Two days from now, President Barack Obama will deliver the State of the Union Address, detailing his priorities for his second term.
Immediately following Obama’s address, Florida Senator Marco Rubio will deliver the Republican Party response, and Time Magazine has called Rubio the “savior” of the GOP.
But now, to steal Rubio’s and the Republican Party’s thunder, the Tea Party Caucus in Congress is also to give a response to the State of the Union Address, which will highlight the growing split within the Republican Party.
And the man who will be challenging Marco Rubio is a person who is clearly planning to run for President in 2016, as much as Rubio seems likely to run. That is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the libertarian inheritor from his father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
Rand Paul has his loony followers, but his movement represents a threat to any possibility of Republicans regaining the US Senate, keeping control of the US House of Representatives, and having any chance to regain the Presidency.
While Rubio “flirted” with the Tea Party Movement when he ran for the Senate in 2010, he has attempted to separate himself from the destructive image that group represents. But now, he will be in mortal combat with Paul and others who have no scruples in their desire to bring America back to the 19th century, a time of laissez faire economics, and to a pre World War II foreign policy of isolationism.
So the biggest news of Tuesday’s State of the Union Address may come not from Barack Obama, but instead from the competing ambitions of two new Senators who both see the other as one of his leading rivals.
Rubio not only faces the threat of Rand Paul, but also of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as outlined in a previous entry on this blog a couple of days ago. And Cruz is also a committed member of the Tea Party Caucus.
Oh, and by the way, this is the third time that the Tea Party Caucus and Movement has had a response to the State of the Union Address, with the two earlier statements being by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and by businessman Herman Cain, both embarrassing candidates for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012. Enough said!
Hello Professsor,
Well It’s official:
The Republican Civil War has begun!!
This week, Karl Rove began a new fundraising campaign aimed directly against the Tea Party Members, which has infested the GOP for too long and has cost them dearly at the ballot box in several relatively recent notable races.
Speaking from the view point of a once Moderate Republican, and at this point and time in my life would like to see Karl Rove fail in this endeavor of purging the “Extreme Aspects†of which they once embraced as guaranteed votes within the Republican Party. Today my view points are more liberal than at any other time in my life which is a compensation to how far to the right my Party had gone.
For me Karl Rove is all about making the 1% empowered with even more control and imbalanced wealth at the sacrifice of the Working Middle Classes than they already have today.
It is the extremism aspects of the “Tea Party Republicans†that has ensured the opposition’s victory and the non-implementation of Karl Rove’s plans. As nothing is perfect, I do feel the Working Middle Classes have a better represented aspect with the Democratic today.
Much like the line from the old Byrd’s classic song that goes, “I was so much older then….I’m younger than that now.â€
Viva La Teabaggers!!! It means a sure victory for the Working Middle Class Values when the Republicans, who embraced this extreme aspect, loose. They made their own bed…let them fester in the Pus that is the Tea Party a while longer.
Great comment, Engineer of Knowledge! We should get the popcorn out to watch Rubio and Paul go at it! 🙂
Hello Professor,
I made a trip home back to Maryland for my oldest birthday over the weekend and I fly back to Columbus tonight.
But the real news is I was contacted this afternoon and have been invited along with others to speak relating to current subjects on an On-Line Radio Program based out of Florida. It is live at 6:00 PM Sunday Feb. 17th. I know a couple of those who will be on with me but not much else.
I have to send an e-mail to give some background on myself for the introduction. I need to ask what subjects they plan to discuss so I may better prepare. Should be great fun.
I will pass on more information when I get it. 🙂
That is fantastic news, Engineer of Knowledge, and I am sure you will have a lot to contribute to the program! Please let me know more about it as you become aware of it!
Some GOP Congressman has invited Ted Nugent, some rocker who had made threatening comments about Obama, to the State of the Union speech tonight: http://www.nationalmemo.com/gop-congressman-invites-ted-nugent-to-obama-speech/
Yes, Texas Congressmen are infamous for being loony and extremist, but Nugent had better watch his loose mouth on government property, or he could face arrest by the Secret Service, which should have already happened because of his uttered threats against the President last year. Nugent is a loose cannon, and reckless in his behavior, and yet evaded going to war years ago when he was young, so who is he to judge others when he was a “Chicken Hawk”?
Professor,
Of course Ted Nugent is a loose cannon. It is the result of all the long term LSD drug abuse when he was the guitarist with the Amboy Dukes. After all they were writing and performing songs like, “Journey to the Center of Your Mind†which promoted LSD drug abuse which he engaged in often.
It comes as no surprise that today he is promoting the ludicrous platform of the current Republican Party…..a whole new abuse of a healthy mind for entertainment. Same long term results I expect.
What is sad is someone gives him validity.
I have seen several interviews with Mr. Nugent on the 2nd amendment and I find he makes a clear argument, unlike the usual elected suspects whom once again display the “Never letting a serious crisis go to waste” excuse for the ever expanding encroachment of Government into every aspect of life.
LOL at Marco Rubio taking that swig of water! 😉
Rubio can get some dry mouth coverage under Obamacare! 😉