Posted on 04/27/2013 10:15:14 AM PDT by AuntB
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Scott Brown joined John McCain in denouncing the congresswoman's Muslim witch hunt
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising star in the party and a potential vice-presidential pick for Mitt Romney, said this morning that he disagreed with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann’s baseless call to investigate Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government.
Appearing on NPR’s Diane Rehm show, Rubio was asked by a caller if he would join Republican Sen. John McCain’s strong condemnation of the anti-Muslim witch hunt on the Senate floor yesterday. While Rubio said he doesn’t personally know Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whom Bachmann accused of being connected to the Brotherhood, the Florida Republican said, “Wveryone I talk to who has dealt with her, [says she is] a professional and hardworking and patriotic American who loves her country and in the service of her country is serving it.”
“I am not a signatory to that letter,” Rubio said of Bachmann’s letters to the inspectors general of several national security agencies demanding investigations. “I don’t share the feelings that are in that letter. Obviously, every member of Congress has a right to express their opinion and every member of Congress is held accountable for their opinion, if they’re right or if they’re wrong.”
“I can tell you that I don’t share the feelings that are in that letter,” he continued, “And in fact, I’m very very careful and cautious about ever making accusations like that about anyone.”
Rubio’s comments are decidedly more circumspect than McCain’s, but it is still unusual for someone in his position to speak out publicly against someone in his own party. Bachmann has also earned scorn from her former presidential campaign manager, Ed Rollins, who said Bachmann’s witch hunt is “extreme and dishonest.” “Shame on you, Michele!” Rollins wrote.
UPDATE: Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican from Massachusetts facing off against Democrat Elizabeth Warren in November, took to Twitter to strongly condemn Bachmann by name:
Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse
— Scott P. Brown(@ScottBrownMA) July 18, 2012
And yes, there are other sources, this isn't speculation about Rubio.
MORE:
[snip]But after a November election that saw three of the party’s loudest voices on “creeping Shariah” defeated—and the GOP presidential nominee ignore the issue entirely—the anti-Islam movement within the Republican party may have peaked. Wary of further alienating a once-promising conservative constituency, mainstream Republican leaders have sought, publicly and behind closed doors, to distance themselves from the loudest of the Muslim-bashers in their midst.
“They have gotten a bit of bad odor,” says GOP power-broker Grover Norquist, who has pushed to change his party’s tone on Islam.
A turning point came in July, when Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), along with four Republican colleagues, signed a letter demanding an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood’s supposed infiltration of the State Department.
Days later, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had condemned Bachmann’s letter from the floor of the Senate, calling it “unwarranted and unfounded” and “scurrilous.” Speaker of the House John Boehner piled on, calling the letter “dangerous.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and tea party favorite widely touted as a potential 2016 contender, publicly denounced the allegations promoted by Bachmann and her allies, like former Reagan official and longtime anti-Shariah activist Frank Gaffney.
Norquist, who runs the influential group Americans for Tax Reform, says that following the letter controversy, “We have heard back from a bunch of Hill staffers—’We are keeping our guy away from Gaffney and those guys, they’re crazy.’”
Gaffney has been blacklisted from the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual CPAC confab, since 2011, after accusing Norquist and an associate, Suhail Khan, of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood..... His insistence on accusing anyone who deviates from his anti-Shariah line of terrorist sympathies has put him on the outs with the Republican establishment”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/muslim-shariah-republican-herman-cain-grover-norquist-allen-west
PS...this is an interesting article, even if from MJ...it goes on to tell about Herman Cain criticizing Islam and Grover Norquist getting Cain’s thinking right on that subject.
That woman has a spine of steel.
Video: Robert Spencer on why jihadis are so often on welfare
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/video-robert-spencer-on-why-jihadis-are-so-often-on-welfare.html
Marco WAS a rising star to me, but after the amnesty debacle and this, I just have no hope in him now.
I’m beginning to think this whole immigration *reform* thing isn’t all about illegals who are here “picking lettuce”.
But the Muslim Brotherhood would sure as Hell benefit from your Amnesty Scheme!
Hell everyone does
Except the American People!
Go Michele!!!!
I Stand with Michele Bachmann!!!
And she is right.
Who let Rubio under the wire? He’s. DotGov sapper sent to disrupt and split forces.
“Rubio! You Betraying Amnesty Sucking Whore!!!”
Oh, C’mon Darlin’,tell us what you really think!
Forget Rubio. He chose the wrong friends to have a future. People like McCain and Graham are the reason people dislike Republicans. Rubio chose that side.
That is not a "condemnation." The article headline is propaganda to promote conflict between conservatives.
LOUDER!
Rubio is really throwing in with the Rockefeller Republicans, no? That’s what happens when they get into office.
Yep. MarcoPhone Rubio has been exposed.
Thanks for posting.
Rubio is a garden variety Reconquistador, another power seeking Spaniard using any tactics he can to be the Big Man and Rule the Gringos.
Like Castro, Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Peron (Eva and Juan) and a host of other petty tyrants, he seeks only to be the Caudillo, the clown in the sunglasses and the uniform with the epaulets waving to the Peons from the balcony.
Because in his society this is how you win.
Bachmann represents the Anglo threat to that society: a true egalitarian who emphasizes achievement, critical thought, and a respect for social values found to be sound over the milennia instead of posturing, blustering, and corruption.
They hate her for her freedom!
The freedom to look at degeneracy and say No, not going back to that. Civilization is not bolstered by Third World chaos and lack of values.
But to Rubio, McCain and the Mr. Light-in-the-Loafers Graham, they care not for civilization; only their own personal power.
Bingo.
They can’t be that stupid.
They can’t be that ignorant.
They could be that greedy, or perhaps downright evil.
I Stand with Michele Bachmann!!!
Absolutely correct - except, America isn't "her country."
Guess he's never heard of 'moles' or 'sleepers"?
Michelle is obvioulsy 'over target' - else why all the flack?
We don't need him anywhere near the WH - anyone who denies the enemy is inside the gates is either lacking in brain power or patriotism.
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