Rubio's party loyalty is clear: GOP not tea

WASHINGTON -- When a French TV station set out to understand the American phenomenon known as the tea party, it sent a reporter to Florida, down a dusty country road, past a bug-swarmed pond, and into a Pasco County pasture filled with people waving American flags.

It was Oct. 30, three days before Election Day. The crowd had come to Hallelujah Acres Ranch to hear Republican Senate nominee Marco Rubio, frequently hailed -- and claimed -- as one of the tea party's biggest success stories.

But the typically unflappable candidate seemed uncomfortable with the French reporter's questions about his tea party ties, as he did when an admirer asked him to autograph a tea party banner.

If the tea party is expecting Rubio to plant its yellow ``Don't Tread on Me'' flag in the hallowed Senate chamber, it's in for a letdown. This career politician who once carried the state party's American Express card defines himself first and foremost as a Republican.

Rubio's pollster, Whit Ayers, tactfully put it this way: ``I think he'll carry the banner for hopeful and optimistic conservatism and whoever wants to follow that banner is welcome to join.''

PARTY LOYALTY

Rubio has already made it clear that he will not be a rogue senator. One day after the election, he declared his support for the GOP establishment when he said he looked forward to serving under Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. He didn't mention Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, viewed as the more ideologically pure conservative and alternative power center, who championed Rubio's campaign early on.

Two days later, McConnell tapped Rubio to deliver the weekly GOP address.

Rubio, 39, struck a pragmatic tone at the post-election news conference held in Miami, saying Republicans and Democrats have to work together to tackle big, immediate problems like the national debt and the war in Afghanistan. He did not launch salvos at President Barack Obama, as he usually does, and said he would reach out to Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

``Early on in the primary, a conservative group of passionate, well-intentioned people coincided with his beliefs and somehow he got this tea party label, which I don't think is totally representative,'' said Republican fundraiser Jorge Arrizurieta.

``Did he embrace and receive the support of the tea party? Absolutely,'' Arrizurieta said. ``But will he move away from being a real Republican candidate? No way.''

Tea party leaders still claim Rubio as their own. Among Florida voters, 39 percent said they supported the tea party movement. Rubio got 86 percent of that group.

``He had a great campaign, a great staff, but if it hadn't been for the tea party, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to win. The tea party gave him exposure,'' said Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the South Florida Tea Party.

``The movement,'' he added, ``is looking at Marco to fight for us.''

RECEPTIVE AUDIENCE

Without a doubt, Rubio owes some of his success to the tea party. A year ago when he was down 30 points in the polls in the Republican primary behind Gov. Charlie Crist and shunned by the GOP establishment, Rubio found an eager audience at tea party rallies. His fiery rhetoric about the direction of the country hit the right notes.

``I am here today as a fellow American whose parents were born in a country that lost itself to socialism,'' the Cuban-American Rubio said in West Palm Beach on April 15, 2009. ``My parents lost their country to a government; I will not lose mine to a government.''

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