Reuters reported that former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsed Republican Marco Rubio in Florida’s U.S. Senate race on April 22, and that he was also sharply critical of Rubio’s Republican primary opponent, Governor Charlie Crist.
The Rubio campaign website posted the news of the former Vice President’s endorsement and noted that it “comes on the same day that a new poll shows Rubio defeating Governor Charlie Crist and [Democrat ] Congressman Kendrick Meek in a three-way race.”
The Rasmussen Poll found that if Crist were to abandon the Republican Party and run as an independent, creating a three-way race, Rubio would win with 37 percent of the vote compared to Crist’s 30 percent and Meek’s 22 percent.
The post quoted Cheney’s statement:
Our country is at a crossroads facing threats from abroad and attempts from within to restructure the very foundation of our freedoms. America requires leaders to face down these challenges who are confident in who they are and what they stand for. Leaders who know that public service is about something bigger than climbing the political ladder and amassing greater political power.
Washington is broken and Congress is already overflowing with politicians who need pollsters to tell them what to think. It certainly doesn’t need another one. Now more than ever America needs leaders with the strength of conviction. That is why I am proud to endorse Marco Rubio.
Marco is exactly the kind of a strong conservative leader we need in Washington right now. We can trust Marco to stand up to the Obama agenda that threatens our freedom, and promote clear conservative alternatives. Marco has proven we can trust him to stand strong in his principles regardless of poll numbers and protests.
The former vice president was also critical of Charlie Crist, and anticipated a possible independent bid by the incumbent Governor.
Charlie Crist has shown time and again that he cannot be trusted in Washington to take on the Obama agenda because on issue after issue he actually supports that agenda. Lately it seems Charlie Crist cannot be trusted even to remain a Republican. I strongly urge him to either stay in the Republican Primary or drop out of the race. The only winners from an independent bid by Crist would be Barack Obama and Harry Reid.
The Rubio campaign website also lists other political figures who have endorsed the candidate, including: former governors Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.); Mitt Romney (R-Mass.); former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-N.Y. — photo, above left); U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and James Inhofe (R-Olka.); and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). Politically, these endorsees range from moderately conservative to very liberal.
Up until today’s announcement, this writer has been favorably impressed with Marco Rubio. Colleagues at The New American have covered his ongoing campaign since its inception, and he definitely seems like a positive alternative to the tired “moderate” Republicanism exhibited by Governor Charlie Crist. Among those favorable reports have been "Rubio: The First Tea Party Senator?" posted last January 12, in which Bob Adlemann wrote:
Marco Rubio, Crist’s opponent in the upcoming primary, is drawing a lot of attention from and support by Tea Party activists who like his “purist” ideology: limited government, personal freedom, and no compromise on important principles. Rubio states his case eloquently: “There are people who believe the way to be more successful as Republicans is to be more like Democrats. And the people who believe we need to be more like Democrats will vote for Charlie. The biggest danger facing America today are politicians who will say or do anything to get elected, who treat elections like an athletic contest."
Limited government, personal freedom, and no compromise on important principles — who could ask for more than that?
In "CPAC: ‘Conservatism’ at the Crossroads," a report on the February 18-20 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) posted on February 24, William F. Jasper observed:
Throughout the three-day event, the GOP establishment could count on rousing applause for its "golden boys" — from at least a sizeable portion of the audience. Mitt Romney, Dick Armey, Bill Bennett, John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, George Will, John Boehner, Haley Barbour, Michael Steele, Fred Thompson, and Dick Cheney all received cordial-to-enthusiastic welcomes. But the most fervent and heartfelt ovations went to those who could be categorized as contrarians and insurgents: former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who is challenging establishment-backed Governor Charlie Crist for Florida’s open Senate seat….
Another article, "Crist and Rubio Duel in Florida’s Fiery Senate Race" by Raven Clabough, posted on March 29, continued to present Rubio in a light that makes him a very attractive alternative to the obviously flawed Crist.
The article quoted Rubio’s dynamic jab at Charlie Christ, motivated largely by Christ’s backing of President Obama’s stimulus package: “In 2006, Governor, I voted for you. Because I trusted you when you said you were a Jeb Bush Republican.”
As Clabough noted: “It is Crist’s moderate nature that has been the target of Rubio’s criticism. Rubio addressed this often during the debate and even said to Crist, ‘Everyone knows you won’t stand up to the Obama agenda.’ ”
Rubio has looked like a good choice during his campaign and he continues to look like he has the potential to represent Florida capably in the Senate. But Dick Cheney’s endorsement just seems to stimulate a nagging voice that asks: “If Rubio is so good, why is Dick Cheney endorsing him?”
For those who don’t even realize that there is a problem with Cheney, we must look back at his long career in the House of Representatives and what happened to him after many years in Washington. During his 10 years of service in the House, representing Wyoming, Cheney maintained a consistently conservative voting record, earning respectably high scores on The New American magazine’s “Conservative Index” (not called the “Freedom Index.”) However, as he came to the attention of the “internationalist” wing of the Republican Party, he was eventually invited to join the elite Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which has long promoted an internationalist agenda such as using the U.S.military to intervene in foreign nations and surrendering U.S. sovereignty to the United Nations and its many subsidiary agencies.
Naturally, such an internationalist agenda would not have gone over very well with Cheney’s constituents in Wyoming.
While addressing the CFR at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Washington D.C. on February 15, 2002, Cheney remarked, in a joking manner:
It’s good to be back at the Council on Foreign Relations. As Pete mentioned, I have been a member for a long time, and was actually Director for some period of time. I never mentioned that when I was campaigning for reelection back home in Wyoming — (laughter) — but it stood me in good stead. I valued very much my experience and exposure to the tremendous people involved, and the involvement in the ideas and the debates and the great policy issues of the day.
Along with fellow CFR member and former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Cheney was a major influence in steering the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy towards an interventionist series of wars in the Middle East. His influence in that administration can hardly be underestimated.
So does Cheney’s endorsement of Marco Rubio necessarily negate Rubio’s many good qualities? Not necessarily, but if Rubio is elected as Florida’s next U.S. senator, as seems very likely, his constituents will need to remain vigilent and warn their senator against the dangers of falling in with bad company. It was just such bad company that turned a one-time good conservative representative from Wyoming into a CFR internationalist Vice President.
Photo: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorses Marco Rubio for Florida’s open Senate seat during a campaign rally in Miami: AP Images
