Marco Rubio: The Neocon Man

The neoconservatives are busily decrying Donald Trump as a nasty intruder into the ranks of the Republican party. But they themselves are, in many ways, the interlopers, with their ultimate origins dating all the way back to Leon Trotsky. As neoconservative godfather Irving Kristol once observed, “I regard myself as lucky to have been a young Trotskyite and I have not a single bitter memory.” The polemics and crusading fervor of Trotsky’s Fourth International have left their mark on the movement down to the present. In an audacious volte-face, one extreme, you could even say, was switched out for another.

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Frank Rich: 'Far Right' Rubio Is 'Truculent Neocon,' Some Hillary 'Scandals' 'Are Not'

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC, New York magazine's Frank Rich asserted that GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio is "quite far to the right" and has a "very truculent neocon foreign policy" as he and host O'Donnell discussed whether the Florida Senator has the best chance of the "establishment" Republican candidates of being nominated.

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Meet Marco Rubio’s Far-Right Neocon Donors

Rubio’s campaign slogan, “A New American Century,” strikingly echoes the name of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC), founded by Weekly Standard editor William Kristol in the 1990s, which helped to lay the groundwork for the invasion of Iraq. The Florida senator’s proposed foreign policy in the Middle East sounds like it could have come straight out of the first term of the George W. Bush administration—or a PNAC newsletter.

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Marco Rubio Is Winning the Neocon Primary

Unlike Trump or Carson, Rubio is considered a stalwart member of the party’s establishment wing, standing out in the crowded Republican primary field for his comparatively moderate stances on issues such as immigration reform. While he lags behind Trump and Carson in most polls and runs neck-and-neck with “Tea Party” evangelical Ted Cruz, Rubio is primed to jump to first should the spectacle of the “anti-establishment” candidates finally run its course.

Beyond his veneer of reasonableness, however, Rubio has established himself as the most adept of the Republican candidates at regurgitating the militaristic talking points of the party’s neoconservative wing. His competency in this regard has earned him the favor of influential hawkish donors like Sheldon Adelson, as well as an array of neoconservative political operatives.

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It’s Reaganite Cruz versus Wilsonian Neocon Rubio

The Cruz-Rubio race will be distinguished by a sharp foreign policy distinction: Ted Cruz is a Reaganite, and Marco Rubio is a Neocon. Neither Cruz nor Rubio is an isolationist like Rand Paul. The philosophies of Cruz and Rubio as to when to intervene abroad, however, are totally different.

On foreign policy, Ronald Reagan’s administration was distinguished by 1) the rebuilding of our national defense; and 2) foreign interventions and alliances only when necessary to preserve, protect, and advance our national interests. In short, Reagan was a highly successful practitioner of Realpolitik.

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Rubio Anointed Neocon Choice

At the end of last week, third-place Republican primary candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) won a major endorsement, effectively making him the neoconservative candidate of choice and the GOP establishment’s top pick. That endorsement didn’t come from a former president, a labor union, or a high-profile pastor. Instead a publicity-shy New York hedge fund billionaire, Paul Singer, gave Rubio the nod. With it, so the conventional wisdom says, will go millions of dollars of super PAC contributions along with his considerable fundraising prowess.

Singer’s emergence as one of the GOP’s key donors coincides with sizeable investments in Washington’s most hawkish politicians and think tanks. Singer has made significant contributions to Senate hawks like Mark Kirk (R-IL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) as well as neoconservative and pro-Likud organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, The Israel Project, and the Republican Jewish Coalition.

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Marco Rubio Wants a “New American Century” and the Neocons love him for it.

Over at National Review  Eliana Johnson provides us with some valuable insight regarding the neoconservative movement’s current view of the 2016 Presidential race. And let us be clear, neoconservatives are not small government conservatives or libertarian whatsoever. And from the likes of Senator John McCain to Senator Linsey Graham, the neoconservatives have found their man of the hour: Marco Rubio.

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Marco Rubio Goes Neocon

Potential GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio offered a glimpse into how he would act as commander in chief, saying the U.S. should "overtly" arm Syrian rebels. The Florida lawmaker is reportedly mulling a run at the Republican nomination in 2016 and has called for a national and foreign policy that is more in line with the hawkish interventionism of 2008 presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., than Obama's narrower approach that requires a direct and clear U.S. interest.

If Rubio wins the White House in 2016, that might change. The potential Republican candidate, in a statement issued late Wednesday, revealed an interventionist flavor to the foreign and national security policy approach he would bring to the White House Situation Room.

Rubio blasted the Obama administration, saying "we are going to be living with the consequences of the Obama administration's failed Syria policy for decades to come. It is time for the administration to increase pressure on Assad instead of giving him more room to maneuver," Rubio said, in an apparent reference to Obama's decision last year to hold off on air strikes when Assad agreed to give up his chemical weapons.

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Neocon Champ Senator Marco Rubio on Immigration

After winning his Senate seat in 2010 Senator Marco Rubio did not even thank the Tea Party organization for his victory during his acceptance speech. In fact, when asked questions about the Tea Party Senator Rubio tries to distance himself from the Tea Party. Senator Rubio this February said that he backs Carl Rove’s Conservative Victory Project PAC as something worthwhile in order to get more mainstream Republicans elected in districts that a Tea Party candidate would lose during a general election. Why would a person reject the group of people most responsible for their senate victory?

A Self-centered man like Senator Rubio with his eyes on a much larger role for himself in American politics must think of himself as a visionary. Perhaps the presidency is on Senator Rubio’s mind and this requires much more than small government conservatives like those in the Tea Party. Senator Rubio must become a Republican Establishment man and this means that he must be many things to many different people.

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Marco Rubio embraces neoconservatism in University of Louisville speech

Rubio made the case for American military might around the world, vowing that the U.S cannot “retreat” from international conflicts, must encourage democracy and continue spending money overseas aimed at bolstering the country’s image.

Rubio’s remarks come just as Paul has been trying to clamp down on federal dollars spent on foreign aid and as the Kentucky freshman has been pushing for a “less aggressive” American role in the world — as the two prospective 2016 rivals continue to lay out competing visions of the GOP’s future.

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Marco Rubio and the Neocon Resurgence

Florida Senator Marco Rubio just made a small but significant move that indicates he is preparing to run for the presidency. He has hired Jamie M. Fly, until recently executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative and a former Bush administration official, to serve as his senior national security adviser. It's a shrewd decision, at least within the context of a Republican party that refuses to acknowledge that the Iraq War was less than a roaring success, and one that further testifies to the mounting dominance of the neocons. By and large, they set the template for the discussion of foreign policy in the GOP. Their ascendance suggests that it is most improbable that a debate, let alone a civil war, will erupt within the GOP over foreign affairs. On the contrary, the neocons appear to be more firmly in control than ever.

The Foreign Policy Initiative is an organization that was created in 2009 by William Kristol to groom new and younger cadres. The organization appears to be a success, boasting no less than three separate leadership programs, with one in New York and two in Washington, DC. Fly is himself a savvy and energetic neocon who has staked out a very hard line in foreign affairs on issues ranging from Syria to Afghanistan to Israel. This past fall, in Foreign Policy, he declared that Obama

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Neocon Marco Rubio Wants to Prepare Americans for War with Iran

Marco Rubio: The newest neocon

Among those mentioned as running mates for Mitt Romney, it is Rubio who generates the most excitement. That he is young, Hispanic and conservative, and his place on the ticket might secure Florida, are the cards he brings to the table.

So it was a surprise this week to see Rubio being chaperoned over to the Brookings Institution by Sen. Joe Lieberman to take final vows as the newest neoconservative.

Marco Rubio and Our Wretched Destiny

The neocons are back. Indeed, they never really went away: instead, they just went to ground temporarily until the smoke cleared over Iraq, and now they’re right out front pushing war with Iran, "regime change" in Syria, and hailing Obama’s (and Mitt Romney’s) favorite foreign policy book as the Received Wisdom of the Moment. Sen. Joseph Lieberman may be on his way out of American public life – thank the gods! – but Sen. Marco Rubio is in the wings waiting to fill his shoes. In Lieberman’s introduction to Rubio’s foreign policy speech at the Brookings Institution, the tireless warmonger hailed the junior Senator from Florida as heir to the tradition of Reagan and Truman: he left out Scoop Jackson, but Rubio, in his opening remarks, was quick to fill the gap:

"In my brief time in the Senate, I’ve had the chance to get to know Joe, and learn from him. He represents a view of America’s role in the world in the tradition of Democratic leaders from Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman through John F. Kennedy and Scoop Jackson."

Accepting the Neocon Torch: Marco Rubio

In the end, the major foreign-policy pronouncement felt like a generational passing of the torch from a retiring senator and former vice presidential candidate to a newly minted colleague with apparent aspirations to second Mitt Romney on the Republican ticket. That the two senators came from different parties hardly seemed to matter. Both Sens. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., clearly share a vision of a particularly robust brand of American global leadership, one that finds common cause with “freedom fighters” everywhere and is unafraid to confront “evil” anywhere.

Rubio’s foreign policy falls into the proud, bipartisan tradition of Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman, Lieberman said in introducing him at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday.