Javier Manjarres, voice of The Shark Tank, swears up and down he has no financial ulterior motive for ragging on Marco Rubio -- no Rubio rival paying for a hit on the senator, no personal vengeance because Rubio failed to deliver on a promise to El Sharko.
Nevertheless, his critics -- most of whom want to remain anonymous -- describe Manjarres as a pay-to-play blogger. They insist he's hitting Rubio's 840-page immigration reform bill too hard and too low. Money has to be changing hands somewhere, they say, to draw that kind of fire from the Shark.
But Manjarres flat-out denied it. He told Sunshine State News, "You must be talking to Bozo the Clown, if that's what they're saying. Only a clown would make such allegations.
"Look, I've always supported Marco Rubio. I do today, 100 percent. We're like a big family, his people and me. There's a lot of infighting and then you get over it."
Nevertheless, CPAC's Conservative Blogger of the Yearfor 2011 -- one of Rubio's most effective offensive weapons during his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign against Charlie Crist -- is questioning Rubio's trustworthiness and loyalty, claiming the senator from Miami "looks in the rear-view mirror at the people who supported him" and virtually ignores them.
It's tea partiers and staunch conservatives in South Florida in particular who drove the debate in 2010 to get him his Senate seat, says Manjarres.
"A month or so ago, Marco and I talked for about half an hour," Manjarres told SSN. "I tried to get him to reach out and talk to the people who are so bitterly disappointed over his immigration position. He's siding with liberal Democrats instead of taking a leadership position on a bill that means so much to his hard core of supporters.
"I know he's busy, his new family comes first, but he can't reach out to the 20 to 30 key people who put him office? I'm trying to be the bigger voice here.
"And if this is such a perfect bill, if there aren't loopholes as big as a bucket in it, how come Marco is just now asking people to send him their ideas to help make the bill better?"
Florida-based Republican strategist Rick Wilson had blistering words for Manjarres and others like him in BuzzFeed: "We could have had a bill that was crafted by [Sen.] Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., or we could have a guy like Marco fighting his tail off in the Senate trying to make sure we didn't end up with a bill that was a Democratic Party wish list. I'm all for calling out the stupid. But [conservative critics] are engaging in some red on red fratricide that is both unnecessary and dangerous and will have a net result that is negative for Republicans and conservatives."
Manjarres said he is aware one of his fiercest critics is fellow blogger Peter Schorsch, who writes SaintPetersBlog, and calls The Shark Tank writer "the biggest idiot in Florida politics."Schorsch's April 17 story pointed out that Manjarres had 1) misinterpreted the origin of, and misconstrued information in. a buried-deep section of theimmigration bill dealing with cell phones, and 2) somehow got national conservative voices to go along with it -- much to their embarrassment later. Schorsch suggested Manjarres "hang up his video camera and return to landscaping."
Manjarres blew off the SaintPetersBlog blast. "(Schorsch) has written maybe 13 stories about me and I've never written about him," said the Shark. "This guy is obsessed with me. He only wishes he had my success and I just don't care what he thinks. He's marginalized himself."
Manjarres said he does what good journalists are supposed to do -- keep politicians honest. "Politics is a bloodsport," he reminded SSN. "I may be a big supporter of Marco Rubio, but when he crosses the line, I'm going to smack him."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
