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| RUBIO: Frustrated? Or stubborn? |
LARGELY
BECAUSE OF the segment of the Republican caucus that believes the way our
government ought to work is that they dictate their ideological desires to us –
and we just shut up and do what we’re told.
A
very un-American way of thinking, to my mindset. One that Rubio is often guilty
of participating in himself.
We’re
in an era in which the partisan mindsets are engaged in battle with each other –
and it is likely that what the Obama presidency ultimately will be remembered
for is the way in which its desires got tangled up in the ideological hang-ups
of Congress.
But
back to Rubio, who tells the Washington Post how his dislike for Congress is so
intense that he doesn’t want to run for re-election when his six-year term ends
next year.
IT
MEANS THAT Rubio is throwing his political future into getting elected as
president come next year. If he doesn’t get picked to replace Barack Obama in
January 2017, he’ll be politically finished.
Like
many political people, Rubio went to Capitol Hill with a touch of “Mr. Smith”
in him, hoping to become a real-life version of James Stewart’s famed character
– only perhaps a little bit schmaltzy.
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| Does Rubio see himself as the Cubano sequel? |
There
was a time when Rubio, a Cuban-American whose parents came to the United States
just before the Castro revolution that chased many people away from the
Caribbean island nation, thought he was going to be the Republican who could
persuade his GOP colleagues to realize that Latinos weren’t necessarily “the enemy”
who needed to be put down.
That
there could be some serious reform to the nation’s immigration policy – which people
with sense realize has always been necessary.
BUT
IT DIDN’T quite work out that way. Those Republicans who led their ideology
dictate everything stood in the way, just like those with the ultimate misnomer
of the “Freedom Caucus” have killed off GOP House speakers who aren’t
ideologically hardline enough for them.
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| OBAMA: A Rubio role-model? |
Rubio’s
allies aren’t all that friendly. But it’s not like Democrats have been any
better toward him. They were more than willing to kill off his AGREE Act that
was billed as a job-creation plan and was regarded as about as non-partisan as
anything get these days.
This
is a Congress where it could be argued that one of the few things Rubio
sponsored that actually got passed was a resolution praising the Miami Heat for
winning one of their National Basketball Association championships.
Considering
how many basketball fans were repulsed by that whole stretch of winning that
took place in Miami due to LeBron James and his friends that could be held
against him.
YET
THIS ATTITUDE of frustration is also what is wrong with our government – which by
its very definition is designed to encourage compromise. Rubio saying he doesn’t
want to be in the Senate any longer because it won’t do what he tells them to
do comes across as a political whiner.
Personally,
I think he’d be showing himself to be more potentially presidential if he’d
learn to work with the opposition – and quit worrying about those hard-liners
who are beyond redemption.
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| BENTSEN: Remembering comparison |
Although
I’m sure that, to Rubio’s mindset, he’s thinking that Obama was only 47 when he
was elected president in 2008 – compared to Marco who will be 45 on Election
Day next year. But the differing attitudes toward compromise (Obama is such a
compromiser to the point where some Democrats wonder if he gives up too much) and
Rubio’s stubborn streak are the real story.
Where
it almost makes me want to paraphrase one-time VP candidate Lloyd Bentsen against
Dan Quayle in telling Rubio, “Senator, you’re no Barack Obama.”
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