of DC. Will he run for President some day? Could very well be but for now I beleive he understands his place and will work hard to effect his principles on the Senate before he will consider a leap to the White House.
I think you have that reversed: didn’t De Mint say that he preferred 30 Rubios to . . . This is the old, “Rather have an army of lambs led by a lion rather than an army of lions led by a lamb.”
I hate to put the kiss of death on this guy but he is sure, already, sounding . . . presidential.
The first ever political campaign contributions in my life went to Marco. I sent $50/month to help him after the NRSC endorsed Charlie within an hour after his announcement in August 2009. It is not lost on Marco what they did and I’ll assure you it is not lost that Jim DeMint was the first in DC to endorse him.
HOORAY Marco! How about some transparency on EVERY spending bill by making it available on the internet BEFORE it gets voted on...not the BS the ‘rats call transparency? Hammer the ‘rats on their own lies. Compromise is OUT.
Words AND deeds BUMP!
He’s right. Our win this time is good, but now Tea Party needs to hit it at 200% in order to hold the line and be successful in 2012. After Tuesday, there was a big sigh of relief in our house, but we realized it’s only the beginning. It’s going to get ugly and we’ll see opposition from both dems and GOP establishment. We must win in order to keep America.
Republicans better get the health bill dis-enacted or there will be political hell to pay.
Perhaps we have an electable President in 2020 or a VP candidate next go around.
Democrats are fearing him because they just might lose all those illegal hispanic votes.
They should take heed as they try to pass amnesty.
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