Rand Paul edges Marco Rubio in straw poll run by Rubio pal

@MarcACaputo CPAC straw poll results show Sen Marco Rubio lost to Sen Rand Paul. Wonder what Rubio mentor/lobbyist/American Conservative Union chief Al Cardenas thinks?

From Politico: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul eked out a narrow victory in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll Saturday, with 25 percent of votes to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's 23 percent. The runners-up were as follows: former Sen. Rick Santorum, 8 percent; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 7 percent; Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, 6 percent; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 5 percent; Ben Carson, 4 percent; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 4 percent; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 3 percent; former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 3 percent. Other candidates received a combined 14 percent."

Scott, Weatherford, Rubio celebrate "non-partisan" James Madison Institute

If Ayn Rand were alive and living in Florida, she would have paid $125 for a ticket and attended The James Madison Institute’s 25th anniversary gala Wednesday night.

Most of the state’s conservative heavyweights were there: Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Will Weatherford. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio delivered a televised greeting to the institute. Attorney General Pam Bondi was scheduled to show but had to cancel for a funeral. 

They were there to celebrate property rights, free markets, states rights and deregulation and other causes that JMI, founded in 1987, has championed. As JMI’s influence as a “non-partisan” think tank has grown, so too has the Republican grip on power in Tallahassee.

In telling closing remarks, former House Speaker Allan Bense, who is chairman of JMI and Weatherford’s father-in-law, explained why the think tank matters so much for conservatives.

“There are so many times when there are tough bills you have to vote for,” said Bense. “A tort bill, whatever it may be, where the press is just pounding you on the other side, the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, whatever, they’re just killing you, and what James Madison was able to do was present to members the other side. Here are the facts. So you could debate those facts on the floor, and JMI didn’t go lobby members, it was, ‘here’s the other side of the coin.’ And I can’t tell you how important that is if you’re a member of the Florida House or the Florida Senate or Cabinet member, to hear an objective, bipartisan, we’re a little conservative, agreed, but here’s our side.”

Jeb Bush: political reporters are "crack addicts"

@MarcACaputo

Welcome to covering Jeb Bush, David Gregory.

On Sunday, the “Meet The Press” host learned that if you ask the former Florida governor a political-gossip question that attempts to pit him against a friend, he’ll parry and thrust.

Gregory: “Who’s the hottest Florida politician right now -- Is it you or [U.S. Sen.] Marco Rubio? Who are we more likely to see in the White House?”

Bush: “Man, you guys are crack addicts. You really are obsessed with all this politics.... Marco Rubio’s a great guy...”

Gregory: “You know, I’ve been called a lot of things…”

Bush: “Okay, heroin addict. Is that better?"

Jeb Bush on immigration minefield: "a lot of hair on fire right now. Mine isn’t.”

@MarcACaputo

Immigration is a minefield.

Jeb Bush stepped in it.

Bush’s new book, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, exploded on the political scene last week and left the former Florida governor uncharacteristically wobbly over how to legalize the status of the undocumented.

The controversy — and perhaps the book itself — summed up the politics of immigration: laden with political peril, nuance, seeming contradiction and complexity.

The book is also a point of departure for Bush’s political aspirations. He’s neither ruling out nor in a White House bid in 2016.

That invites more political scrutiny than Bush says he realized.

A flip without the flop: Jeb Bush's immigration reversal slight, but still consistent overall

@MarcACaputo

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has reversed himself on immigration when it comes to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. As the story below points out, he backed his brother's proposal that offered such a path and he had made statements supporting it.

But when you look at the clearest solo statement, Bush always left wiggle room. In an interveiw with Charlie Rose, Bush said he backed a pathway to citizenship OR residency. Conjunctions are important.

“You can’t ignore it, and so either a path to citizenship, which I would support — and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives — or ... a path ... to residency of some kind," Bush said. A Newsday article last year said he backed a path to citizenship, but it had no quotes.

So this doesn't look so much like a flip flop as a flip. It's not so much a zig zag as a zig.

This morning, on Morning Joe, Bush seemed to slightly reverse his slight reversal. That seems to bring him back to where he was before. Here's what he said:

“If you can craft that in law where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn’t an incentive for people to come illegally, I'm for it. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know see you do it. But I'm not smart enough to figure out every aspect of a really complex law."

So to recap: Bush had said he was for either a path to citizenship OR residency. Then he said he favored a path to residency because he thought a citizenship-path would be an illegal-immigration magnet. Then he said he was for a path to citizenship if it wasn't an illegal immigration magnet. But he couldn't figure out how that could be.

It's a complex answer to a complex problem. It is nuanced. It is ripe for parsing. And it certainly looks like Bush is trying to please all sides. But then, politicians do that. But then, Bush has held himself up as the no-longer-politician who straight talks instead of giving nuance. Now he's seriously nuanced. He sounds wobbly. That's open season in today's media environment. And TPM didn't miss a beat.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/04/v-fullstory/3266978/jeb-bush-no-citizenship-path-for.html#storylink=cpy

Caveat: Bush said yesterday: "Read the book." I haven't yet (thanks for not sending an advanced copy to your hometown paper). So until we go through it, we're reacting to snippets and reactions to reactions of snippets.

Then there's the matter of Bush running for office in 2016. Previously, folks who knew him and Sen. Marco Rubio Rubio said Bush wasn't seriously considering a bid and Rubio was. But Bush's latest position has them reconsidering how Bush is positioning himself. And some Romney folks just aren't happy.

Here's today's story

Eye on White House, Marco Rubio has "first date" with Wall Street-funding elite

Politico:

NEW YORK — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is moving swiftly behind the scenes to lock down some of Wall Street’s biggest donors ahead of the 2016 presidential race.

In recent weeks, the rising GOP star and possible 2016 hopeful has quietly met with some of the most powerful GOP backers in the world of high finance. The roster includes Blackstone Group Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. CEO Henry Kravis and senior executives at Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital, among others.

Rubio has gotten backing from big Wall Street titans before, notably hedge fund manager and billionaire Paul Singer. But the fresh round of private meetings with top names has Wall Street buzzing about Rubio’s future plans.

More here

Marco Rubio holds out hope for 'Obamacare' repeal

As more Republican governors say expanding Medicaid is the right decision for their states, count U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio among those who disagree. Today New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became the eight GOP governor to say he would support accepting federal dollars to reduce the number of uninsured people in his state. Gov. Rick Scott was No. 7 after making a similar announcement last week.

Rubio believes the long-term costs of Medicaid expansion should gives these governor's pause, according to spokesman Alex Conant. Despite the law being upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and Democrats retaining control of the U.S. Senate and White House after November's election, Rubio is still is holding out hope for a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"Specifically, Senator Rubio is concerned that without future reforms, the decision will leave the state of Florida on the hook for billions of dollars of unfunded mandates in the future," Conant said via email. "Senator Rubio remains committed to repealing Obamacare and reforming Medicaid.”

Post water-swigging Pew poll: Marco Rubio upside down

From a Pew Research poll that also surveyed opinions about Chuck Hagel (nominated to be defense secretary) and Secretary of State John Kerry:

The survey also finds that the public expresses mixed views of Marco Rubio, following his response to Obama’s State of the Union address. Overall, 26% view Rubio favorably, 29% unfavorably, and 46% cannot offer a rating.

Rubio has a strong image among Republicans and receives particularly high ratings among those who agree with the Tea Party.

Among all Republicans (and Republican leaners) who agree with the Tea Party, fully 70% view Rubio favorably compared with just 7% who view him unfavorably. Among Republicans and leaners who do not agree with the Tea Party, 31% view Rubio favorably and 25% view him unfavorably.

Although it's dangerous to mix-and-match polls, what's interesting here is that Rubio's numbers are rather different from a (pre-SOTUr) survey earlier this month by Quinnipiac University, which found Rubio more popular (27%) than unpopular (15%). Was it the water-swigging by Rubio? The substance of his speech? Or are the polls too different to divine any meaning?

Dept. of Make Nice: Presient Obama calls Sens. Rubio, McCain and Graham

The (kabuki-like?) tensions between President Obama and Sen. Marco Rubio over immigration reform started to abate Tuesday afternoon when the commander in chief called the Florida Republican as well as Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

Rubio over the weekend bashed the White House for, in his view, leaking draft immigration-reform legislation to USA Today. The White House insisted it didn't. The Herald published the text of the legislation in this story which has the background over the back and forth.

Here's the White House statement:

This afternoon, the President placed calls to Senator Graham, Senator McCain, and Senator Rubio to discuss their shared commitment to bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform and to commend the Senators for the bipartisan progress that continues to be made by the Gang of 8 on this important issue. During the calls, which build on conversations that have taken place at the staff level, the President reiterated that he remains supportive of the effort underway in Congress, and that he hopes that they can produce a bill as soon as possible that reflects shared core principles on reform. The President has made clear that he believes commonsense reform needs to include strengthening border security, creating an earned path to citizenship, holding employers accountable, and streamlining legal immigration. As the President made clear when he met with Democratic Senators involved in the process last week, that while he is pleased with the progress and supportive of the effort to date, he is prepared to submit his own legislation if Congress fails to act.  He thanked the Senators for their leadership, and made clear that he and his staff look forward to continuing to work together with their teams to achieve needed reform.

The President did not speak with Senator Flake, who is traveling, but he looks forward to discussing the issue with him in the near future.

President Obama's immigration bills fray nerves but show similarities with Marco Rubio

President Obama’s administration drafted legislation this month that could give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in eight years, require employers to check workers’ immigration status and increase penalties for those who break immigration law.

The ideas appear in three separate draft bills, obtained Monday by The Miami Herald, that closely resemble many of the reforms advanced in 2011 by Obama and, more recently, by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Both Rubio and Obama, for instance, support special pathways to residency for those students and soldiers who were brought illegally to this country as children. In the White House draft legislation, the proposal closely resembles what’s known as the DREAM Act.

But in a sign of the politically fragile talks over immigration reform, Rubio reacted with a measure of fury Saturday when the proposals were first reported by USA Today.

“The President’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation,” the statement continued. “It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally.”