U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Hero
No wonder Gov. Rick Scott spends so much time in Miami. Why wouldn't he want the state to spend $77 million to dredge a deeper Port of Miami? For a governor who promised 700,000 jobs in seven years, Miami is Paradise Found. It's a spark waiting for tinder.
Especially since last week when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio upped Miami's stakes.
Rubio announced Tuesday that he will lead Republicans on the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Global Narcotics Affairs -- all under the umbrella of the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He also has been named to the Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection; the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs; and the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
All this is a bigger deal than it sounds. It gives the Sunshine State one more seat at the table, particularly in dealing with U.S. policy in Latin America.
More important, it puts Florida up on a stage, a platform, where Latin America and the countries of the Caribbean can see us.
It's a part of the world where, in a very short period of time, Rubio has won friends and gained considerable respect. The political philosophy he espouses is the philosophy they embrace.
As the governor looks to entice new companies and encourage business expansion, Rubio becomes another trump card Florida has to play, and he knows it.
Miami already has impressive credentials as the financial capital of Latin America and the Caribbean. As of Dec. 31, 2010, it had --
- 38 state-licensed foreign bank agencies with $12.5 billion in deposits
- 13 Edge Act banks with $7 billion in deposits
- 59 commercial banks and 11 thrift institutions with $38.8 billion in deposits
- more than 500 multinational corporations
- 61 foreign consulate offices
- 25 foreign trade offices
- 40 binational chambers of commerce.
South Florida is the cruise ship capital of the world, Miami International is the third largest U.S. airport for international passengers and if Scott succeeds in convincing the Legislature to fund the port deepening, within three years untold thousands of tons of goods will be loaded and unloaded at the Port of Miami.
The reasons for Latin American and Caribbean businesses to expand in Florida are growing, with a United States senator from the Sunshine State who speaks their language literally and figuratively.
The United States economy and security are inextricably linked to this hemispheres future, said Rubio. As the gateway to the Americas, Florida in particular benefits enormously from robust commercial, cultural and family ties to Latin America.
While it's true, Rubio is only a back bencher in the upper chamber, just a rookie, foreign leaders like Presidents Sebastian Pinera of Chile, Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica and Rafael Correa of Ecuador have already remarked admiringly on the Florida junior senator's star quality. In a television interview last week, Chile's Pinera described Rubio as "an emerging political leader of considerable substance in Washington."
Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a harsh critic of the Castro regime, has the House side covered for Florida. She chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, and is joined there by fellow Republicans Connie Mack, Gus Bilirakis and David Rivera. Democrats Ted Deutch and Frederica Wilson are on board, too.
To be fair, Rubio didn't exactly appoint himself to these committees. But certainly the opportunity for greatness has been thrust upon him. For my money, he's a hero right now because his commerce-friendly philosophy and welcoming overtures in the competitive prism of world business are already getting positive feedback. Let's see how fast they turn into solid-gold chips for Florida job creation.
State Sen. Mike Bennett, Zero
I don't know if there really are 50 ways to leave your lover, but last month Paula Dockery found 26 of them.
After pledging her political troth to Rick Scott early in the 2010 election campaign, she Dear-Johned the governor by drumming up 25 fellow senators to help her kick him in the shorts.
We all know by now what Scott did to upset her. He rejected the feds' $2.4 billion stimulus money for high-speed rail, she couldn't take his no for an answer and neither could the the other 25 senators. Together, they signed a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood asking for more time to bring that gi-normous pile of federal cash home to Florida.
Well, Dockery gets a pass in my book of zeroes. She's backed an Orlando-to-Tampa rail line for a whole lot longer than she backed Scott. She initiated the letter, lined up the signers and by God, she stuck with it to the end.
But a couple of senators didn't. Both asked for an eraser. One did it strangely, the other like a weasel.
Only the weasel gets a zero.
The strange opt-outer is Greg Evers, R-Baker. As soon as Senate President Mike Haridopolos announced he agreed with Scott, Evers said something like this: I signed the letter asking to keep the rail money because I hate spending money on rail so much. Got that? Me neither.
The weasel is Mike Bennett.
On March 2 Bennett wrote two letters, one to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the other to Gov. Rick Scott.
Such letters. Either they were full of baloney, or they showed the world the writer is dumb and unworthy of holding office.
Bennett claims in the LaHood letter, "I only authorized my name to be placed on this letter as a sign of support for the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. However, it has become clear to me that the letter on February 17 was not about the separation of powers in government, but rather the unconditional support of bringing high-speed rail to Florida."
Let's suppose for a moment that there's no baloney here, that the Senate president pro tempore had been exaggerated to. That's right. As Bennett said in the letter to Scott, "The original letter, as articulated to me ..." So what happened here is, he apparently was told the letter would say one thing but it said something else instead.
Anyone buying that? Well, let's. At least for a minute.
Because, if you're buying, you have to ask this: Who signs a letter he hasn't read?
What senator in the Legislature of the fourth largest state in America signs a vitally important letter involving billions of dollars and millions of citizens and taxpayers without knowing what he's signed?
Probably not even Bennett. Weasels, the human kind, are fairly despicable, but they're not dumb.
Now, I did try to talk to Bennett about this, but he did not, nor does he ever, return my calls. Ever since I wrote about him looking at sleazy pictures on a Senate computer during the ultrasound/abortion debate last session -- oh, yes, and another time after I wrote about the Bradenton bank (Flagship National) he put out of business by borrowing and never repaying $1.8 million -- I guess I ceased to exist.
Trouble is, I do exist. And I'm left to guess what's going on here.
So here it is. I don't think this is about pleasing the Senate president. At least, not per se. It took too long for Bennett to bow out. And I don't think the sanctity of the separation of powers has anything to with him signing the letter in the first place, or retracting it.
I think it's all about money.
I think weaselly Mike is hoping for a shot at a congressional seat -- redistricted or otherwise -- in 2012. So, he's fund-raising. That $2.4 billion in rail stimulus represents a lot of contributions, potentially hundreds, that might have come his way had Scott climbed down from his high horse. But he didn't. What a shame. Time to retreat. Time to go back to hustling donations the old-fashioned way. Time to bail out on the letter. Time to fake it and intimate that Paula and Friends let me down.
Mike Bennett. A zero yesterday, still a zero.
Columnist Nancy Smith can be reached at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
