Rush Limbaugh: Rubio Part of Anti-Establishment
Game changer?
In an interesting turn of events, talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh mulled Senator Marco Rubio’s role in the anti-establishment camp Wednesday.
The Washington Examiner’s T. Becket Adams reported:
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh lumped Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., with members of the so-called anti-GOP “establishment” Wednesday, marking a possible victory for the GOP 2016 presidential candidate as he seeks to prove his conservative bone fides.
“The question is: What’s wrong with the ruling class establishment?” Limbaugh asked Wednesday. “They are the ones implementing policies that are causing this country to be at greater risk, less safe, our economy to crumble.”
The Washington, D.C., GOP “establishment,” which is supposedly made up of entrenched special interest groups unconcerned with the worries of its conservative base, is complicit in “dragging down this country,” he explained further. The question should not be why anti-establishment types like businessman Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are doing well in the GOP presidential primary, he continued.
Limbaugh addressed the “establishment” issue after first giving his take on Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary debate, and fielding questions about especially noteworthy performances delivered by Rubio, Cruz and Trump.
“The question is what’s wrong with [the establishment], not what’s wrong with Trump or Rubio or Cruz or any of these other candidates,” Limbaugh said. “Why doesn’t the establishment see what the rest of us see?”
Despite the fact that Rubio was elected as an outsider who fought the Florida political establishment across the board, he’s been branded with the scarlet “E” this election cycle.
Adams explains:
Together, Rubio’s critics have worked to characterize him as an ally of the ruling class “establishment.” They have also accused the senator of being a “pro-amnesty” flunky for special interest groups, citing often the senator’s past support for the infamous Gang of Eight immigration bill.
Given the enormity of Limbaugh’s influence, could this be a game changer?
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Comments
He’s worked for amnesty. Nothing more need be said.
He not only worked for amnesty, he broke an explicit campaign promise not to.
I’m with pesanteur below. Rush simply *didn’t* say what’s in the headline. Or at least he didn’t say it in the quotes in the article.
I am a Florida voter. I voted for Rubio in the primary and the general as he ran against Charlie Crist. During the campaign he promised “no amnesty”. It turns out he lied. He was seduced by th gang of 8. I see no reason to believe his return to “no amnesty” It is as likely to be a lie this time as it was last time.
I will never vote for Rubio again. We already have a liar in the White House and Hillary is congenital, pathological liar. If Rubio is the candidate, I will vote for the libertarian candidate sight unseen.
Agree with everything you wrote except..He was NOT seduced. Anyone who has followed his career in Tallahassee and before that on the West Miami City commission knows his history and he exceeded our worst expectations once in DC.
But our only alternative was Charlie Crist, for cryin’ out loud.
Well put, forksdad.
When he worked on that disgusting amnesty deal, I called his office and told them I would NEVER vote for him. And I still will not vote for him. Nothing has changed and unlike him, when I say something, I mean it.
I, too, called, wrote and made a personal visit to his office. Like so many pols down here in Miami, if your name doesn’t end with the letter “Z” and if you do not have a fat check book open to make campaign donations, you are inconsequential to Marco.
Really, it’s just the ill informed, the LaRaza loving RINOs, immigration lawyers and dumb chicas who swoon over Marco now.
As I recall, Rubio was elected on the Tea party ticket saying he was against amnesty.
He was elected because the alternative was Charlie Crist.
He did and then immediately showed he was either a liar or a person of such weak character and principle immeduately sold out to the big money global corporation chamber of commerce. Either way he is unfit to be president.
OK, I will be the dissenting voice. I, too, am a Florida voter (Naples) and I, too, voted for Marco, and I, too, was horrified when he joined the Gang of Eight sell-out, and I,too, wrote a personal letter to him and made calls to his offices saying I would never vote for him again because of his sell-out. I believe he was seduced by the Chuckie Schumers in the Senate and he showed weakness. BUT I think that he has “seen the light” and recognized his error and will not do the same type of thing in the future. No-one is perfect. We all err. I like the man and admire his ability to cut through the crap and go right to the heart of an issue and I do believe he is fundamentally a true conservative. Keep in mind the last amnesty that was enacted was signed by the Great, the All-Wise Ronald Reagan. Give poor Marco one break.
I tell all my conservative friends PLEASE don’t be so doctrinaire to forget what we are doing here. We are trying to find a candidate who will beat the extra-large panties off Hillary. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump can’t do that. While I am not as certain that Cruz can’t, I think it would be unlikely. Marco could. I think Christie could. Let’s keep our eye on the finish line and not on the color of our running shoes.
I believe you are wrong about Rubio or Christie winning in the general. They would be just like McCain and Romney. They would lose to much conservative support to win because they are squishes. The only canidate that I would believe has a legitimate chance at winning is Cruz. The conservative base will support him and he is articulate enough to gain the support of the moderate voters.
Rubio has not changed. He has always been a fan of big donor money. He is a slick willie sell out who has continued to support open borders and amnesty to this very day. He is horrible. He is a Jeb Bush protege. He will never be nominee. Not now and not ever. He can’t even carry flor u da much less the country.
Trump is the only candidate that can and will beat Hillary. Certainly not the Cuban version of her husband.
This is a narrative, the old reliable RINO flim-flam dragged out to save Rubio. “We must nominate him because he’s the only one who can beat [fill-in-the-blank].” There is nothing to prove this at all — it is merely repeated as if some irrefutable truth.
Not an irrefutable truth, just an opinion. I am old enough to remember vividly the last time the GOP nominated a 110% conservative–Barry Goldwater. You can research what happened then, and today we have far far more “progressives” and those dependent on government handouts who are not really in play. Just an opinion.
Jeanette Rubio, is that you? This post reads as though it could have been written by Marco’s wife, Jeanette, or his mother, or maybe author Kimberlee Kaye.
Your apologetics conjures images in my mind of family and an associated mob that assembles in the street to punch the air with their fists, demanding “Justice!” for their criminally deviant off spring who tried to buck the law and lost. “He was such a GOOD boy”..[He was]..”about to turn his life around”… a rising intellectual star who “dindoonuttin” outside of an occasional assault on civilized society.
Carl, if that is your real name , I beseech you. Remove the blinders and pursue research on Sen. Rubio with greater depth and less bias, whatever the source. As someone who has watched him closely for ~ 2 decades I assert he was not “seduced” and he has not changed his spots in lo these many years when it comes to immigration issues and the donor class, not to mention his craven pursuit for personal and political gain.
Voters will vote for the real liberal over the fake conservative anytime. Why vote for the Rube over Hillary? Because he’s prettier and has nicer hair?
No.
Game changer? You wish.
Here’s what Rush said about Cruz and Rubio yesterday:
“But Rubio also now has the added pressure of being the establishment’s new choice given that Jeb just doesn’t seem to be able to emerge from the three- to five-point range in all of these polls. So I think where the real battle is gonna be is between Cruz and Rubio.”
So, per Rush, Rubio is the “establishment’s new choice”, but he’s also anti-establishment?
I submit that Rush grouped Rubio’s name with others as a mistake. In any case, I’ve seen no reports anywhere asserting Rush has identified Rubio as “anti-establishment,” which is basically absurd.
A bit of nit to pick here. And I believe we are in agreement:
When Jeb! was flailing, where was the first place his money folks went to? Christie? Kasich?
No, it was Rubio.
Why the specious attacks by Jeb! on Rubio?
They are going after the same voter/money.
It could be that Rubio is the GOP Establishment’s best hope of maintaining their status quo. I expect a lot of attacks from the “right” on Cruz.
Yes. The idea that Rush would say Rubio was anti-establishment is, as I noted, absurd.
“Game changer?”
LOL, no, nada, nein, neit.
If Rubio were truly “anti-establishment”, we would not need Limbaugh to tell us what he is. I guess it depends who we really trust; Limbaugh or our lying eyes/ears.
That being said, I do like a Cruz/Rubio ticket.
I would prefer a Cruz/Trump or Trump/Cruz ticket.
Kimberly,
Love your writing but IMO you made a mistake in even quoting Rush. He went so full in with Trump, the liberal, that he’s lost his imprimatur as a conservative icon. Yes, he gained listeners from the left who will abandon him as soon as he is no longer in Trump’s corner, rather like any other celebrity endorser.
As far as who is ‘Establishment’ or not, I’m seeing more and more articles written by both base voters as well as respected writers who are calling out others over the use of the term. Rather like calling a conservative racist for some of our stances, the word has lost all meaning so is useless as a pejorative. I’m a rank and file member of the base and have been for almost 40 years. Rush et al define me as Establishment, not due to my position in the GOP, but because of my stance on issues that are nuanced to be different than their favorite sons. It’s getting more than tiresome defending my conservative bonefides, often from someone who has been a conservative years (or even months) instead of my own decades.
Then, there’s the issue that most of the rank and file don’t care who is ‘Establishment’ or not. They look at where a candidate stands on the issues they care about. The issues that affect their lives. Along with that, they also examine how trustworthy that candidate is. Rubio lost some trust with the Gang of 8 bill but I think we’ll find that he regained it with the rank and file by owning up to his mistake.
I’m still undecided on who I will support (other than NEVER Trump) but at this point Rubio is looking to be well qualified in spite of his lack of executive seasoning. In fact, of all of the front runners, he has the most governing experience from his time as Florida House Speaker and that’s a plus. He’s still quite popular in Florida political circles and expect a lot of his fellow conservative lawmakers to support his candidacy here in Florida. He is one who will have coat tails here in his home state due to his long tenure as a state office holder.
Again, I appreciate your work. 🙂
Marla, to me, you sound like a good member of the collective, doing what you can to infiltrate the opposition; that would be us and really the US. Perhaps when you make your report, you’ll be able to say that you got just a few nibbles but no bites; to paraphrase an old fisherman, a day wetting a line doesn’t count!
“He’s still quite popular in Florida political circles and expect a lot of his fellow conservative lawmakers to support his candidacy here in Florida.”
Uh, huh. Close your eyes and pretend real hard. Chant to yourself, Marco, Marco, Marco…
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/fl/florida_republican_presidential_primary-3555.html
“I would prefer a Cruz/Trump or Trump/Cruz ticket.”
I’d venture the chance of Trump accepting a VP nomination as somewhere between zero and none. Working for someone else is not in the Trump genetic makeup.
Good point, Gulf Breeze, do you think this extends to working for, serving, the American people? Just curious.
That ticket’s about as likely as Trump-Kasich.
Whoa Nelly!
Doubt very much whether Rush is saying that Rubio is the anti-establishment guy, that was kind of a minor way of making his major point.
To the extent that JEB fails in his bid, the GOPe already has Rubio on deck ready to swing away; that’s all I’m hearing from Rush regarding Mario!
Game changer by cherry-picking a few words?
Quoting Rush:
But here’s another reality. For all of you trying to understand Trump, understand that today the ruling class is aiming all of its fire at Ted Cruz. Now, part of the reason the ruling class establishment’s backing Rubio, and they are. Rubio has assumed the position that Jeb occupied. The ruling class, nobody’s admitting it yet, but they understand that Jeb’s not gonna pull this off. They need a stand-in, and for them, in their mind, it’s Rubio. And they’re pushing for Rubio to try to take out Cruz.
Rubio’s the new stalking horse. I mean, they were hoping that Kasich could do this. I still go back to last night. Kasich opening up by saying (paraphrasing), “Yeah, my daughter said, ‘Dad, you know what I don’t like about politics? There’s too much yelling. There’s too much screaming. There’s too much disagreeing. There’s too many arguments that go on.'” This is from the guy who pledged his super PAC to take down Trump. Remember that? So there’s a lot of hypocrisy out there that people also note.
So the big RINO donors are gonna move to Rubio. They’re gonna put tons of money in his PAC. They’re gonna run a lot of ads suggesting Cruz is anti-Israel, anti-military, pro-amnesty, but there isn’t any amount of PAC money that’s gonna convince people that Ted Cruz is pro-amnesty, but they’re going to try. You know, folks, here’s a point. They’re never gonna be able to make the case that Ted Cruz is pro-amnesty? Of all the people in the world, be trying to make the case that Trump is, and yet they’re going to try with all of this money.
Read all of it here: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/12/16/understanding_trump_s_appeal
Thank you and the others for accurately quoting Rush. I was getting a bit worried.
I’m growing to expect things like deliberately misreading English grammar from this particular writer (Kemberlee Kaye). I’m a linguist. It irks me.
The new generation of writers … unacquainted with grammar and logic.
Thumbs up to both of you. We’re devolving into a semi-literate society.
FNC spent the better part of the day trying to help Rubio by replaying an old video quotation of Cruz stating what he wants re immigration.
Yes, Bret Baier went after him hammer and tong last night. They’ve never gone after Rubio’s gang of 8 like this.
I’ll paraphrase a quote from the debate here: Any one of the Republican candidates is a better choice than any one of the Democrats at this point. I have a preference (Cruz) for who will be on the ballot in November, but I’m still voting R no matter who it is.
What’s more interesting is why Kemberlee Kaye is making such a huge mountain out of that teeny tiny little molehill mention by Rush? This seems to be on a par with FNC promoting JEB today over his much despised rival, Trump. Maybe this is part of a two-staged assault on Trump; which goes along the lines of if JEB isn’t liked, then try Rubio!
Nah, Trump, Carson, or Cruz, perhaps Fiorina, are more to my liking. GOPe clones can go fish! JEB and Rubio need to go have a clam bake on a northern shore.
Cmon, LI, be more independent, like in those golden days of yore, don’t imitate what that FNC bunch are trying to do!
It’s not Wm writing, Doug. It’s the don’t think too well or deeply lemming crowd who think misquoting, misunderstanding, miswriting are really cool hallmarks of great intellect.
Trump’s history is absolute proof he cannot be trusted. He lies all the time and just makes crap up as he goes along. He still knows nothing about national security, warfare, strategies, strengths, foreign policy, etc. I will not vote for him if he’s the nominee. He makes himself wealthy by stealing from and conning others.
Only fools believe him and his slogan that he has no skill set to fulfill.
He’s a scheming, lying blowhard.
The only thing accurate in your post is that you won’t vote for Mr. Trump.
Bullshit.
Remember how the GOP positioned Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy as young mavericks so that it could co-opt the Tea Party? Two of those 3 phones are already gone,
Same thing with Rubio.
Rubio is pro amnesty. He ran on anti amnesty in his last election, so hes a phony. He’s not going to be president and he should be worried about remaining a Senator.
He’s not running for Senator, and his term ends at the end of 2016. His choice. Weird, I know.
Rubio’s trying to pull an Obama. Dad worked as a bartender so little Marco could stand up and lie to us. Glib guy, weak on truth, logic, and planning; that’s why Cruz runs rings around him and catches him in all sorts if traps.
Rubio can’t be trusted.
Trump is 10x worse when it comes to truth no matter how frequently he assures us something is true even as he changes it day to day.
Call it the Scott Brown Effect
Rubio stabbed his conservative base in the back, and like Brown, I doubt he will ever be electable again. What the hell is it with Florida RINOs anyway?
They’re RINO’s.
Limbaugh is trying to salvage some credibility, but he’s past that now. Establishment Talk Radio sold the whole burn-it-all-down mania that led to Trump, and caused Cruz to lie about switching his positions to keep up with the populist fever.
Not that their ratings weren’t on a downward slide anyway – that may be why they sold out all principal to throw red meat at the base.
Nice try. Rush is one of the most credible and incisive voices not just in conservative circles but politics.
Wrong! I listen to Rush everyday. I heard today’s program, and was surprised when I saw this post. So I listened to the clip here.
Rush was talking about Trump and Cruz all day in this vein. The fact that he accidentally included Rubio’s name in this sentence does not mean Rush considers Rubio to be anti-estsblishment. In fact, Rush has said the exact opposite of Rubio many times, I think even including today.
Nice try, but no.
Rubio is a traitor. Anyone that participates in trying to find a legal loophole to give illegal immigrants legal status of citizenship has VIOLATED THEIR OATH OF OFFICE and should be forced to resign.
There is so much pressure to get ” Trump,” out of the running. There are so many people on the ” Take,” or given Gov. jobs, which they are not qualified to hold. Also the ” Money Train,” being used by the ” K,” ST. brokers, why know that they will be swept out of the Lobbyist picture. Oblamo promised to get rid of them, but never did. It was just another promise that he broke. With so many Politicians trying to get rid of Trump, It makes one wonder WHY ? I hope he has good security people.
I like Rubio, except his immigration policies. If he toughened up on that, he would do much better.
I’d take him in a heart beat over that crazy cat lady the democrats are coronating!
Here’s how anti-establishment Rubio is.
http://michellemalkin.com/2015/12/17/open-borders-money-backs-marco-rubio/
From Rushlimbaugh.com:
Bottom Line: Marco Rubio Was One of the Gang of Eight — And Ted Cruz Wasn’t
The headline says it all.