Sen. Marco Rubio is not the first celebrity/politician to have been caught padding his resume, but his case is unique. It has nothing to do with improving grades, adding a degree, exaggerating responsibilities, enhancing military service or quashing an arrest warrant.
The rookie senator/GOPster rock star was simply off by a few years as to when his immigrant parents came to this country. Hey, chronology happens. Especially someone else’s. Who can’t empathize?
And had Mario and Oriales Rubio come from any country other than Cuba in the 1950s, it wouldn’t matter. But the political crucible that is Cuba in Florida, as we well know, matters big time.
The fall of Fulgencio Batista and the revolution led by Fidel Castro was a seismic geopolitical occurrence in this hemisphere, country and state. It was an instant Cold War domino. Castro ultimately triumphed in 1959. Rubio’s parents left Cuba in 1956–when Mexico-based Castro was still scrambling in low-profile exile. As for the timing of the Rubios’ departure: It’s the difference between fleeing and relocating. They came to better themselves economically. Miami as a de facto Ellis Island.
Until recently, Rubio’s biography on his official Senate website said his parents “came to America following Castro’s takeover.” It was off by 2 1/2 years. It might as well have been a light year. How did it happen?
He was “going off the oral history of my family,” he explained. That was good enough for him. The counter-argument: You don’t have to be a, well, lawyer to want to see the actual paperwork to determine the anniversary of when your parents escaped a communist thug and landed on the shores of the land of the free.
Pre- or post-Castro is one chronology that nobody would err on. Government overthrow is that defining. Hence, it’s that deceptiveto screw up the timing.
It’s like saying “early December, 1941” when you want to imply, for whatever reason, the date of Pearl Harbor without actually saying it. It’s like waxing vague about whether something was pre- or post-9/11. It doesn’t happen unless vested-interest misrepresentation is on the agenda. There’s no possibility of imprecision when you’re talking about events this seminal–and a politician this ambitious
As for agendas, Rubio’s became obvious.
He wasn’t going to rely solely on looks, smarts, charisma, glibness, political acumen and a party credit card. No, he also wanted the quintessential back story that would resonate in Florida–and beyond. The American dream on steroids: freedom’s phantasm.
Rubio wasn’t just the son of immigrants, but the son of exiles fleeing the vile Castro, the avatar of dictatorship. No one could grow up appreciating liberty and American exceptionalism quite like the son of those who fled communist tyranny. He had become an uber compelling, central casting émigré–and a Republican beacon to the Hispanic electorate. That’s how you get on the short list for vice presidential candidates after less than a year in the Senate and not yet out of your 30s. That’s why you can’t settle for merely being the son of motivated, hard-working immigrants, as legitimately moving a chronicle as that is.
Rubio’s response to being outted over his embellished exile bona fides was predictable. Reframe the issue. Concede the minimum–then bridge to the offensive and ratchet the rhetoric. In a column published in POLITICO, he said: “I accept that.” He meant mistaken chronology dates. In effect, he said: “My bad for getting some dates wrong. I might be pretty special, but I’m still human. Sorry about that.
Then he became infuriated. And turned the onus on others. As in political opponents and their media lackeys. How dare anyone downplay the tragic reality that his parents were ultimately deprived of their native soil because “a brutal, Communist dictator took control of their homeland”? How dare anyone question that the exile experience was anything other than tragic and “painful”?
Not surprisingly, the spin seems to be working within Republican ranks. The party is rallying around one of its best and brightest, who’s also a poster lad for Tea Party faithful. Allies such as former Gov. Jeb Bush and former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez have remained staunch Rubio supporters and even denounced the Washington Post, the source of the major piece on Rubio’s errant account of his parents’ departure from Cuba.
Rubio vs. the liberal media, however appealing to the polarization-prone GOP, might not play nearly as well during a general election. Perhaps the publicity will have died down by the Tampa GOP Convention. Or maybe it will have prompted a closer look at Rubio’s use of a Republican Party credit card for personal use during his Florida House days. Such scenarios could yet loom by August–and there’s no changing that date.