Reply #7: Florida roots of today's Tea Party will haunt us for years to come.

[seafan]

We now have Marco Rubio as a result.

One the Tea Party's most dangerous traits is unwavering moral certainty.




Rubio's rise linked to tea parties, July 11, 2010

Daytona Beach, February 2007: 30 people gather at a medical billing office to hear a young Miami politician.
All they know about him is that he's about to become the speaker of the Florida House, and he supposedly shares their growing anger over property taxes and government spending.

.....

The base has gotten Rubio far, but his strength will be tested as the campaign moves to the general election. While he has raised the money to compete on TV -- the ultimate battleground in Florida politics -- he still has to show he can appeal to more than hard-line conservatives and tea partyers.

Already, momentum has cooled with Crist dropping out of the GOP primary to run as an independent. The conflict and contrast that riled up Rubio's supporters and drove a media story line has been sapped.

And Rubio's record on property taxes invites questions about his effectiveness. His ideas were big but mostly failed, even though his party controlled the Legislature.

.....

Rubio said the idea for the property tax plan -- eliminating the tax on homesteads in favor of a higher sales tax -- grew out of his ``100 Ideas'' concept.

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The tea party as it is known today has been traced to a laid-off auto worker who moved to Florida and staged a small protest Feb. 10, 2009, at Obama's rally for the stimulus in Fort Myers.
This took place nine days before CNBC commentator Rick Santelli's lively discourse that invoked the historic term and became a YouTube sensation, with more than a million views.

But the property tax revolt shows the seeds were already planted.

``We did tea parties before they were cool,'' said Patchett, the activist from Volusia County.

The day after the Tallahassee rally, the House passed Rubio's tax swap. That was as far as it would go.

.....

Ah, yes, Rubio. The "100 Ideas" guy.

How'd that turn out? Not.


Another loser idea of Rubio's: Eliminate Florida's wild lands protection funding.



And while all of this Tea Party love lavished Rubio, he was living high on the hog at taxpayers' and political contributors' expense.

Nice ethics there.




Octafish, just keep on shining your light.