SC Senator Jim DeMint all but adopted Florida Senator Marco Rubio when the lad from the Sunshine State was a candidate. DeMint lugged him about South Carolina showing him off. They even had a joint fundraising operation. Before that DeMint dropped $340,000 of his contributors' money into Rubio's coffers.
DeMint went around saying: "I'd rather 30 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters," referring to the Republican-turned-Democrat from Pennsylvania, and told a Florida crowd, "[i]t was clear after talking to Marco … that he was passionate about the principles of freedom and he was ready to take on Goliath." DeMint was touched by "the conservative Cuban-American candidate who 'grew up with parents who lost their country.'"
But it turns out that, as hard as his head was turned by his passionate young amigo, DeMint really didn't vet him very thoroughly.
From Politico:
Sen. Marco Rubio is furiously trying to regain control over a personal narrative and political image that have taken some hits lately.
With his name still simmering in the GOP veepstakes, the Florida Republican and his staff are spending an extraordinary amount of time, money and effort to define himself on the national stage before his political enemies — and a probing press corps — do it first.
He’s racing to publish his memoirs, though they won’t be out until this fall, months after a more critical Rubio biography by a Washington Post reporter hits bookshelves.
When Rubio got word last month a reporter had learned he attended the Mormon Church as a child, the senator’s publisher quickly leaked that fact to Rubio’s hometown newspaper.
Rubio has even hired investigators to look into his own background, since he knows Democrats are doing the same. His political action committee paid a firm more than $40,000 to conduct opposition research on Rubio, and it’s preparing to spend thousands more to dig into family stories, financial documents and real estate records — anything that could pop up in a political “oppo” file.
The effort to hard wire Rubio’s version of his life story into the public psyche is remarkable for a freshman senator, more on the scale of a presidential candidate. Some in his operation say the staffing and money spent are comparable to Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s efforts when they arrived in the Senate with big names and even bigger ambition.
Several Rubio aides and advisers declined to speak on the record for this story, but given the unusual level of scrutiny facing their boss, they say he’s been left with little choice.
“We spent a day and a half explaining what church he went to when he was 8,” lamented one top adviser. “We are getting a proctological exam on a daily basis.”
DeMint went around saying: "I'd rather 30 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters," referring to the Republican-turned-Democrat from Pennsylvania, and told a Florida crowd, "[i]t was clear after talking to Marco … that he was passionate about the principles of freedom and he was ready to take on Goliath." DeMint was touched by "the conservative Cuban-American candidate who 'grew up with parents who lost their country.'"
But it turns out that, as hard as his head was turned by his passionate young amigo, DeMint really didn't vet him very thoroughly.
From Politico:
Sen. Marco Rubio is furiously trying to regain control over a personal narrative and political image that have taken some hits lately.
With his name still simmering in the GOP veepstakes, the Florida Republican and his staff are spending an extraordinary amount of time, money and effort to define himself on the national stage before his political enemies — and a probing press corps — do it first.
He’s racing to publish his memoirs, though they won’t be out until this fall, months after a more critical Rubio biography by a Washington Post reporter hits bookshelves.
When Rubio got word last month a reporter had learned he attended the Mormon Church as a child, the senator’s publisher quickly leaked that fact to Rubio’s hometown newspaper.
Rubio has even hired investigators to look into his own background, since he knows Democrats are doing the same. His political action committee paid a firm more than $40,000 to conduct opposition research on Rubio, and it’s preparing to spend thousands more to dig into family stories, financial documents and real estate records — anything that could pop up in a political “oppo” file.
The effort to hard wire Rubio’s version of his life story into the public psyche is remarkable for a freshman senator, more on the scale of a presidential candidate. Some in his operation say the staffing and money spent are comparable to Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s efforts when they arrived in the Senate with big names and even bigger ambition.
Several Rubio aides and advisers declined to speak on the record for this story, but given the unusual level of scrutiny facing their boss, they say he’s been left with little choice.
“We spent a day and a half explaining what church he went to when he was 8,” lamented one top adviser. “We are getting a proctological exam on a daily basis.”
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