A soon-to-be released biography of top VP contender Marco Rubio is a mostly positive portrayal of the freshman Florida senator, reports the Miami Herald. The unauthorized biography by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia has a June 19 release date.
From the Miami Herald:
The Rise of Marco Rubio by Washington Post writer Manuel Roig-Franzia may leave some readers questioning Rubio’s political core on issues ranging from immigration to government spending, but it’s unlikely to dent Rubio’s star power. Nor will it enhance the arguments of those who say Rubio has been inadequately vetted to be seriously considered as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
The unauthorized biography explores Rubio’s remarkable life story as the son of working-class Cuban immigrants whose extraordinary political gifts and instincts helped him rise from West Miami City Commissioner to the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House to a 40-year-old senator overshadowing colleagues with decades more experience.
It’s a complex tale thoroughly reported to the point that Roig-Franzia dug up a 50-year-old recording of the immigration hearing of Rubio’s grandfather, nearly deported from America a decade before Rubio was born.
Roig-Franzia does address a number of issues that will be interesting to people on both sides of the aisle, including his family’s exit from Cuba:
And it delves into Rubio having often said or implied that his parents fled Fidel Castro, when in fact they immigrated to Miami before Castro took power.
Roig-Franzia writes: Whether Rubio intended to mislead voters or simply never investigated the circumstances of his family’s arrival is a question only he can answer. What is clear is that during his rise he placed great emphasis on his family’s narrative, and he was eager to identify himself as the son of exiles.
Rubio’s religious conversions:
The book also delves into Rubio’s unusual religious journey, which included being baptized as a Mormon at age 8 when his family lived in Las Vegas: He was the little boy who went to Catholic Mass. Then the adolescent who embraced Mormonism. He was the teenager who circled back to Catholicism. Then the thirty-something who defined himself as a Baptist. He was the ascendant politician who wanted to be Catholic again.
And his embrace of Arizona’s harsh immigration law in 2010:
[F]ormer Hialeah mayor and onetime political ally Raul Martinez was stunned when Rubio endorsed Arizona’s tough immigration law while running for U.S. Senate.
Writes Roig-Franzia: “This is the new Marco,” Martinez thought to himself. “The I-want-to-be-a-senator-at-any-cost Marco.”
