Reunited, And It Feels So Good
Well this is an interesting development.
Marco Rubio, the once so-called Republican savior on immigration reform, has been caught filling the cookie jar of the opposition to.......immigration reform.
From The Center for Public Integrity:
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., made a five-figure contribution to a prominent super PAC ahead of a push to court conservative support of his contentious immigration reform proposal, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of documents filed today with the Federal Election Commission.
Rubio’s donation of $30,000 on March 28 came from his leadership PAC and went to Senate Conservatives Action. That’s a super PAC connected with former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rubio’s one-time mentor who has clashed with the potential 2016 GOP presidential hopeful over the immigration bill.
It is also linked to the Senate Conservatives Fund, which functioned as DeMint’s leadership PAC until he announced plans to resign from the U.S. Senate and become the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation last December.
I've said from the beginning that I suspected Rubio was working both sides of the fence, as it were, when it came to immigration. I always thought that he was trying to look like the voice of reason on reform, and tryng to appeal both sides of his party, while secretly working to derail any immigration reform before it came to fruition. His last roadblock was saying under no circumstances would gay people be granted green cards. That alone was a deal breaker.
Conservatives in general, and Jim DeMint in particular, have been extremely vocal in their opposition to any kind of immigration reform, and "clashes" between Rubio and his old buddy DeMint got a lot of media coverage. Whether those disagreements were real or fiction is beside the point now, to the tune of $30,000.
Adding to the mess is what happens when you connect the dots and follow the money to the Heritage Foundation, where DeMint now runs the show.
Last week, David Corn over at Mother Jones broke the story of Groundswell, a group of conservatives, politicians, and right-wing bloggers who have banded together and hold secret weekly meetings for the sole purpose of taking down President Obama and all he stands for, and fighting the Republican establishment and Karl Rove, while destroying the country at the same time.
Among the "big names" in the propaganda club are Florida's former Congressional nut bag Allen West, John Bolton, the former UN ambassador; Frank Gaffney, Ken Blackwell and Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council; members of Judicial Watch; the Independent Women's Forum; and True the Vote. They also have access to the Republican leadership in Washington, who fear them and potential Tea Party primaries enough to do their bidding.
And saving the "worst" for last is Ginni Thomas, the drunk-dialing wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. When we last heard from Ginni, she was busy trying to kill health care reform while profiting from it at about the same time her husband was busy not recusing himself from ruling on the health care law. While most of us see this as a huge conflict of interest, the Thomas family sees it as business as usual. Or, in other words, the family business.
This little group is all about pushing the country to the extreme right, using faux scandals like Benghazi, and the IRS doing it's actual job, while opposing things like immigration and the right to vote for anyone who isn't of the mindset of Club Groundswell. It also doesn't hurt that they have all the money they could possibly want at their disposal thanks to that other little Supreme Court case: Citizens United. (Again, no conflict there, right Ginni?)
Also in the mix? The Heritage Foundation, and its ties to the recent generosity of Marco Rubio. To see how the group operates through groups including the Heritage Foundation, read more here at Mother Jones. (I'll be writing more about Groundswell in Florida later.)
So while it certainly wouldn't be a surprise any more than discovering that Marco really isn't all that serious about immigration reform due to the lack of any potential gain of brown GOP voters, it also wouldn't be a stretch to assume that he's also taking part in the deception that is Groundswell.