Marco Rubio: Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist

Tampa Bay Times ^ | 1-24-12 | Marc Caputo

[Anti-Hillary]

Newt Gingrich's decision today to bash Mitt Romney for hiring former Charlie Crist loyalists and employees doesn't seem to be sitting well with Sen. Marco Rubio, who drove Crist out of the Republican Party before beating him at the polls in 2010.

Said Rubio: "Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative. and he was one of the first national Republican leaders to endorse me. He came to Florida, campaigned hard for me, and made a real difference in my race."

[Psalm 144]

“Newt is no conservative.

Santorum is the only one left.”

Santorum is less conservative than Newt. NONE of these guys are hardcore conservative. Newt has the best record of those who remain.

[Godebert]

Dead on.

[Psalm 144]

“I never understood the fascination with Rubio”

I think because he is perceived as a magic talisman to reach Latins, just as Condoleeza Rice and before her, Colin Powell were expected to magically bridge the gap in communication between Republicans and most minorities. It is a flawed concept rooted the Bush 1 years.

Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich and others were more correct in taking the longer and harder routes of explanation and persuasion.

[Pelham]

“Maybe that’s the problem, I said the grown up world...”

Yeah, that’s it Eddy, you’re the only friggin grown up around here.

So why don’t you waddle off to the mirror and go admire yourself a bit before squeezing out another magnificent post for our edification.

[Psalm 144]

“I posted a week ago here, that Romney IS JUST A CHARLIE CRIST.”

Mmmmm, not quite. If you were a guest at Crist’s house, he would at least offer coffee with caffeine. Crist is better. Barely.

[SoConPubbie]

Some of you can ignore political realities if you want to - due to your abject hatred of Romney.

Sadly, whenever someone can't stand the heat in a debate, they pull out the hate card.

A meaningless, rhetorical cheap trick designed to shut down discussion.

Also Sadly, the freepers that use this dishonest form of debate never learn that freepers don't back down from that kind of false charge.

I can speak for myself, however, I believe I speak for most, if not all freepers when I say, we don't hate Romney, but we hate his politics, we hate the attempt to manipulate us into voting for him, we hate the dishonesty of the GOP in pushing him as :

1. Conservative
2. Inevitable
3. Electable


All of which those you have accused of being haters have proven over and over and over again with facts and logic for many months and yet you and others spout the same unproven nonsense about hating and purity tests.

Our judgement of Romney is based on his own words/decisions/myriad of issues position changes, we don't hate but we have tested Romney in objective terms and found him totally lacking to be POTUS.

[tsowellfan]

he sure is giving a good argument against putting all of our eggs in Newt’s basket

Sorry but I refuse to put any eggs in Romney's basket. No, Rubio... Romney is NOT a conservative! Not even democrats consider Romney to be conservative. The democrats in the northeast call Olympia Snowe a conservative but NEVER accused Romney of being one. That's quite telling. In the eyes of the liberals Romney may be acceptable (if he was not such a flip flopper) but Olympia Snowe? She's "too conservative".

Marco Rubio claims Romney is a conservative?

Wow!

[SoConPubbie]

Marco Rubio did not tell a flat out lie. It’s called political rhetoric and grown ups can understand context. And, outside the world of Free Republic, where Marco spoke, Mitt is considered at least somewhat conservative. Compared to Charlie Crist, Mitt probably is conservative. Context context context.

Sorry, your context only exists for the last several months and even then Romney has had several issue position changes, changes I dare say Rubio was aware of if he is politically aware at all, and if he isn't he is woefully ignorant of a man he is calling conservative.

So objectively speaking, we are left with two choices where Marco is concerned:

Either he is:

1. Ignorant politically speaking
2. Lying.


Neither choice looks good on a so-called conservative politician.

[Finny]

It would seem that Newt is flushing out all of the Pretenders.

Yes indeed! I'd like to know exactly what Rubio would cite on his list of "conservative" accomplishments by Romney, other than campaigning for him. Some of these Republicans mouth the words, "Romney is a conservative," but I never see an itemized list from them of actions he has taken in his political career to further conservatism. Other than giving money to and campaigning for them. But when Romney was in office -- WHAT, exactly, did he do to advance conservatism?

No matter how one feels about Newt, no matter how many crappy things he's done politically, it's also true that one can cite hard-core instances where he has furthered the cause of conservatism in the U.S. If someone mouths the words, "Gingrich is a conservative," you might reasonably reply, "Well, yeah, at least some of the time," and be telling the truth.

But one could not reasonably or truthfully say that about Romney, as far as I know. I have yet to read about or come across ONE SINGLE INCIDENT of where Romney actually used his political office to advance limited government or social conservatism.

Rubio's phrase "Romney is a conservative" is an oxymoron.

[tsowellfan]

In the last debate Mittens was asked what he's done for conservatism.

His answer: Got married, had children and got a job.

I'm staying away from Romney. Sorry, Marco.

[Pelham]

Kemp? I hardly think so. He turned out to be a moralizing scold, a self-righteous supporter of illegal aliens who insulted and fought the Californians who passed Prop 187.

Other than that, yours is an excellent post.

[Psalm 144]

LOVE IT!

[MplsSteve]

Excellent Point!

[C. Edmund Wright]

I would wonder about your taking offense to the phrase “grown up” - since I did not specify anyone with it - but that you took offense to that particular part answers the question.

[SoConPubbie]

After the dust settles, there'll be bills to pass, alliances to make and all the elements of being an efective legislator. If you burn all your bridges in one campaign, you will have a short, obscure career indeed.

And your equivocation with respect to conservative principles, your unwillingness to hold the line and DEMAND that your representatives represent you in an consistent fashion is why we keep ending up with McCain's, Doles, and Romneys.

[Psalm 144]

Fair enough. Love your tagline, btw.

[Diverdogz]

Buh-bye Marco Rubio. I liked you better before I got to know you so well. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.

[untwist]

You got it right! Marco Rubio did not endorse Romney. Neither did he kick him to the curb after Romney came out to support him. Nor did he endorse or kick to the curb Newt Gingrich.

Rubio followed a proper protocol. His Cuban community is strongly pro-Gingrich. For all we know, Rubio may be in Newt’s corner and for that reason he stopped short of endorsing Romney. You analyzed this one spot on.

[stormhill]

A long time ago (when you get to be my age, everything happened "a long time ago")I had an argument with my son. He held the position that the Republican party should reach out to Blacks.
I tried to explain that the Republican party was right and it was incumbent upon Blacks to recognize that; after all, decency is a universal concept. Of course, unbeknownst to me, my son was in the process of being swallowed by the dark side, but that's a story for another day.

The point is that compromising principle in exchange for popularity is a destructive vice. Conservatism is good for everyone. We should seek to educate those willing to learn but there's no need to "sell" our policies. They are patently good and we should treat them as such.

[tsowellfan]

It would seem that Newt is flushing out all of the Pretenders.

Amen to that! I just never suspected Marco Rubio as one of them. He's lost me.