Posted on 01/25/2012 7:27:05 AM PST by Happy Valley Dude
Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant.”
“This kind of language is more than just unfortunate. It’s inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn’t belong in this campaign,” Rubio told The Miami Herald when asked about the ad.
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
Rubio’s sharp rebuke comes a day after he subtly corrected Gingrich for comparing Romney to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, branded by conservatives as a turncoat who left the party before Rubio beat him in 2010.
Both Romney and Gingrich are in Miami on Wednesday for speeches about Cuba and Latin America.
The criticisms from someone of Rubio’s stature in the Republican Party comes as polls show a near-even race, albeit with Gingrich surging.
Rubio plans to stay neutral in the race. He’s a potential running mate whom both candidates would love to have on the ballot. And he’s gaining iconic status among many national Republicans who see him as a face of the future in a nation that’s growing more Latino.
Miami, Rubio’s hometown, is a key battleground. The candidates are all wooing the Cuban-exile community here, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the Republican vote in the largest county of the nation’s largest swing state.
Already, about 54,000 early ballots have been cast in Miami Dade, where nearly three-quarters of the Republicans are Hispanic.
Rubio’s statement was fueled by the explosive, partisan debate over immigration, a key issue this election season as both parties aggressively court the Hispanic vote.
Democrats and liberals have tried to paint the Republican candidates as anti-immigrant or even anti-Hispanic for opposing legislation such as the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants — mainly college students and soldiers.
Rubio, who frets that the DREAM Act gives too much “amnesty” to a broader class of immigrants, and other Republicans have accused Democrats of playing rank ethnic politics.
So when Gingrich’s radio spot described Romney as “the most anti-immigrant candidate,” Rubio and others felt he not only crossed the line — he was adopting liberal criticisms.
Earlier in the campaign, Gingrich was accused of sounding like a Democrat when he bashed Romney’s time leading Bain Capital, a private-equity firm that, at times, had profited from restructuring companies and laying people off.
Despite the condemnation from conservatives, though, Gingrich went on to surge in South Carolina, where he drubbed Romney on Saturday.
Two days before, Gingrich began running his Spanish-language ad, which begins in shocking fashion by playing an excerpt of Fidel Castro repeating his trademark line: “Patria o muerte, venceremos!” — Fatherland or death, we shall overcome.
Romney in 2007 had mistakenly associated the Castro line with a call for a free Cuba during a speech. Some in the crowd of the Cuban-exile community were aghast.
“Unlike Romney, who uses statements from Castro, Newt Gingrich has fought against the regime,” the ad says, noting that Gingrich helped pass the Cuba-trade crackdown law, Helms-Burton.
“He supported the formation of Radio and TV Marti; and is in favor of holding the Castro brothers accountable for the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes,” the ad says, referencing a 1996 incident where anti-Castro activists were killed by the Cuban military near the island’s airspace.
Ironically, the ad bears some of the handiwork of Rep. David Rivera, a Rubio friend and confidante who backs Gingrich.
Rivera this fall helped stitch together a boycott of a proposed Univision debate by the Republican presidential candidates over the way the Spanish-language network reported a story about Rubio’s brother-in-law.
Rubio bears no personal ill-will to Gingrich, who helped support him when Rubio was Florida House Speaker in 2007 and 2008. Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush are headlining a Friday Hispanic Leadership Network event where they’ve invited all the major GOP candidates. Gingrich on Monday night began airing a new, positive Spanish-language TV ad.
The candidates Republican candidates initially balked at attending a U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce forum tied to Univision, but Gingrich and Romney have decided to attend today. Gingrich was being interviewed by Univision when word of Rubio’s criticism broke. On Tuesday on the campaign trail, Gingrich addressed large, enthusiastic crowds in St. Petersburg and Sarasota, where he invoked Rubio’s name.
"As many of you know Jose Mallea is helping us with our campaign. He was Marco Rubio’s campaign manager. We discovered last night that Mitt Romney has picked up Charlie Crist’s campaign people," Gingrich said in St. Petersburg amid a smattering of boos at the mention of the former governor’s name. "That sort of tells you everything you needed to know about this contest."
Turns out, Mallea worked for Crist years ago as well. And Romney has some high-profile Rubio workers on his staff just as Gingrich does.
Later in the day, when asked about the use of his name and the linking of Romney and Crist, Rubio didn’t sound pleased about it.
"Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative,” Rubio said. “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.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/v-fullstory/2607255/sen-marco-rubio-scolds-newt-gingrichs.html#storylink=cpy
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Newt Gingrich’s stance on illegal aliens...
“In three years and eight months, we defeated fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. Today, we can’t build a (border) fence,” Gingrich said.
“I would propose cutting off all federal funds to any city that declares itself a sanctuary city.”
He said that if UPS and FedEx could keep track of millions of packages a day, the federal government should be able to track illegal immigrants in the country. But Gingrich added: “I don’t believe we’ll ever pass a bill which requires us to hunt down every single person” who has been in this country for some time illegally.
Gingrich also said he would favor a “very sophisticated, very clean” guest worker program. “I think we should go back to the World War Two selective service model where local citizens are certified at a local level, where they actually know the person,” he said.
“If the person is a good citizen, has genuine ties to the United States, has genuine roots, they still don’t get amnesty, they still don’t get citizenship, they still don’t get the right to vote.
Rubio is attaining an AnnCoulterish Level of Shark-Jumping.
Rubio spoke out against the Arizona immigration law. These things start to show a pattern after a while. His true colors showing? How can anybody defend Romney for any reason?
As a resident of Florida, I just shot off an email to the Junior Senator.
Not quite sure how this is RINOish:
“Unlike Romney, who uses statements from Castro, Newt Gingrich has fought against the regime,” the ad says, noting that Gingrich helped pass the Cuba-trade crackdown law, Helms-Burton.
“He supported the formation of Radio and TV Marti; and is in favor of holding the Castro brothers accountable for the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes,” the ad says, referencing a 1996 incident where anti-Castro activists were killed by the Cuban military near the island’s airspace.
We have an illegal immigration problem with Mexico.
But this is Florida and we want more legal immigration from Cuba.
[Sigh]. It's one thing if he wanted to remain neutral and silent out of loyalty because Romney supported him, but for Rubio to go the extra mile and say that Romney is a conservative? Didn't Newt support Rubio also?
“Rubio plans to stay neutral in the race. He’s a potential running mate” Marco Rubio is not “Natural Born”,therefore not eligible to be VP or POTUS. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2804096/posts
So Newt’s campaign accuses Romney of being “anti-immigrant” for wanting to deport illegal aliens, and the RINO is . . . Marco Rubio?
Newt is far from a RINO, but Romney favoring deportation of illegal aliens is one of the good things Romney has said, and Newt should not be running commercials criticizing that.
And Rubio said:
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
What’s wrong with that?
And Rubio said:
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
What’s wrong with that?
__________________________
Nothing is wrong with that, but it does make me wonder if he prefers Mittens to Newt.
It’s been plainly apparent here in FL that Rubio is a handpicked establishment GOP fast tracker.
They’ll be looking to run him for President in a few years.
You must like the sound of that, you've posted it around FR a lot today. For your information, it is Rubio who has thrown conservatives under the bus by carrying Willard's water for all the MSM to see.
Funny how everyone is showing their true colors all of a sudden. Rubio and all those nice little Florida Mitt organizers "that Newt needs to win" according to today's spinbites can go pound sand. Newt can build his own organization without them, thank you very much.
The GOP RINO establishment has no message other than buying each other and putting names out there that dice other contenders instead of confronting the Dems courageously. They resort to perception games out of the Dem play book. Soon it is going to be racist not to be a RINO... but it is them who are so racist and hiding behind labels and islam and soft stances as a way to move their industrial complex of stupidity.
Not if they're "insiders." There are great material advantages to being an insider, but one doesn't retain the status by bucking the system. Buck the system and you become an outsider, losing all the privileges in the process.
Rubio flashed his colors.He will not be our VP. I like Santorum for vp anyway. Newt is in . These establishment guys think they are still going to put Mr. Checkered Pants in the Nomination with his off shore bank accounts.Nope. Not gonna happen
As did most of FR until, apparently, this morning.
Would I be swayed if he were to endorse Romney? Of course not. But I won't call him a "traitor" either.
I figure that my job, when it comes to Republicans who support Romney, is to try and explain to them why that's a bad idea......not to spit in their faces. And yeah, I've been posting that point of view here for months, and I stand by it.
Romney favoring deportation of illegal aliens is one of the good things Romney has said,
___________________________________________
Romney KNOWINGLY hired illegal alien gardeners when he was Gov of MASS
Romney was pushing for the passing of the AMNESTY Bill...
Romney has never been for deporting illegal aliens...
Thats a new campaign talking point..
about deportation he has said
“We cant send then all back”
Romney had sanctuary cities in MASS while he was Gov
Romney wouldnt let the MASS police arrest illegal aliens..
He doesnt favor deporting ANY of ther 30 MILLION illegal aliens...
BTW in case you want to say that bit about Romney had a policy of arresting illegal aliens ...
That was a brand new thing he came up with justy weeks before he left office...
It was a campaign for POTUS smoke screen
a pretence at conservatism...
he had already been campaigning for 2 years..
but he was about to leave his Gov job and go fulltime on the trail...
He needed to be able to say he was for immigration
and against the illegal alien invaders..
and had been all along..
“self deport” ???
thats a new wrinkle...
Romney hasnt been saying that..until now..
In fact this new lie of Romneys has so impressed and fooled Roger Hedgecock that Roger last night was endorsing Romney on his show..
Roger is in San Diego and has for years has been warning about the illegal aliens...
Poor Roger...
Rubio said:
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
What’s wrong with that?
There is nothing wrong with that satement..Except Romney at best is a moderate. Even that is a stretch in my not so humble opinion.
Its the following statement that raises the rino flag for me.
“Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative,” Rubio said.
Sometimes I wonder if some of you even know what you’re all talking about, or are just more willing to defend the flavor of the month.
Rubio is right to attack Newt here. Newt has advocated a liberal position. To me, THAT is the RINO.
pfffft . . .
Mittens helped him get elected in Fla. That’s how it works in politics. You help me, I’ll owe ya.
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