But again... it's good know NOW!
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
Rubio has learned the treacherous ways of politics in the Senate.
Never take a stand, try to have it both ways.
This Republican race for the nomination is the most important in a generation.
Not since Reagan bitch slapped that elitist former CIA director in the 1980 primary has the Republican party faced such an important choice in the primary.
Rubio has to man up and make a choice, it is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
Rubio can choose the populism of Newt who is currently riding much of the same populist movement that established the Tea Party that put Rubio in office or he can choose the elitism of Romney who may have endorsed him but did so for the most cynical reasons. In my view, Romney endorsed Rubio because he saw a chance to endorse someone with star quality who was culturally diverse which is not often the case in Republican politics.
When Romney looked at Crist it was like looking in the mirror and he made the smart move by endorsing the Hispanic with star quality over another empty suit who had worn out his welcome mat in a changing Republican Party.
What exactly is liberal about saying that Romney is the most anti-immigrant of the remaining candidates?
More information/related;
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/25/gingrich-channels-open-borders-seiu-rubio-rebukes/
So far the only “minority” candidate I know of who has not gone back to the skin color or ethnicity reservation is Allen West and I am holding my breath.
Time and again I am disappointed.
Rubio..not a bad sort...got all bent over Alabama and Arizona laws.
Now Newt wants some latino vote...he at least doesn't want to lose the remaining 25%
Romney..will do anything..stands only for fiscal responsibility as a former LBO titan..which is laughable to me.
So there we are.
Fact is Newt...and I have already given you 750 so far and ordered my bumperstickers 11-4-11...before anyone here mostly I'd guess
Forget the damned minority votes...you know this.
Every cracker percentage you turn is worth 10 times a latino percentage and 10 times a black one and 50 times a usually liberal Jewish percentage point of voting
and so forth...the minority votes for all the hoopla is not where the easiest ore is to being mined...it's the WHITE VOTE...Christian or leaning that way...70-75% of the population..and yes there is overlap even into other labels groups so it is even higher really
I do not know why we have to bend knee for folks who simply do not instinctively get the message.
Pandering to them and diluting our own thrust is poor logic by the numbers yet the GOP and some here...cannot resist
McCain got 55% of the White Vote
If Newt can get just 2 more points he would likely win..maybe even 1.5% more even would do it
You get even 25% more blacks or latinos...not gonna happen and it's only worth the same popular vote wise
the whole minority outreach is such a canard...for now
HOWEVER..in Florida sucking up to Jews and Latinos in a primary is mandatory....it's akin to singing Dixie in my homestate..you have to..lol..if you want to win
anyhow..overall..Rubio...pendejo...don't trust him...conyo!
This is not “slipping into LIB territory”. This is the way the game is played and if you do not fight fire with fire you will lose. Reminder: Gingrich was winning Iowa after the December 12 debates, when Romney went negative on him. Romney, being old and a phoney, has therefore taken both sides on every issue - even issues such as this one which is unique in Florida. This is a no-holds-barred intra-party political fight this year, and you better get used to the lines you have constructed in your mind that should not be crossed, being crossed. Gingrich has every right to exploit this Romney weakness in every state Gingrich is allowed to compete in.
Then ass hat shut the F up.
But again... it's good know NOW!
“Gingrich is going after the amnesty vote here, in SPANISH so we don’t find out about it.”
So what?
Ai! Ai! Ai! Arriba, muchacho!
Behold the genesis of the next decade’s Colin Powell.
Transformative, ah si!
Rubio is wrong, of course, in stating that Willard is a conservative.
Rubio is also wrong, as are most Republicans, in refusing to take a stand against massive legal immigration. (As Roy Beck, President of NumbersUSA, pointed out in an e-mail today in regard to the CommiePunk’s SOTU agit/prop speech last night: “What really galled me was Pres. Obama bragging about more than 3 million U.S. jobs created during the last 22 months. That could have been good news for unemployed Americans. But during that same period, the Obama Administration issued more than 3 million work visas to new immigrants and other foreign workers (more than half of them permanent).)
The truth of the matter is that legal immigration is killing us almost as much as illegal immigration is. Rubio, Gingrich, and Romney are all on the wrong side of this issue.
But I do agree with Rubio in stating that Newt is wrong to call Willard anti-immigrant. Both Willard and Newt are far too pro-immigrant for the good of this country.
Newt has to be very careful. His earlier remarks about illegal immigration and a form of amnesty did not play well with conservatives. If he thinks that tacking to the left of Romney on immigration is going to be a winning position, he’s going to make a gross miscalculation. Sadly, none of the candidates were able to clearly and forcefully lay out a coherent position on how to deal with the mess created by decades of neglect and/or complicity by a series of Republican and Democrat presidents and congressmen. The GOP risks losing a very valuable issue in the coming election because I don’t think Romney or Gingrich have any intention of doing what is necessary to secure America’s southern border or to deal with the millions who are in your country illegally.
Sounds like Mitt’s superpac must have contributed to Rubio’s senatorial campaign (ala Nikki Haley).
Newt also supported inexperienced Rubio. Truth of the matter is Newt’s illegal plan is better than Romney’s. But Rubio probably knows there is no VP pick for him even if he does endorse Newt. He’s too inexperienced. Is he still playing with his Nintendo games? Willard the Liberal will offer him the world for an endorsement. And probably five to ten million dollars, to be stashed away in an account in the Cayman Islands.
“Not since Reagan bitch slapped that elitist former CIA director in the 1980 primary has the Republican party faced such an important choice in the primary.”
I think I remember that guy. Kind of a globalist. Always had a sneer, very condescending. High pitched grating voice . . . Always urging more cooperation between the parties. Came from . . . Stunkport?
I wonder how things would have fared for the conservative movement if he ever had become President?
Rubio is exactly right on this.
For me it is Psalm 25,
The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him;and he will show them his covenant
“Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative,” Rubio said”
When Rubio or anyone else says Willard is a conservative, why in the hell are they bashing it on? His bankrupting of Mass with socialized medicine, or his support of homosexual marriage and abortion on demand? Maybe his war against the second amendment? It’s all there for these genius “conservatives” to read. Google “Mitt Romney liberal”. This SOB should have switched to the democratic party years ago. It’s a disgrace and joke that some New England Rockefeller liberal like Romney actually thinks he can get the GOP nomimation, especially two years after the CONSERVATIVE Tea Party send RINOs packing all over the country. Rubio shows his ingorance calling Romney a conservative, or maybe he’s just that dumb. Just another pretty boy who don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.
But throwing Newt under the bus? That's ok! /s
His use of Castro's words are his record; he has to live with it.
Romney also likes illegals' labor. He hired them to do his lawn work and when it was found out he still let them slide another year until he was running for POTUS and it became an embarrassment.
He hypocritically attacked Perry on in-state tuition when Romney had proposed free tuition for any grads that performed a certain level on standardized testing without regard to their legality. He was saved on that by his legislature who felt too many upperclass students would benefit.
Romney is the most anti-immigrant and pro illegal candidate running right now.
Had Newt criticized Romney for being pro-amnesty, and Rubio then defended Romney, then it would be warranted to criticize Rubio. But Newt’s ad criticized Romney *for being anti-immigrant*—in other words, for not supporting an anti-deportation policy such as the one that Newt proposed for illegal aliens who have been here for awhile and haven’t broken any laws (other than immigration laws, presumably). I agree with Rubio that being in favor of legal immigration but in favor of deporting illegal aliens does not make one “anti-immigrant”; don’t you?
I certainly prefer Newt to Romney overall (although I prefer Santorum to both), but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to cheer Newt on if he criticizes any Republican *from the left*. And Marco Rubio gets enough grief from the MSM (and Spanish-language networks) for being a Hispanic Senator who is opposed to open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens without having to deal with the MSM saying “even the Gingrich campaign believes that being in favor of the deportation of illegal aliens is “anti-immigrant.””
“Its the following statement that raises the rino flag for me.
“Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative,” Rubio said.”
And my response was to a post that called Rubio a RINO for saying that candidates who oppose illegal immigration are not “anti-immigrant.”
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