Jeb Bush's ideological heir, Marco Rubio, quietly registers to run for US Senate

[seafan]

Four pieces of information to remember about former Republican Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio:




1. He receives his training at the harsh ideological knee of Jeb Bush.

2. He has grand designs for *higher office*, after being forced out of the Legislature in December '08 due to term limits. He began with a "run" for Miami Dade Mayor last November. (Update, late '08: He chickened out.)

3. Then, it will be Onward To The Governor's Mansion, or the US Senate, depending upon Governor Crist's decision whether to run for the same US Senate seat.

4. None of the above are good for Floridians.



Marco Rubio quietly registers to run for U.S. Senate

BY BETH REINHARD
March 5, 2009

Typically, a person who decides to run for public office sends out a press release and makes an announcement in front of as many television cameras as can be persuaded to show up.

.....

Yet without any fanfare, Rubio registered as a Senate candidate one month ago, hired a prized fundraiser for former Gov. Jeb Bush, and conducted a national search for a campaign manager.

Hollywood eye doctor Alan Mendelsohn is billing a fundraiser at his home Thursday as the ``Marco Rubio U.S. Senate Kickoff.''

Rubio says he's only ''testing the waters'' and named his campaign account the ''Marco Rubio Senate Exploratory Committee,'' but in the eyes of the Federal Election Commission, he's a candidate.

''I believe in being honest, and I genuinely am in an exploratory phase,'' Rubio said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

``When I decide whether to run, trust me, everyone will know.''

The low-key approach allows Rubio to cultivate donors and activists around the state and assemble a campaign team while tamping down expectations about poll numbers and fundraising. If Gov. Charlie Crist decides to run for the Senate, Rubio is expected to switch gears and run for governor -- most likely making the announcement at a traditional press conference.

''The approach Rubio has taken gives him some wiggle room,'' said political consultant Jamie Miller, who worked on Katherine Harris' Senate campaign in 2006.

Crist has said he will make his plans after the annual lawmaking session ends May 1.

.....

Jeb Bush's ideological heir, FL House Speaker Marco Rubio, calculates next political move., May 16, 2008

The change to the resign-to-run law is being pushed by House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, who said he wanted to encourage Floridians to run on the national stage but that he has no personal ambitions himself. Senate sources said Rubio wants to make it more attractive for Crist to accept the vice presidential nomination in 2008 so that Rubio can run for governor in 2010.

Rubio is indeed, Jeb's Chosen One., May 13, 2007



September, 2005...


Last week, after “more than an hour of solemn ceremony” swearing in Rep. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as House speaker, Gov. Jeb Bush stepped to the podium to tell “a short story about ‘unleashing Chang,’ his ‘mystical warrior’ friend.”

Below, courtesy of the Gainesville Sun, are Bush’s words, “spoken before hundreds of lawmakers and politicians”:

“Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society.

“I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down.”

Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift.

”I’m going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior,” he said, as the crowd roared.

Jeb Bush clone, Marco Rubio: "Obama's turning out the youth, but at a very superficial level.", June 11, 2008

“I absolutely dread what his (Barack Obama’s) presidency would mean for America.”

He agreed that Obama has struck a nerve with, and in particular, the nation’s younger voters.

“He’s turning out the youth,” Rubio said, “but at a very superficial level.”

Rubio said “my generation” (he’s 36) is captured “by images, not specifics.”

FL State House Speaker hires consultants to examine FL investment fund mess (And they are *friends* of Jeb), February 26, 2008

And why is this questionable?

Because Jeb Bush is under investigation for his role at Lehman Brothers, as it sold $842 million in subprime mortgage-backed debt to this Florida investment fund last summer (2007).

FL House Speaker Marco Rubio's budget wording benefits ally (Inserts stealth language), April 8, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio quietly slipped tough-to-spot language in a state budget plan last week that helps a friend and political money-man bid on a major fuel contract in a $265 million turnpike overhaul proposal.
This is the second year in a row that South Florida fuel distributor Max Alvarez has relied on the man he has said is ''like a son'' to push the budget language to ensure he can more easily bid for the job.

Florida House speaker Marco Rubio pushes more tax cuts, April 3, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - In the face of multibillion-dollar spending cuts contemplated for health care and schools, House Speaker Marco Rubio is pushing a plan that could curtail state and local government spending even more.
Rubio, R-West Miami, has assigned House staff to draft constitutional language that would cap government growth, similar to the proposal that the state's taxation reform commission will try on Friday to put on the November ballot.

FL GOP House Leadership (Marco Rubio) Would Abandon Effort To Save Natural Florida, April 10, 2008

It's too bad Marco Rubio doesn't seem to have much interest in others' opinions. The cocksure 36-year-old House speaker could learn a lot about the importance of natural Florida from former Gov. Bob Martinez.

Martinez, a Republican like Rubio, launched the visionary state program to buy wilderness lands in 1991. He understood the value of saving Florida's natural heritage - its rivers and springs, beaches and mangrove islands, cypress swamps and pinewoods. And he knew many beautiful and important resources would be preserved only if the public acquired them. Yet he also thought it wrong to regulate away the use of land.
"You might save wetlands on land, but the rest would be developed," he says. "The wildlife and wilderness values would be lost. I thought the greater value to the public was to keep the whole tract intact."

The program - originally Preservation 2000, now Florida Forever - spends $300 million a year on land acquisition. It has been hugely popular and successful, saving more than 2 million acres. The program motivated more than 25 counties to create similar local programs that often split acquisition costs with the state. Subsequent governors Lawton Chiles, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist have all enthusiastically championed land preservation.

But now Rubio is seeking to destroy Martinez's conservation masterpiece. His budget-cutting minions plan to kill funding for Florida Forever. And to further emphasize their contempt for the environment, they also want to strip Everglades restoration funding from the budget.

FL Senate flips on'resign-to-run' (House Speaker Marco Rubio-R has eye on running for Governor), April 28, 2007

The change to the resign-to-run law is being pushed by House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, who said he wanted to encourage Floridians to run on the national stage but that he has no personal ambitions himself. Senate sources said Rubio wants to make it more attractive for Crist to accept the vice presidential nomination in 2008 so that Rubio can run for governor in 2010.

Pricey GOP consultant eludes state budget cuts (Rubio's $10,000/month consultant), October 8, 2007

So while Marco Rubio demands that the budgets of education, child care and health care be slashed to reduce Florida's budget shortfall (a direct result of his mentor JebBush's tax cuts for the very wealthy in Florida), Mr. Rubio somehow has enough budget money to pay his own private $10K/month *consultant* who, incidentally, produced no written work in September. But, most of her work is *v-e-r-b-a-l*, you see.

Jeb Bush allies put pro-voucher plans on ballot (guts constitutional separation of church/state), April 25, 2008


It's never over with Jeb Bush. Failed school voucher vote magically up for revote next week, April 15, 2008

That was last week.

Jeb and Marco Rubio twisted some arms very hard for a **revote** on merging church and state. It's like magic.

Rubio lashes out as stressful term winds down: Destroys public documents, April 24, 2008

It was the weekend. House Speaker Marco Rubio was mad about the late-night showdown with Democrats that had prompted a 14-hour read-a-thon.
So he chose to vent to reporters, writing e-mails complaining about Democrats' “anger-driven overreaction.” In e-mail to the St Petersburg Times from his private account, he reportedly leveled some harsh words about whether Gov. Charlie Crist has command of the facts on some of the policies he has pitched.

To the Miami Herald, he wrote that “no minority leader in the history of the Florida house has ever been empowered more than” Democratic Leader Dan Gelber, and that “no speaker in the last 20 years has been more accommodating to the minority party than I have.”

So, after both newspapers blogged on the commentary, the Sentinel filed a public records request for the e-mails and was told by Rubio spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin that Rubio had destroyed them.
The e-mails were “sent from his personal email account on his home computer offering his own observations about the session to one or more reporters. As he routinely does, he later deleted the emails.

Miami Herald: Why Rubio's equity loan is our business, April 2, 2008

Some people go to the supermarket and forget to buy milk. State House Speaker Marco Rubio gets a $135,000 equity loan and forgets to disclose it. So it goes: Memory is an untrustworthy friend.
But Monday, Rubio was laughing. ''I'm sorry,'' he said between chuckles, ``I'm still puzzled on why this is newsworthy.''

I'll explain. But first a recap: The Miami Herald reported Saturday that Rubio had quickly amended his financial disclosure forms after the paper asked why they were missing the loan from US Century Bank. Rubio called the omission ``an oversight.''
The bank, whose board of directors includes prominent supporters, had extended the $135,000 equity line 37 days after Rubio and his wife bought a $550,000 home in West Miami in late 2005.

Secret deal-makings by GOP angers many (Rubio-led Florida Legislature), October 8, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Is it deliberate secrecy or deliberate governance?

These days in Tallahassee, that depends on who you talk to. And there is plenty of talk, about a culture of secrecy surrounding decisions by Republican legislative leaders before and during the current special session on the state budget and auto insurance - especially with another one looming this month on property taxes.

The criticism is that, in a state that values openness in its government more than most, Republicans are keeping the public in the dark by restricting deal-making to a select handful of negotiators, then sending the product of those negotiations to the full Legislature.

.....

Last month, a joint statement by House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt that announced the delay of the special session even alluded to the behind-the-scenes brokering, describing "tremendous progress" among the lead negotiators on spending cuts in the state budget.

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio failed to disclose loan, March 28, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --
State House Speaker Marco Rubio abruptly amended his financial disclosure forms Friday after The Miami Herald asked why they lacked a $135,000 home-equity loan he obtained from a bank controlled by his political supporters.
Rubio and his wife bought the West Miami home for $550,000 in December 2005, with a $55,000 down payment. A month later, Rubio qualified for the equity loan from Miami-based U.S. Century Bank because an appraisal valued the home far higher than the purchase price: $735,000.

Real-estate experts said the deal -- on which Rubio gained $185,000 in equity in just 37 days -- was unusual. But the 36-year-old Republican said Friday that it was all above board, that he obtained no special favors and that the failure to disclose the loan was just ``an oversight.''
''There's nothing unusual about the loan or the application,'' Rubio said. ``They went out and ordered the appraisal.... They said I qualified for $135,000. I took the equity line.''

Florida House votes to require ultrasound before all abortions, April 3, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida House on Wednesday mounted what critics called a two-pronged assault on abortion rights, passing legislation that would require pregnant women to undergo ultrasound exams before getting abortions and effectively defining life at conception for criminal prosecutions.
Any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy would be required to pay for an ultrasound procedure — and view the results unless she signed a waiver — before having the abortion, under a bill passed by the House largely along party lines.

The Republican-led chamber also endorsed a "fetal homicide" bill that would create a separate murder charge for anyone who caused a pregnancy to be terminated through an act of violence against a pregnant woman. It defines an "unborn child" as a fetus at any stage of development, beginning at conception.

FL House asks voters to kill public campaign financing (Another forced ballot proposal for November), April 3, 2008

April 02, 2008

House asks voters to kill public campaign financing.

The Florida House has overwhelmingly voted to place an amendment on the 2008 ballot that would ask voters to repeal the state's public campaign finance laws. The House voted 82-34 in favor of the amendment.

"Let's end this welfare for politicians,'' said Rep. Alan Hays, a Umatilla Republican who said he was shocked to find that the state spent millions in 2006 to help statewide candidates for office.

The vote by the House is a stinging rebuke to Gov. Charlie Crist, who not only utilized the public finance law but has said he is in favor of keeping it. Former Gov. Jeb Bush, by contrast, refused to use public money and regularly derided the program.

Florida's GOP legislators facing angry electorate, November 25, 2006

The reality is that Republicans still have the governor's mansion for at least four more years, two of the three Cabinet seats and a two-to-one advantage in both the House and Senate.


But for the first time since they took over virtually all state government in the late 1990s, Republicans are facing an angry electorate fuming over crises in exploding property taxes and insurance premiums.
--snip
For some members of both parties, the talk means a return to the middle after years of Gov. Jeb Bush's ideological crusades to enshrine school vouchers in law, battle popular limits on class size and force lawmakers to intervene in the Terri Schiavo matter.

Marco Rubio is an extreme Jeb Bush ideologue. Been there. Done that.

[FLAprogressive]

1. Charlie Crist or a Dem would wipe the floor clean against this guy....he has no chance.

[seafan]

2. We intend to make the case that Marco "The Apprentice" Rubio should be barred from Florida politics.

We have no need for recycled and repackaged Jeb Bush imperialism, steeped in arrogance, religious extremism and disdain for the people of Florida.

[UTUSN]

3. On the bright side, the B.F.E.E. has a history of ditching its foot soldiers n/t

[madfloridian]

4. Rubio scares me.

I wonder if he could beat Crist in a primary? It's not really a silly question, think about it. FL Republicans are not known for moderation.

Rubio even posts in the Southern Baptist Florida newsletter.

Florida House Speaker may consider bill to protect teachers who criticize evolution.


From the Florida Baptist Witness:

Rubio: Florida House open to legislative fix on evolution

TALLAHASSEE (FBW) – An evolution compromise approved on Feb. 19 by the State Board of Education was the best that could be achieved in that body but legislative action to protect academic freedom of teachers offering criticisms of Darwinian evolution is possible, House Speaker Marco Rubio told Florida Baptist Witness in a Feb. 20 interview.

Rubio said the Board of Education’s addition of “scientific theory of” before each reference to “evolution” in new science standards for Florida’s public schools was “the best fix available” with “the way those votes were lining up.”

Although he and other House leaders supported the theory compromise in a Feb. 19 letter to members of the Board of Education, Rubio said critics who believe explicit language protecting academic freedom is necessary “may be right.”