Check out this piece by Benjy Sarlin on why Marco Rubio’s weekend blow up over the leaked White House immigration proposal isn’t a setback but rather a necessary prerequisite for passing a bipartisan immigration reform bill.
As a policy matter, Rubio’s already signed on to what most people mean by ‘comprehensive immigration reform’, what the President supports. As a political matter, he’s got to find things to fight with the President about, to bring along base Republicans — even if they’re basically made up differences. It won’t be easy.
Mark Sanford premieres first campaign ad: We all make mistakes.
Sen. Johanns (R-NE) to retire.
That state sure generates a lot of ex-Senators.
One day you’re a Tea Party darling with the ass-kickingest political ads of the 2010 cycle. Next you’re getting clipped for shoplifting beer from the local Wal-Mart in Hoover, Alabama.
Climate bill supporters tell Obama to act on his own and fast.
No mistake in the headline. In response to ‘Lincoln’, the state of Mississippi finally finalized ratifying the 13th Amendment banning human slavery.
As I’ve said before, I doubt Marco Rubio can straddle the politics of immigration reform. That’s not a criticism of Rubio. It’s simply a recognition that a growing majority of the country is simply too far from the base of the Republican party to be straddled by any but the most able of political animals. Now, in response to a draft release of President Obama’s immigration reform plan leaked to USAToday, Rubio is out with a press release saying the plan would be “dead on arrival” if it came before Congress.
That news is considerably worse for Rubio than it is for Obama.
It will hard for Rubio not to end up being against what he claims to be for.
TPM Reader JJ comments on word that Rep. Rush Holt (D) of New Jersey may run for Frank Lautenberg’s senate seat …
I worked as an intern for Rep. Holt during the summer of 2010 and I can’t see him running for senate. He very well may. Everyone has some level of ambition. But Josh, honestly, that’s not part of this man’s nature. I love having him as my representative.
To Democrats and those with a sense of history, Sen. Ted Cruz is a Latter-Day Joe McCarthy; to Senate traditionalists, he’s a jerk; to Tea Partiers and base Republicans, he’s a breath of fresh air.
But each verdict is consistent with and utterly secondary to a greater fact: Cruz is exactly the guy to keep the GOP tied to its losing 2012 ways basically forever. In political terms, he’s a Democrat’s dream Republican.
It is ironic that the Hagel drama is playing out just as the national commentariat is debating whether Barack Obama’s national security policy truly differs from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
As the Hagel story has played out, we’ve focused on tactics and gambits than on just why there’s such intense opposition to this nomination — Cruz/McCarthy, Infofe, faux LGBT groups and the constant drumbeat about Iran and Israel from groups tied to Bill Kristol.
Many assume that what is behind all of this is Israel. But I don’t think that’s quite right. At least it’s not the core issue. And neither is Iran. Israel’s been the focus because it’s the most inflammatory and cross-cutting foreign policy driver of US politics. But it’s only part of the equation. Read More