Rubio Channels His Inner Gipper

Posted by | May 13, 2015 12:00 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Tengrain



Once again it is time to look at the 2016 Goat Rodeo and specifically at Marco Rubio (the Candidate for a New Generation as long as that generation is about 70 and is anti-choice, anti-marriage equality, and a Goldwater cold warrior) and The Smart Bush, Jeb.

Jebbie was asked on the electronic television machine, “Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the [Iraq] invasion?” to which he replied yes without hesitation.

“I would have, and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody,” Bush said, “and so would have almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.”

Of course Bush’s staff went into Defcon 1:

Navarro, who was Bush’s director of immigration policy in the governor’s office, said on CNN’s “New Day” that she’d emailed Bush on Tuesday morning for clarification about his comments. “I emailed him this morning and I said to him, ‘Hey, I’m a little confused by this answer so I’m genuinely wondering did you mishear the question?'” Navarro said. “And he said, ‘Yes, I misheard the question.'”

And if you don’t hear SNL’s Jon Lovitz’ voice saying that, well, there’s no hope for your funny bone.

And as long as we are playing Superman vs. Mighty Mouse, we turn to Marco Rubio, who has been rattling the mighty sword that Jebbie gave him.

First some background:

Rubio’s comments last weekend at the South Carolina Freedom Summit, position us well for our theoretical question would you have authorized the invasion of Iraq knowing what we know today?,  wherein he said:

“On our strategy on global jihadists and terrorists, I refer them to the movie Taken. Have you seen the movie Taken? Liam Neeson. He had a line, and this is what our strategy should be: ‘We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you,’” the Florida senator said in Greenville.

The line—referring to Neeson’s character, a CIA operative threatening a human trafficker who had kidnapped his daughter—earned the top-tier candidate thunderous applause.

All good Liberaland Readers of a certain age recall that Saint Ronnie used to quote lines from movies, and sometimes entire plots, confusing them with reality. We laughed when we read that in 1966 Reagan replied to the question while a California governor candidate, What kind of governor would you be?, with the deadly accurate answer, “I don’t know. I’ve never played a governor.”

But I digress. People say that Rubio and Bush are the two sides of the same coin, moderate Republicans, so one wonders how Rubio would have answered the theoretical question, would you have authorized the invasion of Iraq knowing what we know today?

As we have noted before, Rubio has taken a sharp right turn since he proposed legislation to reform immigration (and the subsequent retreat into the Witness Protection Program when the base came after him with torches and pointy sticks), so I bet that he would reply in the affirmative. Or more likely, “What he said,” and point to Jeb.

Rubio is running as a national security hawk and has the unusual distinction of being wrong on his signature issues. So why not say he’d invade again?

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Tengrain

Fully caffeinated with twice the sugar, unabashedly liberal. Award-winning Americans United blogger, blogs at Mock Paper Scissors, and sometimes at Crooks and Liars.

You can follow @Tengrain on Twitter, or you might see him enjoying coffee somewhere in Seattle at any given moment of the day.

6 responses to Rubio Channels His Inner Gipper

  1. fahvel May 13th, 2015 at 12:08

    when your stars start quoting grade be action movies I believe all americans should be very very scared.

  2. William May 13th, 2015 at 14:32

    Rubio Cruz 2016. C’mon, it’ll be hysterical.

  3. bpollen May 13th, 2015 at 15:37

    I soooo love that picture. Spewed Coca Cola all over my monitor the first time I saw it.

  4. tracey marie May 13th, 2015 at 16:37

    Hillary did not have the truth like you do now rubio, your deflection and eagerness to kill Americans and Iraqies is disgusting

  5. StoneyCurtisll May 13th, 2015 at 18:10

    Marco (sippie cup) Robio…

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