Right now, there three Hispanic members of the United States Senate. On the Democrat side we have the senator from New Jersey, Robert Martinez. He is currently under investigation by a federal grand jury for alleged criminal violations of anti-corruption statutes, as well as the statute that bans international travel for the purpose of visiting an underage prostitute abroad. On the Republican side we have the senator from Florida, Marco Rubio and the senator from Texas, Ted Cruz. Both Republicans have made quite a splash in the Senate. Rubio is frequently mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, and Cruz brings an analytical mind and a former prosecutor's instincts to the political wars. For those who are unaware, Cruz is not mentioned as a presidential candidate since he was not born in the USA and cannot, therefore, hold the office. (He does not qualify for the Kenya exception to the Constitution prohibition -- wait, I was just kidding -- take a breath!)
To put it mildly, the Democrats and their media allies are in a tizzy because the Republican Hispanic senators are clearly head and shoulders above the lone Democrat Hispanic. The left worries that these two Republicans might lead the Hispanic community away from its lopsided support for Democrats. Not surprisingly, the Democrats are following their usual game plan in response to this threat: they are trying quickly to destroy both Rubio and Cruz.
With Rubio, the attack has been made that he is a buffoon and possibly dishonest. All America saw the outrage from the left when Rubio had the temerity to take a drink of water in the middle of his speech responding to the State of the Union address. It is hard to even write those words without laughing. Rubio took a drink of water and that somehow makes him a buffoon. CNN ran a headline asking if the drink of water had destroyed Rubio's career. MSNBC played the clip of him drinking water about 200 times on the following day. That comes to once every seven minutes for the 24 hour period. Rubio did not spill the water or let it dribble out of his mouth. He took a drink of water. When then senator Obama said he had visited all 57 states, no one paid much attention, but when Marco Rubio drank water (oh the horror), the leftist media went crazy. Beyond this, there have also been scattered stories planted in the press that Rubio has "problems" in his past. You know, Rubio supposedly has wrongdoing in his past. These stories never identify what the wrongdoing is. These stories never cite a source for the claims of wrongdoing. Indeed, if you look at the stories, the most frequent mention they contain is of earlier stories that make the same unsourced vague claims. It is a classic smear campaign by the left. These stories about Rubio have been around since he was first running for federal office and perhaps before that. In the four years that have now passed, not one detail has ever been put forth regarding any wrongdoing by the senator. Unlike for Democrat Menendez, there are no witnesses furnishing affidavits of wrongdoing. Unlike for Democrat Menendez, there is no federal grand jury investigating senator Rubio. But the left persists in its attempts to injure Rubio's standing.
For senator Cruz, the attack has taken a different tack. Cruz, we are told by the leftist media, is nasty and evil. Clearly, Cruz is too smart to try to attack as an idiot, so the left is trying to paint him as sinister. When Cruz was seeking the identification of foreign entities that had paid Chuck Hagel's salary during the four years prior to his nomination as Secretary of Defense, Cruz was accused of McCarthyism. And why was that? Because Cruz said he did not know who had given money to Hagel; it could be North Korea for all he knew. When the Democrat leader of the senate, the ever-smarmy Harry Reid announced last fall that Mitt Romney had not paid taxes for ten years, none of these folks thought that the claim was McCarthyite. No, Reid was allowed falsely to accuse Romney of a federal crime even though he had to know that the charge was false. All Cruz did was say he needed information to find out the truth. And just the other day, Cruz had the nerve to ask senator Feinstein of California about the constitutionality of her proposed ban on certain assault weapons. Feinstein took umbrage at being questioned and used her response to castigate Cruz. She told Cruz that she was not a sixth grader and some other choice things. The problem, of course, was that Cruz had asked her a direct and fair question which she chose not to answer. When Cruz pointed out that she had not answered, Feinstein punted. She said that Congress just passes laws and the Supreme Court determines if they are constitutional. That, indeed, was an answer worthy of a sixth grader. After all, if Congress just passes any law it wants whether or not it is constitutional, then it sets the country on a course toward sharp changes forced on it frequently by the Supreme Court. Since this exchange, the media knives have all come out. We are told that Feinstein put Cruz in his place. We are told that Cruz was supercilious. We are told that Cruz treated Feinstein poorly just because she is a woman. You know, all the usual attacks are being made. Unfortunately, for most Americans, all they get to hear are the attacks.
The truth, however, is quite important here. Senators Rubio and Cruz clearly have struck a nerve among the leftist media and the Democrats. They are viewed as a threat. Indeed, when you add in the Hispanic Republican governors like Martinez of New Mexico and Sandoval of Nevada, essentially all of the prominent Hispanic politicians in America are Republicans. One has to wonder why Hispanics would continue to vote for a party that keeps them out of office.
To put it mildly, the Democrats and their media allies are in a tizzy because the Republican Hispanic senators are clearly head and shoulders above the lone Democrat Hispanic. The left worries that these two Republicans might lead the Hispanic community away from its lopsided support for Democrats. Not surprisingly, the Democrats are following their usual game plan in response to this threat: they are trying quickly to destroy both Rubio and Cruz.
With Rubio, the attack has been made that he is a buffoon and possibly dishonest. All America saw the outrage from the left when Rubio had the temerity to take a drink of water in the middle of his speech responding to the State of the Union address. It is hard to even write those words without laughing. Rubio took a drink of water and that somehow makes him a buffoon. CNN ran a headline asking if the drink of water had destroyed Rubio's career. MSNBC played the clip of him drinking water about 200 times on the following day. That comes to once every seven minutes for the 24 hour period. Rubio did not spill the water or let it dribble out of his mouth. He took a drink of water. When then senator Obama said he had visited all 57 states, no one paid much attention, but when Marco Rubio drank water (oh the horror), the leftist media went crazy. Beyond this, there have also been scattered stories planted in the press that Rubio has "problems" in his past. You know, Rubio supposedly has wrongdoing in his past. These stories never identify what the wrongdoing is. These stories never cite a source for the claims of wrongdoing. Indeed, if you look at the stories, the most frequent mention they contain is of earlier stories that make the same unsourced vague claims. It is a classic smear campaign by the left. These stories about Rubio have been around since he was first running for federal office and perhaps before that. In the four years that have now passed, not one detail has ever been put forth regarding any wrongdoing by the senator. Unlike for Democrat Menendez, there are no witnesses furnishing affidavits of wrongdoing. Unlike for Democrat Menendez, there is no federal grand jury investigating senator Rubio. But the left persists in its attempts to injure Rubio's standing.
For senator Cruz, the attack has taken a different tack. Cruz, we are told by the leftist media, is nasty and evil. Clearly, Cruz is too smart to try to attack as an idiot, so the left is trying to paint him as sinister. When Cruz was seeking the identification of foreign entities that had paid Chuck Hagel's salary during the four years prior to his nomination as Secretary of Defense, Cruz was accused of McCarthyism. And why was that? Because Cruz said he did not know who had given money to Hagel; it could be North Korea for all he knew. When the Democrat leader of the senate, the ever-smarmy Harry Reid announced last fall that Mitt Romney had not paid taxes for ten years, none of these folks thought that the claim was McCarthyite. No, Reid was allowed falsely to accuse Romney of a federal crime even though he had to know that the charge was false. All Cruz did was say he needed information to find out the truth. And just the other day, Cruz had the nerve to ask senator Feinstein of California about the constitutionality of her proposed ban on certain assault weapons. Feinstein took umbrage at being questioned and used her response to castigate Cruz. She told Cruz that she was not a sixth grader and some other choice things. The problem, of course, was that Cruz had asked her a direct and fair question which she chose not to answer. When Cruz pointed out that she had not answered, Feinstein punted. She said that Congress just passes laws and the Supreme Court determines if they are constitutional. That, indeed, was an answer worthy of a sixth grader. After all, if Congress just passes any law it wants whether or not it is constitutional, then it sets the country on a course toward sharp changes forced on it frequently by the Supreme Court. Since this exchange, the media knives have all come out. We are told that Feinstein put Cruz in his place. We are told that Cruz was supercilious. We are told that Cruz treated Feinstein poorly just because she is a woman. You know, all the usual attacks are being made. Unfortunately, for most Americans, all they get to hear are the attacks.
The truth, however, is quite important here. Senators Rubio and Cruz clearly have struck a nerve among the leftist media and the Democrats. They are viewed as a threat. Indeed, when you add in the Hispanic Republican governors like Martinez of New Mexico and Sandoval of Nevada, essentially all of the prominent Hispanic politicians in America are Republicans. One has to wonder why Hispanics would continue to vote for a party that keeps them out of office.
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