Rubio's Plan to Wreck the Republican Party

Things could turn out very poorly for Republicans on November of 2014 and, if so, Marco Rubio would be at least partially to blame. Taking a beating with the base over his work on comprehensive immigration reform, Rubio's been engaged in some image rehab, to prove to Republican presidential primary voters that he really is as crazy as they are. Not only is he planning a high-profile -- but completely doomed from the start -- push for a national 20-week abortion plan, but he has another idea to display his extremism for the nutjobs:

Politico: Sen. Marco Rubio says upcoming spending battles this fall could be the “last best chance” to enact changes to Obamacare.

“It’s still not too late,” the Florida Republican wrote in an op-ed published Thursday on FoxNews.com. “This September may be our last best chance to do anything about this disastrous law.”

Rubio and other Senate Republicans have already signed a letter promising not to support a continuing resolution or appropriations bill that funds further implementation or enforcement of the law.

It may or may not be Rubio's idea, but he's clearly taking leadership with it. And whether or not this actually happens is an open question. It's looking more and more like it won't. Steve Benen reports, "On Wednesday, the number of Republican senators on record with the government-shutdown threat was 17. Yesterday, while the right tried to find new signatories [to the letter Rubio mentioned], the number of backers actually dropped to 12 -- Sens. Ayotte, Boozman, Cornyn, Kirk, and Wicker all pulled their support without explanation."

CONTINUE TO POST>>

Mitt Rubio

It looks like Greg Sargent was right. Marco Rubio didn't offer any real alternatives to ideas laid out by President Obama last night. The Gulp Heard 'Round the World is getting a lot of coverage today and Rubio can be thankful of that. It's not really all that embarrassing and it probably won't affect his political future, while his response might've otherwise.

What Rubio did lay out was a perfect imitation of the Mitt Romney campaign platform -- and a perfect example of what's really wrong with the GOP. It was all tax cuts and small government and abortion and drill baby, drill. Americans didn't like this record the last time it was played, it's not likely they're going to like it any better now. Set the biographical introduction aside and the rest was just complaining.

It's convincing evidence that Republicans think their problems are all cosmetic. Prior to the election, Republicans defended attacks on minorities as proof that they weren't willing to "pander" to them -- as if not ignoring someone's concerns is some sort of a kiss-up and not responsive government. Choosing Rubio to deliver the Republican response shows that Republicans are now ready to pander, but that this whole "responsive government" thing is just going a step too far for them. Pandering is all you're going to get. It represents an apparent belief that Mitt Romney lost because he wasn't a somber-faced Latino in a serious dark suit, not because Americans rejected his proposals. Republicans continue to make the mistake of thinking that Americans rejected the packaging, not the same tired, old, unappetizing slop inside it. Marco Rubio is just the latest "new and improved!" sticker slapped on the party, without any attempt whatsoever to change the party in any substantial way at all. The sticker is the only change -- and it is, of course, a lie.

CONTINUE TO POST>>