Last week, the Washington Post published a breathless hit job on Sen. Marco Rubio. The piece alleged that he had “embellished” his family’s history as Cuban exiles. The piece was so shady that the Miami Herald took it upon itself to push back on Rubio’s behalf, and Rubio himself hit back hard enough that the Post should have begged him for mercy. But no, today they’re using their previous attack to generate yet another attack. Check this out.
Marco Rubio on national ticket could be risky bet for Republican Party
By Peter Wallsten, Published: October 26
Republicans who are eager to repair the party’s battered image among Hispanic voters and unseat President Obama next year have long promoted a single-barrel solution to their two-pronged problem: putting Sen. Marco Rubio on the national ticket.The charismatic Cuban American lawmaker from Florida, the theory goes, could prompt Hispanics to consider supporting the GOP ticket — even after a primary contest in which dust-ups over illegal immigration have left some conservative Hispanics uneasy.But Rubio’s role in recent controversies, including a dispute with the country’s biggest Spanish-language television network and new revelations that he had mischaracterized his family’s immigrant story, shows that any GOP bet on his national appeal could be risky.
Rubio’s “role” in both of those media-generated controversies: Victim. Specifically, victim of media character assassination. Peter Wellsten’s opener in this story is entirely dishonest.
Let’s review what happened with “the country’s biggest Spanish-language television network.” Univision tried to blackmail Sen. Rubio.
On July 7, Alex Burgos, Rubio’s communications director, and Rubio’s political advisor, Todd Harris, held a 45-minute conference call with a handful of top Univision editorial staffers, including Lee, the news chief who handled most of the discussions for Univision. …
Toward the end of the conversation, Lee brought up Ramos’ show and suggested the drug-bust story could change — or not run at all, according to Harris and Burgos’ notes.
Said Harris: “You’re saying that if Marco does an interview with Ramos, that you will drop this investigation into his family and the story will never air?”
Lee, they say, responded with this statement: “While there are no guarantees, your understanding of the proposal is fair.”
Univision tried blackmailing Rubio over a story that never had anything to do with him — play ball or we run a bad story about some of your kin. Rubio was the victim of media malpractice. And let’s review what the Post itself tried to do to Rubio: It tried to destroy his reputation among the Cuban exile community.
How do either of these stories make Rubio a “risky” candidate for the GOP? In only one way: They prove that dishonest members of the media, such as Peter Walsten and the paper he works for, will go to any lengths to destroy him. The Post signals here that it will run story after story on him, despite the fact that they’re stories about nothing, to damage him bit by bit. And secondarily, that the liberals atop Univision will help destroy a fellow Hispanic leader to preserve and advance their liberal politics.
Rubio is certainly a risky candidate in one way, as Wellsten himself accidentally admits.
Democrats had already questioned whether a Cuban American who has voiced conservative views on immigration and opposed the historic Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina justice, could appeal to a national Hispanic electorate of which Cubans are just a tiny fraction but have special immigration status.
Marco Rubio is not an orthodox liberal. He is a mainstream conservative who is turning out to be one of the right’s most capable spokesmen. He therefore poses a massive risk to the Democratic Party which is counting on the ongoing national demographic shift to give it a lock on states like Texas. Rubio is proof that that demographic change does not necessarily signal a revival of the Democrats’ fortunes.
So he must be destroyed. And the Washington Post stands ready to do its part to destroy him.
Update: Here’s how the progressive media works. One outlet publishes a false story attacking a Republican, another runs with that story as if it’s fact to pile on and build the story. Over to you, Politico:
In Miami’s Little Havana, the Cuban exile community has rallied to the defense of its favorite son, Sen. Marco Rubio, as he fights off allegations he embellished his family history to boost his meteoric political career.
But well beyond Calle Ocho, the freshman Florida Republican still faces a bigger challenge selling himself to the broader Hispanic electorate. Rubio is expected to encounter tough questions from voters and activists over his hard-line stance on immigration as he heads to Texas and possibly Arizona next week to court Hispanic voters and high-dollar donors. As his personal history morphs into a national political story, it’s clear Rubio still has plenty of skeptics in the Latino political community.
Isn’t it something, how a community that the media tends to treat a monolithic — Hispanics — suddenly has fissures in it based on national origin and so forth. Who knew? Well, other than everybody who doesn’t buy the media’s line on things.
Does Rubio have critics? Of course he does — they’re called Democrats, and he terrifies them. So they’re trying to destroy him now, before he can get on a national ticket and start articulating his politics in a way that’s likely to resonate and do lasting, generational harm to the Democrats’ racial politics.
The Left and its Old Media annex have greater foresight than the Right. They go looking for up-and-comers like Senator Rubio, and do what they can to “pre-invalidate” them as leaders for the conservative cause. Yet we wonder why they’re so quick with the dirt when a man like Rubio stands for office.
And they know that a lie goes around the world three times before a truth gets out of the door.
If they can hype global warming to the point where a lot of people were basically willing to destroy the planet to “save it”, you know how confident they are that they can destroy a single individual, no matter who it is, even if the person is a saint.
“Newspapers” like the WaPo jumped the shark when they tried to hide the John Edwards “love child” story. What Marco should do is make fun of his critics every chance he gets. I understand why people criticise the Cubans. They work hard and have become a keystone of the Southeastern economy but enough’s enough.
While unfortunate, that WaPo is doing hit pieces on Rubio should be seen as a badge of honor amongst conservatives and solid evidence they are on the correct path. It vividly demonstrates the veracity of Rubio’s appeal to an extremely important and growing, Democrat constituency without which they–Democrats–would surely lose future elections. Conservatives don’t have to garner support from the entire segment, only siphon-off 20-30% or so to effectively hamstring Democrat re-election efforts. Because of this obvious reality, Democrat sympathizers/supporters like WaPo are compelled to act in this fashion so as to preserve the(ir) favored status quo.
You nailed it. The more attacks they launch at up-and-comers like Rubio, the more clearly they reveal their bias and fear. The more praise and potential they attribute to obscurities, like Obama pre-2008, the more clearly they reveal whom they’re backing.
A friend reminded me recently that when we were in college, only those who were acknowledged to be inept and/or lacking in talent and drive chose journalism as a degree.
They’re planning the same public-image destruction for Rubio that was done to Sarah Palin.
Where is the outrage from Ruben Navarette?
If he wants to prove his “objective bona fides”, because he says he has some “conservative views”…where is he when a bright, articulate, strong Hispanic voice is being savaged by the leftist media.
Crickets chirping.
This “bootstrapping the slander” technique is a favorite of the sleazemedia crowd. One of them writes an article that has no basis in fact, no grounding in truth, is simply a hatchet job…and then the next layer of slime is placed on top by referring back to the first piece of yellow journalism. (or red journolista tripe, in this case)
The flying monkeys in the leftist propaganda machine fling verbal feces around trying to leave a stench behind…and all the other monkey see, monkey doo-doo cretins jump on the red journolista bandwagon.
Expect not one ounce of honor from ANY “Hispanic” leftist…who are leftists first and HIspanics second…or so I hear.
And, expect not much more from those who claim to not follow that despicable pathway. Treating non-leftists badly is what every coward and liar aspires to in the propaganda machine. It’s a prerequisite to being hired. Marco Rubio has been slimed. He deserves better…we all do.
– of Mitt, Rick and Jon, but support their boycott.