I have no idea whether or not the following story is true, but if it does turn out to be valid its going to send shock waves through the GOP. Apparently, someone, an unidentified source from inside the camp of GOP Florida Senator Marco Rubio, has informed Robert Stacy McCain of the blog The Other McCain, that someone on Rubio's staff has been trying to influence the GOP Republican presidential primary calendar. The person or people involved, which may or may not include Rubio himself, have been instrumental in moving up the date of the primary, in what would seem to be a transparent attempt to benefit the then current front runner, Mitt Romney. If true, the plan is as clever as it is diabolical, as it presupposed that New Hampshire, which has a state law declaring they must have the first primary in the nation, will be obliged to likewise move up the date of their own primary. New Hampshire also heavily favors Romney at the current time. All of this has caused not just New Hampshire, but other states, specifically Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada to move their caucus and primaries up as well.
So, whether or not Rubio is involved directly or indirectly, what does he get out of this? Presumably, he would be picked as Mitt Romney's running mate.
As you can imagine, this has, or will cause much anxiety among conservative circles, most of whom see Rubio as a kindred conservative spirit while viewing Mitt Romney as an establishment favorite, and a bit of a squish. While Romney's support has held steadily in the mid-to-upper twenty percent of GOP voters, he never seems to rise above that due to his moderate, RINO reputation based mainly on his identification with big government conservatism at best, and at worst his support for such left-leaning policies as universal health care and a belief in Anthropogenic Global Climate Change, to name just a few things.
If Rubio is perceived as having betrayed the conservative Tea Party movement in order to secure a place on the ticket with the RINO Romney, it could be bad news for the Republican cause.
But should it really be a surprise? Rubio hails from Florida, a battleground state, and though he is seen as a Tea Party conservative, is he really? Conservatives have since his election, and well before, heaped praises on his head, and hailed him as one of the saviors of conservative principles. Yet all the while Rubio seems to have been taken under the wing of the Bush dynasty, particularly ex-Florida governor Jeb Bush, and was invited by Nancy Reagan to speak at the Reagan Library, where at one point he prevented Mrs. Reagan from falling, in an episode that almost seemed staged to me.
At 40, Rubio is a relatively young man, practically a kid in political terms, yet here he is one the one hand the object of near-veneration by the Tea Party, yet feted by and absorbed into the establishment club. Having had a small taste of the potential of the power and influence of Washington politics while rarely questioned or met with a critical eye, should we not have expected this?
This is of course presuming the story is true and that Rubio is himself knowingly involved if it is true. It might well be that the story comes from a plant in the Rubio camp, possibly even a Perry supporter. But the story bears watching, and it will be interesting to see how Rubio responds, if he does.
Whatever the case, conservatives should take from this an object lesson. Being possibly majority Christian, they more than most should be aware of the dangers of the allure of political power and influence. You can dress a man in royal raiment, and tell him in so many words that he's "a god, not a man". Do it long enough and he might even take you seriously on some level. Then by the time that old owl hoots, more often than not the corruption has already done its work, and irreversible damage.
UPDATE-When questioned about McCain's report, Marco Rubio issued a sternly worded denial, ending with "Hahaha". That Marco, such a jovial sort. Even accused McCain-the apparent "they" of the denial-of making the report up "out of thin air". Here's a portion of Rubio's statement, courtesy of The Shark Tank
“Don’t you think if something like that had happened, you would have heard something? 100% fiction, they just made it up out of thin air . . . Ok, BTW, if this were true, it means you got scooped in you own state!!!! Hahaha”
So what exactly is the truth? Who knows? Rubio admits to spearheading the effort to move Florida's primary up in 2007, so I guess that could serve to give him some plausible deniability cover. And then there's this, from The Shark Tank post linked above-
the recent move by the Florida legislature was carried out by a committee spearheaded by House Speaker Dean Cannon and House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera- both have endorsed Governor Rick Perry in the Presidential primary.
Convoluting matters further, one of Perry’s top campaign consultants was also Governor Charlie Crist’s consultant during the 2010 Senate race before Crist jumped ship and ran as an Independent, and that Perry’s Florida team was being led by Rich Heffley, Jim Rimes and Randy Enwright. Heffley was responsible for fabricating the infamous “truthaboutRubio” attack website against now Senator Rubio.
So the initial link could be a concerted effort by Perry staffers and former Crist operatives to hurt both Romney and Rubio and in the meantime deflect from the involvement of the Perry campaign apparatus for their role in the primary calendar debacle, something R S McCain has been in the forefront of critical reporting about.
Still all in all, I'm not ready yet to absolve Rubio of complicity. Strange bedfellows and all that.
One thing is for sure. Once the jovial smiles and the joking was over, I bet Rubio started going through his staff with a fine toothed comb. Expect at least one head to roll.
