Rubio says DeMint is his best friend

tsai3904

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tea Party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is his best friend in Congress.

In a wide-ranging interview with GQ magazine published on Monday, Rubio said that, after his wife, DeMint is his closest friend.

"He's a great source of wisdom as a person who's had to make decisions that have made him unpopular in his own party," Rubio said of DeMint, who gave him a critical endorsement during his 2010 Senate run.

He also mentioned former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as someone he admires.

"Jeb Bush is another guy I admire for his ability to analyze issues and call them for what they are."

The high-profile interview with GQ is sure to fuel talk that Rubio is positioning himself for a presidential run in 2016. Many expect him to take a lead role as Republicans try to work toward a deal on immigration reform and win back Latino voters who went overwhelmingly for President Obama in the election.

More:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...his-wife-rubio-says-demint-is-his-best-friend
 
No surprise there. DeMint votes for war, spending and against civil liberties despite professing to be conservative.
 
DeMint is a socialcon and is starting to shake his neocon ways a bit. He is coming more our direction, more of a Pat Buchanan old-right paleocon than a liberty guy.
 
He still voted for costly interventionism in Iraq, his fiscal talk is good which is why some like him but when push comes to shove he knows he's in the minority.

I dont know how anyone here can admire him much other than he's one of the least bad senators, which are almost always universally bad
 
He still voted for costly interventionism in Iraq

You'd be surprised how many on these forums used to be Bush supporters and supported the war in Iraq. People can change and while DeMint is not fully on our side, he's moving in that direction. There's no need to make him an enemy when there are many other Senators deserving of that title.
 
You'd be surprised how many on these forums used to be Bush supporters and supported the war in Iraq. People can change and while DeMint is not fully on our side, he's moving in that direction. There's no need to make him an enemy when there are many other Senators deserving of that title.

people here aren't legislators, he's voted time and time again for many years to keep the iraq war going which costs hundreds of billions of dollars he claims he wants to save from the budget so he's a big hypocrite. No wonder Rubio likes him!
 
If DeMint is such a bad guy, why are there so many people on this forum that like him

Voting No on NDAA was a good start. Rubio, on the other hand, voted for the thing.

No way DeMint is one of us, not by a long way, but over the last 4 years he has been walking (albeit slowly) in our direction. I started being quite surprise to see him randomly and occasionally pop up on the correct side of the roll call on an important bill, but I'm not surprised anymore. I wish he would come our way a lot faster than he is, but I was also taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and take his no votes on stuff like NDAA when I can get them. He's even softening significantly on foreign interventionism, which in SC is a big, big deal.
 
people here aren't legislators, he's voted time and time again for many years to keep the iraq war going which costs hundreds of billions of dollars he claims he wants to save from the budget so he's a big hypocrite. No wonder Rubio likes him!

Some people here are legislators, and pay attention to records. Delta (change) is important. Look at Walter Jones (R-NC), went from foaming at the mouth neocon to one of Ron Paul's closest allies and an RLC endorsee. Of course DeMint has a long long way to go, but the point is that he's going. If Ron Paul is a 10, Amash, Rand and co a 9, Walter Jones an 8, and the rest of the establishment in the 2's and 3's, the Demint is at 4 going on 5, and climbing. We should be encouraging that growth. My experience is there are more people than folks realize who think somewhat like we do, but are scared silly to stand up and vote against the establishment. These are the people who will 'become' brave as we expand our foothold. With more incoming allies, and if his current trajectory holds, I expect DeMint to be a 5 going on 6 by year end (ETA-2013), and maybe even a 7 by the end of 2014 beginning of 2015. However, I do not expect him to climb any higher than a 7 at this point...but I always hold out hope that he will surprise me.
 
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DeMint committed one or two bad votes, but on the other hand, he has two fantastic votes on his resume, which were TARP and Medicare Part D. The Medicare Part D vote was easily the most courageous because nearly the entire Republican party was behind that fraudulent bill written by the pharmaceutical industry. 16.1 trillion dollars in unfunded liability making every other government expenditure appear to be chickenfeed.
 
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What, Rubio didn't mention his buddies Graham, McCain and Lieberman? He did say "in Congress". Outside of Congress, is Bill Kristol his BFF?
 
What, Rubio didn't mention his buddies Graham, McCain and Lieberman? He did say "in Congress". Outside of Congress, is Bill Kristol his BFF?

That is an excellent point. It speaks to me what his internal polling is showing; that he is weaker with voters that like Demint than he wants to be.
 
Voting No on NDAA was a good start. Rubio, on the other hand, voted for the thing.

No way DeMint is one of us, not by a long way, but over the last 4 years he has been walking (albeit slowly) in our direction. I started being quite surprise to see him randomly and occasionally pop up on the correct side of the roll call on an important bill, but I'm not surprised anymore. I wish he would come our way a lot faster than he is, but I was also taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and take his no votes on stuff like NDAA when I can get them. He's even softening significantly on foreign interventionism, which in SC is a big, big deal.

The question is, will he support our candidate in the primary, or Lindsay Graham, or stay out of it? I'm guessing the latter but if he supports Tom Davis who it looks like will be running then that would be respectable.

The sad truth is that there are only about 8 somewhat fiscally conservative senators in the senate, hopefully 10 or so now with the addition of Cruz and Flake. Rubio and DeMint are among the best in that regard, though it seems like DeMint has moved our way on foreign policy and Rubio has not.
 
That is an excellent point. It speaks to me what his internal polling is showing; that he is weaker with voters that like Demint than he wants to be.

There's no doubt that this article represents (faux) campaigning to the "Tea Party" and fiscal conservatives, nothing more. The neo-conservatives are already behind him 110%.
 
What, Rubio didn't mention his buddies Graham, McCain and Lieberman? He did say "in Congress". Outside of Congress, is Bill Kristol his BFF?

Actually, he didn't say "in Congress". That was inserted by the journalist who wrote the article.

This was the question:

GQ: Who's your best friend?
Marco Rubio: My wife. We talk every day.

GQ: Besides your wife.
Marco Rubio: [South Carolina Senator and Tea Party favorite] Jim DeMint. He's a great source of wisdom as a person who's had to make decisions that have made him unpopular in his own party. Jeb Bush is another guy I admire for his ability to analyze issues and call them for what they are.
 
DeMint committed one or two bad votes, but on the other hand, he has two fantastic votes on his resume, which were TARP and Medicare Part D. The Medicare Part D vote was easily the most courageous because nearly the entire Republican party was behind that fraudulent bill written by the pharmaceutical industry. 16.1 trillion dollars in unfunded liability making every other government expenditure appear to be chickenfeed.

I'm pretty sure Demint wasn't there for the Medicare Part D vote. The most telling recent vote imo is the Import-Export bank corporate welfare vote. 20 senators voted against it - 19 Republicans and Bernie Sanders, but 27 Republicans and all the Democrats voted for it.
 
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