"...on the left and on the right?"

In the Conservative Treehouse, Sundance expresses disagreement with Senator Marco Rubio.

It is difficult to believe that Senator Marco Rubio could possibly be chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee with statements like this. Difficult, that is, until you recognize the chair of the SSCI is a political appointment intended to shape public perception regardless of reality. Thus Rubio was the ideal candidate to fill the shoes of Richard Burr.

Nothing substantively within this statement is accurate. The violence, looting, robberies, physical attacks, murders, beatings and arson all stem from conduct of activists groups on the far-left within Antifa and radical elements of Black Lives Matter. However, Rubio cannot admit the truth because it is adverse to his political interests.

Senator Rubio, denies the obvious, obfuscates known and demonstrable facts and reality, and pushes a false and fictitious narrative that aligns with national media. Rubio joins with national democrats to blame China, Russia, Venezuela and some mysterious group of domestic white nationalists that no-one has seen.

Perhaps Senator Rubio would like to explain which intelligence briefing he has seen that identifies “far right” activists within his expressed narrative. Pure nonsense.

The most dangerous force in any battle is not the enemy you face, but rather the ally beside you who refuses to admit the enemy exists. The denying ally has the ability reduce your force strength before the battle begins. That is exactly Rubio’s motive in 2020.

Read more and watch the Rubio video here.

Embracing the masked thugs of Antifa

John Hayward writes at Breitbart,

On Tuesday evening, three prominent Republicans — Senator John McCain, Senator Marco Rubio, and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney — endorsed the left-wing media’s preferred narrative and embraced the masked thugs of Antifa as heroes.

...The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the finest expressions of uncompromising principle in human history. In order to maintain that standard, we must protect speech and assembly rights for the unsavory, and then use free speech to demolish their toxic ideas. Professing allegiance to the First Amendment while authorizing vigilante gangs to shut down disapproved speech with the Heckler’s Veto — or clubs and broken bottles, when the Heckler’s Veto doesn’t get the job done — is not good enough. “The First Amendment doesn’t cover hate speech” is a much more dangerous, far more contagious fascist ideal than anything snarled over a tiki torch in Charlottesville.

Frankly, if you can’t win an argument with a handful of Nazis without resorting to violence, you suck at freedom. If you can’t damn the swastika without also cursing the hammer and sickle, you suck at history.

Read more here.
hat tip JJ Sefton

Finding homes

Manhattan Infidel interviews Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and two people who may have been Ricky Ricardo. Oh, and by the way, the quarterback found a home:

Rubio suspends his campaign

Farai Chideya reports at Five Thirty Eight,

In his concession speech suspending his campaign — saying it was “not in God’s plan” — Rubio hit hard on both the idea of a conservative movement with values and a “new political establishment,” but he also began by outlining the issues with jobs and the economy. He said that his campaign was “on the right side” but “not the winning side” of this election. Real household income is lower than it was 10 years ago, and no matter who the presidential nominees are, the economy consistently ranks among the top issues.

Trump, Clinton win Florida

Fox News declares Trump and Clinton the winners tonight in Florida. What will Rubio do now that he has lost his home state?

Is this our choice? Vote for a bully or a coward?

Let's be clear about what happened in Chicago Friday night. A large number of leftists pretending to be Trump supporters came to a Trump rally with a purpose: to disrupt a peaceful assembly and to try to stop people from expressing their First Amendment right to free speech. The leftists succeeded. The three men who I would prefer over Trump: Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich, tried to blame that on Trump. They are wrong.

Have Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich joined with Jeb Bush in a plan to stop Trump?

Erick Erickson believes Rubio, Cruz, and Kasich have joined forces in a plan to stop Trump. I hope he is right.

Let’s review shall we.

Jeb Bush has a private meeting with Kasich, Cruz, and Rubio.

Cruz’s campaign, after a lot of bluster about going all in in Florida admits it was all a head fake. They had one event scheduled for today with Sean Hannity in Orlando that was previously scheduled and will be nationally focused, not Florida focused. Then Cruz is bailing on Florida. For the Rubio folks complaining, I’m told the campaign did try to make adjustments, but couldn’t for reasons not in the campaign’s control.

Cruz’s campaign takes down its Florida ads. The Cruz Super PACs follow suit allegedly — at least some of them have signaled they too are getting out.

Marco Rubio revs up his Florida presence and is nowhere to be found in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina.

The Cruz campaign redirects all its resources to those three states, with Cruz rallies, ad buys, GOTV etc.

Now Rubio’s spokesman goes on national television and says Rubio supporters should vote for John Kasich in Ohio.

Kasich is going all in in Ohio and ceding Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina to Cruz. In fact, Kasich suddenly has no events in Illinois, and only one event in Pennsylvania after the Ohio primary.

In other words, Kasich is now only campaigning in Ohio; Rubio is only campaigning in Florida; and Cruz is avoiding events in Florida and Ohio.

There is clearly a plan to stop Trump.

Now National Review is coming out with an endorsement of Cruz.

Tonight's debate

What will happen in tonight's debate? Now that Trump has whittled "Little Marco" down to size, will he go after Cruz? What will Cruz's strategy be? To defeat Trump, doesn't he need the Kasich and Rubio supporters?

Commenter "Ceasar" writes at Vox Populi,

Cruz cannot beat Trump in terms of getting the needed delegates, and he knows this. So his words against a contested convention are meaningless. He knows most sane people hate the idea of a contested convention. Let Rubio drop out like Trump noted and watch Trump go after Cruz again. Trump has laid off Cruz for the last couple of weeks, expect to see that change dramatically. Cruz has not had to deal with attacks like Trump has and as we all know, everyone has skeletons in their closet.

Cruz will be pounded as a hypocrite, liar and no experience politician. All of which will be correct. He is what he is. If I told you I know a politician who is a freshman senator, has done nothing outside of gov, loves to give long winded ideological speeches to put you to sleep, thinks he's the smartest man in the room, and is a constitutional lawyer. You would say that is Obama. You would be correct but it also describes Cruz.

At the same blog, commenter Mike replies,

As opposed to Trump who:

1. Thinks Kelo v. New London is an outstanding court decision.
2. Supported the Gang of 8 legislation before he opposed it.
3. Supported socialized medicine until he opposed it.
4. Was a supporter of partial birth abortion until he realized it would be a liability with even blue dog democrats.

FFS. Cruz isn't perfect, but Cruz is closer to a fusion of Reagan and Ron Paul than he is to Trump on politics and reliability.

Commenter James Dixon writes,

But I still believe the main core of the GOPe... McCain... Payl Ryan... Mitch McConnell... they hate Cruz.

Oh, no doubt. The question is who do they hate more, Cruz or Trump. That's still not certain. If they all get behind Cruz to stop Trump, we'll know it's Trump. If they back Trump over Cruz, it's Cruz. I'm assuming they either hate both equally but in different ways or that the different factions within the GOPe differ in who they hate most. If that's the case they'll keep Rubio and Kasich in the race to the bitter end and try to get a brokered convention where they can draft Jeb (the great white dope).

Commenter W.Lindsay Wheeler adds,

Trump is right that Cruz can't win New York or Pennsylvania. Trump has wide support with Independents.

Perception vs perspective. The hidden Lion, though, is Assassination. Huey Long was a populist--assassinated. George Wallace, was heavily wounded in an assassination attempt. Barry Goldwater and Pat Buchanan were character assassinated by the Rockefeller Republicans.

The looming threat of assassination is very real in this campaign. The character assassination has already begun.

Will the GOP try to rig the convention? Steve comments,

You guys know better than I, but I just can't imagine any scenario where the GOP rigs the convention, as if the US was some two-bit banana republic, tells its voters to fuck off, and survives as a viable party.

The fact they're even still considering this as a viable option betrays how dangerously deluded they are. This is their "let them eat cake" moment.

What do they imagine will happen next? The plebs just slink back to their hovels because their betters have decided for them? There are millions of pissed off Americans who are armed to the teeth and I don't think they're ready to eat another shit sandwich and pretend to like it.

It'd be cuckicide.

Commenter johnc adds,

To use the analogy from the girlfriend's perspective, don't be surprised if the Alpha is sleeping around with all the other girls behind your back.

Trump has many, many strengths. Some useful, some who cares. But fidelity is not one of them.

Time for Rubio to support Cruz?

Scott Ott voted for Marco Rubio on Super Tuesday in Texas. Cruz won. Scott believes Rubio has

served his country nobly by drawing attention to who Donald Trump really is. Now, it lies with Rubio -- and perhaps with him alone -- to ensure that such a scoundrel never sullies the office of the presidency in this nation which Marco Rubio loves so much.

Nevertheless, he can still perform a priceless service to this God-blessed country. He can join with Ted Cruz in preventing the nomination of an amoral autocrat whose protectionist policy proposals would trigger a great depression, and whose sociopathic personality would alienate our allies, making us less safe.

Read more here.

Not quite "super" Tuesday

Drew M. writes at Ace of Spades,

Not quite "super" Tuesday but still a BFD as Joe Biden would say.

The big news will be whether the anti-Trump forces in the GOP are a real thing or if Saturday was a blip on the radar for him. If Ted Cruz has similar day of voting momentum we saw in Louisiana he may be able to pick off Mississippi, which doesn't have nearly as much early voting as Louisiana did but unlike Louisiana is an open primary which benefits Trump.

In Michigan, another open primary, if Cruz can steal a page from the Rubio playbook and get a "big second place win" in a state he'd normally not be thought to be strong in, the #neverTrump movement might be real.

Read more here.

Who has the momentum?

Mark Murray reports for NBC News,

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are locked in a tight Republican race - separated by just three points - according to results from a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

The new NBC/WSJ poll also shows Trump trailing his rivals in hypothetical one-on-one match-ups.

Cruz and Kasich best Trump by an identical 17 points, 57 percent to 40 percent, while Rubio beats Trump by 13 points, 56 percent to 43 percent.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted - via landline and cell phone interviews - among 397 Republican primary voters from March 3-6, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 4.9 percentage points. The rest of the NBC/WSJ poll will be released Wednesday morning.

What can we learn from yesterday's voting?

At Conservative Review Daniel Horowitz makes eight observations about yesterday's voting patterns.

Last night’s results consummate the narrative we’ve been observing since Super Tuesday: Cruz is surging and can defeat Donald Trump for the nomination, but if Marco Rubio and John Kasich do not exit the race, Trump will win.

...Overall, Cruz will net more delegates over Trump from last night. My best estimate (subject to change) is Cruz 71, Trump 60, Rubio 14, Kasich 10. Cruz has now garnered roughly 300 delegates, about 80 less than Trump. - See more at:

Here are the 8 key outcomes:

Cruz is surging: Cruz has demonstrated that he can beat Trump even with a crowded field.

Rubio/Kasich playing spoiler: It’s self-evident that had Kasich or Rubio been out of the race, Cruz would have easily won Kentucky. Trump has siphoned off much of Cruz’s conservative base in rural counties and Cruz needs the full support of urban and suburban Republicans to overcome Trump. As long as a more moderate candidate is in the race, many of these voters will not go with Cruz. But once they are left with a choice between the two, they would have to get behind Cruz.

Rubio is out of luck: Rubio failed to win 20% in a single state last night.

Kasich is the new Rubio: Across the map, Kasich is beginning to supplant Rubio as the candidate of choice for more moderate Republican voters. Also, he is likely to win his home state while Rubio will probably lose his home state of Florida.

Closed caucuses/Primaries matter: All four contests last night were closed to non-Republican members. It is quite evident that Donald Trump does much better with cross-over voters but as the primaries continue, most of the remaining contests are closed. This should help Cruz going forward.

Early voting is a killer: Donald Trump has been garnering all the media attention and has led the entire race. Thus, most of the early voting benefits him. He crushed Cruz 2-1 in early voting in Louisiana but Cruz won election day voting. This is yet another demonstration of why early voting is fundamentally unfair. In this case, many voters cast ballots before the Cruz surge and debate performance. It also shows that headed forward, Cruz is in good shape to continue winning states that are commencing voting after the debate. It will be interesting to see if Cruz could win election day voting in the neighboring state, Mississippi, on Tuesday, where there is no early voting. There is no early voting in the other three contests that day either: Hawaii, Idaho, and Michigan.

RNC Rule 40: In order for a candidate to be placed into nomination at the GOP convention, a candidate must win the majority of delegates in at least eight states. After last night’s majority wins in Kansas and Maine, Cruz now has three states under his belt. Trump already won four states with a majority of the delegates prior to last night’s contests.

Cruz can beat Trump: The biggest takeaway from Saturday is that were the other candidates to drop out, Cruz can easily win in most of the remaining states. Sure, Kasich can win his home state of Ohio, but he can never catch Donald Trump in the delegate count. Were he to drop out, Cruz would have an excellent shot at winning those winner-take-all delegates in Ohio. This week we will find out if those declaring #TrumpNever are good to their word or if they really hate Cruz just as much as Trump.

Read more here.

Super Saturday results

So how is the GOP race going today? Ted Cruz has won Kansas and Maine, bringing his state wins to 6, while Trump has ten. Trump is favored to win Louisiana tonight. Kasich, who has yet to win a state, is now polling ahead of Trump in Michigan, which votes next Tuesday. Rubio still has won only one state, Minnesota.

On the Democratic side, Sanders defeated Clinton in two of the three states today. Sanders won Kansas and Nebraska, while Clinton is favored to win Louisiana.

Clinton and Trump are each winning the same states, Clinton because of the black vote, and Trump because of the white vote in those states.

Update: Trump wins a second state tonight: Kentucky.

Another blot on Rubio's record?

Paul Bedard reports at the Washington Examiner,

As a member of the controversial "Gang of Eight" working up comprehensive immigration reform three years ago, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio blocked bipartisan efforts to reform the worker visa program to make sure American workers get first dibs on jobs, according to a top Senate Democrat.

At a hearing on H-1B worker visas Thursday, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said that "a junior senator from Florida" fought to kill visa changes in the legislation that would have limited the ability of firms to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

Read more here.

Did Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz wait too long?

Marco is street-fighting with Donald Trump. Before, the only candidate he was worried about was Ted Cruz. He did not take Trump's candidacy seriously. Maybe the same can be said to a lesser extent of Ted Cruz. But at least Cruz spent the time building a ground game and a superb social media effort. Cruz has tried to elevate the debates to questions of policy. Trump supporters are convinced that Trump will make America great (strong) again. They believe they can trust Trump, because they've seen him firing people on t.v. They never heard of Cruz or Rubio before this election cycle.

Many think the election will be over after tomorrow's votes are counted. If so, it will be because other candidates did not take the Trump candidacy seriously until now.

Now it is about to turn nasty

I don't see this story on the Drudge Report, but Matt Drudge links to it on his Facebook page. It is about Marco Rubio's past, hinting that he may have experimented with homosexuality. Interesting that this comes out the day after Rubio goes after Donald Trump.

Did Trump hire a foreign worker to do his tweets?

Today Rubio continued his attack on Trump.

A Rubio/Kasich ticket, with Cruz in Supreme Court?

For weeks Town Hall's Guy Benson has been trying to sound the alarm about the possibility of a Trump presidency. He is recommending Rubio. He quotes from Ross Douthat, who recommended Rubio/Kasich, with a promise to Ted Cruz that he will get the Supreme Court nomination.

So there you have it: A barely-plausible desperation heave toward the endzone with Team Trump playing prevent defense (which, for him, includes taking lots of potshots). President Rubio, Vice President Kasich, and Justice Cruz -- with a primetime convention speech from Dr. Ben Carson, detailing his remarkable life story and path to improbable achievement. That's not how many people would have drawn things up at the onset of this cycle, but here we are. Much is on the line for those of us who believe the country cannot afford a Hillary Clinton presidency -- which I truly believe a Trump nomination would usher in, despite occasional doubts and cross-currents. Sure, there are a thousand fair objections to the scenario I've laid out. I'm not entirely sold on it myself, to be candid. I'm not reflexively hostile to other theories and scenarios (such as the state-by-state strategic voting plan to try to force a contested convention, or a Rubio/Cruz or Cruz/Rubio unity ticket), but this is the one I've settled on. And there's no time to wallow in endless debate. A moment of truth is upon us. Right now. Either Trump's opponents and their supporters will set egos and preferences to the side in pursuit of a common end, or the outcome they claim to abhor will come to fruition. Which is precisely why I've chosen to speak out. Based on the delegate math, the unforgiving calendar, and the exceedingly high stakes at play, my choice has been made for me: It will either be Trump or Rubio, and I choose Rubio. I urge you -- which sounds better than 'beg you' -- to consider joining me in this call. There's no time to waste.

Read more here.

Rubio is feeling it! Ridicules Trump this morning.

Unprincipled ambition

Breathtakingly dishonest, wittingly disingenuous, thin record, Gang of Eight travesty, contemptible, Alinsky tactics.
These are just a few of the phrases used by Mark Levin to describe actions taken by Senator Marco Rubio and his supporters in falsifying his own record and that of Senator Ted Cruz. Mark clarifies in detail here.