Louisiana: The Re-Greatening

Prepare now to smell the greatness again. Collect your wares and assemble.

Protestors first gathered earlier that afternoon in the parking lot down the road from the airport, where vendors — sort of the concert tour merch reps of presidential campaigns, traveling from state to state and rally to rally, regardless of political party (some visit both Trump and Bernie Sanders campaigns, with different merch for each candidate) — sold Trump wares, from bedazzled hats to Star Wars spoofs, soccer scarves, and shirts featuring a cartoon Trump holding a gun saying, "Go ahead, ISIS, make my day."

You can watch about five minutes of NBC news raw footage of the protest here.  There's a part where Trump, at the microphone, remarks that it's taking a long time to get them removed. He even says, "this is not good for your reputation, Louisiana," which, I guess, is sort of the #FixMyStreets of protest removal complaints.  Anyway, that's your Trump 2016 experience, Louisiana. If you have any complaints, please just throw them on the THANKS, OBAMA pile.

If you're laying money on today's results, here's the latest Republican poll conducted in Louisiana by Trafalgar Group. Trump has what looks like a commanding lead with 44%

His nearest competitor at 25% is the Zodiac Killer who appeared last night in Mandeville with the Duck guy. Spectators at that event were treated to some incorrect etymology and actual, literal bible-thumping.

Dressed in a dark blazer, jeans and cowboy boots, his shirt open at the neck, Cruz declared, "We love America, we love God, we love our guns and we're fed up with the lying, cheating, stealing" -- and cheers drowned out the rest.

He said, "If you look at the word 'politics,' there's two words: 'poli,' meaning men, and 'tics,' meaning blood-sucking parasites."

Though the rally north of the lake's own reality television star -- Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" -- thumped his taped-together Bible plenty, the issue that drew the loudest ovations for Cruz wasn't religion but America's other bible, the Constitution.

Attendee after attendee gave the same answer when asked why they liked Cruz.

"The main issue for me is upholding the Constitution. The Constitution is not a suggestion," said Matt Swiggum of New Orleans, 29. "I think our founding fathers were among the smartest men who ever walked the face of the earth."

 Well, they probably better understood the derivation of the word "politics," anyway.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are looking kinda boring. At least in Louisiana they are. According to PPP last month, Hillary is polling at 60%. If that holds up it would be consistent with the way she has performed throughout the south so far.  I don't think I've been especially shy about the point that Hillary Clinton is a goddamned terrible monster who will make a dismal nominee in the fall.  But she's going to be the nominee anyway.  She was always going to be, though.

Here's a pretty accurate assessment from (I know, I know, don't yell at me) Kos.

And the early state results bear it out—you do not build a liberal movement by bringing together white people, then hope that people of color come along for the ride. You start with those communities of color. And as the early state results make clear, that never happened.

More to the point, they didn't even try. I don't think this was out of negligence, though. I just think this was not a campaign designed with the objective of winning the nomination in mind. Rather, it was about calling attention to fundamental problems with the American political economy and asking why the Democratic Party and its leaders do not address these problems meaningfully.

The answer to that question, of course, is because the party and its leaders are corrupt, immoral monsters. But the Sanders campaign was too nice and ineffectual to say it quite like that. This, and the absence of a deliberate effort to listen to or organize within black communities in poor southern states tells us all we need to know about the campaign's goals. They weren't actually trying to win the nomination.

I firmly believe that the day a candidate running on a Sanders-like platform has real success, that campaign will necessarily be of and about the South first.  If your campaign is about helping poor and marginalized people you should be able to get those people on your side. If you can't do that then there is a problem with your candidate or your campaign isn't actually trying to win.

Did they make their point, though? Damn right they did. The Democratic Party is a mess and the Sanders campaign brightly and clearly demonstrated that for everyone. Whether or not the next steps build on that progress is anybody's guess. But the opportunity is there. It lies in solving a puzzle Salon's Daniel Denvir described about a week ago.

So why are some white workers tilting left while many black workers rally around the establishment? It’s certainly not because black voters are more conservative. Just take a look 28 years back, when the dynamic was reversed and Jesse Jackson struggled to win white workers over to a multi-racial economic populist platform.

”The new South challenge is an economic challenge and it transcends race,” Jackson said in 1988. ”This is the region where we have nearly half of the nation’s poor children. In the South we have the highest rate of infant mortality. There are 13 million people from the South with no health insurance.”

Jackson’s message was nearly identical to that of Sanders: an economic populist appeal to working-class voters of other races. Jackson’s populism failed, as Sanders’s has so far, to breach racial divides. That year, Jackson garnered an estimated 92-percent of the black vote but just 12-percent of the white vote, and much of the latter appeared to be concentrated amongst well-educated liberals. This was sad but unsurprising: the racial politics of white workers has been a key obstacle to transformative change since they began to abandon the New Deal coalition for Republicans en masse during the civil rights era.

The good news for the left is that the Sanders and Jackson campaigns show that both black and white people can be mobilized behind a progressive candidate. The challenge is to mobilize them behind the same one.

This is not an irreconcilable problem. The success of the Sanders and, to a degree, even the Trump campaigns this year at galvanizing working class whites against the billionaire's club in charge of each party shows it's possible.  They've solved a side of the Rubik's cube the Jackson campaign couldn't.  Now it's just a matter of getting it all solved together.  Of course, that's not easy. But it can be done. 2016 is the first time I've ever really believed that.

Anyway, I hope everyone has fun voting against whatever jerk they hate most today.  The polls close at 8 in Louisiana. I am given to understand The Lens will have precinct by precinct results maps available sometime tonight. So keep checking there.  Have a Yuuge day!

Comeback Kid

Looking pretty good, Champ.

Marco Rubio's top campaign adviser huddled with roughly 40 bundlers and K Streeters Tuesday morning to prepare them for a difficult primary election night—as well as to brief them on the campaign's plan for what to do next.

Terry Sullivan told supporters at campaign headquarters that the Florida Republican could secure just 100 delegates from Super Tuesday states in one of the scenarios he laid out.

How we might get to President Rubio

I'm not saying Rubio is on top or anything. So please don't take this as any sort of a prediction. Rather it's just a speculative observation. Rubio may have finished third tonight but he's a lot better off now than he had been. He has a chance now to unite establishment Republicans now that Trump is demonstrably no longer omnipotent and people like Chris Christie (1.8%) and Jeb! (2.8%) begin to prove themselves not viable.

Again I don't think he's the favorite for the nomination yet but he is intriguing for this reason. If Rubio is the nominee, he is an establishment favorite, yes, but he still will benefit from the continued rabid support of the conservative base Trump and Cruz are currently invigorating. Trump/Cruz voters are mobilized because they "want to take their country back" from perceived enemies among non-white, anti-Christian, and foreign threats. Regardless of who the GOP nominee is, the perceived enemy will still be the Dem candidate for them. This is even more pronounced if the nominee is Hillary Clinton who has (justifiably or not) been a major focal point of right wing hatred for decades.  Rubio might not be their favorite son. But he's less boring than Jeb! and they will definitely turn out to stick it to Hillary.

Contrast this with the Democratic side where it doesn't really work that way. Bernie's voters are mobilized specifically because they want to overturn the crushing influence of the money power. If Hillary is the nominee they will have already seen the campaign as a failure. Many of them will still vote Hillary but they won't turn up in great numbers or with much passion.

So in a Rubio vs Hillary race you're going to end up with an enthusiasm gap which will greatly advantage Rubio. This would also be the case in a Trump/Cruz vs Hillary scenario but the advantage of Rubio is that fewer people will show up just to vote against him.

Anyway so there's your path to President Rubio. Not saying that's a lock. Just that it's a thing you can map out now.

The time Buddy Caldwell valiantly defended Louisiana from a non-existent ebola poop train threat

Y'all remember how stupid this was, right?

BATON ROUGE, La. - A judge on Monday afternoon granted state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's request for a temporary restraining order to block the disposal of incinerated waste from the Dallas Ebola victim's personal items and belongings at a Louisiana landfill.

It has been reported that six truckloads of potential Ebola contaminated material collected from the apartment where the Dallas Ebola victim became ill were brought to Port Arthur, Texas on Friday to be processed at the Veolia Environmental Services incinerator. From there the incinerated material is slated to be transported to a hazardous waste landfill in Louisiana for final disposal.

Caldwell said the unknowns involved surrounding the Ebola virus have the state wanting to proceed with caution.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, "Incineration or autoclaving as a waste treatment process is effective in eliminating viral infectivity." This was well understood at the time. Or, at least, it should have been by the State Attorney General charged with making informed decisions on such matters.   But people were scared and Caldwell saw no reason to relieve them of their irrational fears and instead chose to play up to them on TV.

This episode is worth remembering today for two reasons. First, Buddy Caldwell is on the ballot this Saturday. But that's only important in order for you to understand, when we tell you his opponent is in fact far worse, just how low he sets that bar in the first place.

The other reason we bring this up is, as stupid and reckless Caldwell's ebola fearmongering was, it's nowhere near as stupid and reckless as what Bobby Jindal is doing today.

Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order Monday (Nov. 16) to prevent Syrian refugees from being resettled in Louisiana.

In issuing the order, Jindal referenced last week's terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people and injured hundreds more. The Islamic State group has claimed to be behind the attacks. Jindal said the introduction of Syrian refugees into the U.S. without "proper prior screening and follow-up monitoring could result in a threat to the citizens and property of this state."

As was noted yesterday by multiple news organizations, only 14 Syrian refugees have entered the US via Louisiana this year.  More to the point, though, what is even the purpose of Jindal's knee-jerk exclusionary order? (Assuming, of course, that it is even practical which it is not.) 

Here is Juan Cole writing about the political fallout in France.

French politics has become deeply cynical, and the electorate has lost faith in its leaders. Many politicians will attempt to profit from this climate. Nicolas Sarkozy has already called for more drastic measures to be put in place. Some will also promise salvation by closing borders. They will call for a return to a mythical, good old peaceful France, overwriting the country’s history and its constant and violent flux between reaction and revolution.

To prevent such appropriations and long-term consequences, it is crucial not to jump to simplistic conclusions – as happened after 9/11, an event that has already been invoked many times.

This would be playing right into the hands of the terrorists themselves. A war of civilisations is the very fantasy IS and its ilk are trying to construct. They seek to enshrine divisions between an imagined “us” in the West, standing together for a loosely defined version of democracy, and “them”, attempting to appear a united force in an area torn apart by years of war.

Falling for this narrative would offer IS exactly the false image of unity it wants to propagate. It would also be a dangerous simplification of who ‘we’ are – at the expense of anyone who acts or thinks differently.

 Of course, we are already falling for the xenophobic false narrative in the US. It's what we do.

Anyway, Cole continues.

We can expect these irrational suspicions to appear again after these attacks. Every move made by Muslims in France, will be scrutinised. Some will also point to refugees – even as many are themselves fleeing IS.

In the coming days, weeks and months, it will be crucial that we avoid lapsing into that fear. If we do, we will only summon more fear and paranoia, incur ever more stringent laws limiting liberties for all, and inflict more pain through discrimination and segregation on those already suffering from exclusion. All these things will in turn provide further recruitment propaganda for extremist groups.

Again, the obvious point, we're talking about refugees fleeing from ISIS themselves.  If we have already identified ISIS as the enemy, what is the purpose of turning our back on its victims?  Would Senator Rubio have sent his own parents back to Castro's Cuba? He seems to say yes.

Had Bobby Jindal been Governor of Louisiana under the Spanish dominion would he have turned away the first boatloads of Acadian immigrants seeking asylum from British terror?  It so happens they're digging them up this week so if he wants to send them back, now is his chance.

Either case is every bit as absurd a notion as Buddy Caldwell's grand stand against the incinerated bedclothes of a corpse. But it's what our politics demands in 2015. 

Not that this is anything novel. It's also what our politics would have demanded in 2003. Because nobody ever remembers anything that happens and nothing ever changes. 

How is Bobby doing?

Well let's see, he picked up an important endorsement from one Republican.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s presidential campaign has won a key endorsement from a high-ranking Iowa Republican.

Iowa Speaker Pro Tem Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, said in a statement Monday that he has decided to back Jindal because of his “strong Christian principles” and conservative positions on issues like guns and abortion.

“After much thought, prayer, research and discussions with my wife I have decided to make an endorsement in the presidential race,” Windschitl said in a statement.

Oh but wait, another prominent Republican says she favors Bush. 

As for Jindal, “he would be a terrible president,” she said. “He’s virtually paid no attention to our state in the last four years and simply promotes himself.”

But (Mary)Landrieu did have some kind words – for other GOP candidates.

She said she was impressed with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

On Rubio: “I think he embodies that kind of spirit of hopefulness that American really longs for in their leadership.”

On Kasich: “I like John Kasich … He’s not a Republican that pretends there are no poor people in America.”

But she had the kindest words for Bush.

“I always have been impressed with Jeb Bush. He’s been really a phenomenal leader on education reform,” she said. “I think he would be very good as a leader because the country really needs that kind of thought.”

Win some, lose some, I guess.  

Note: Mary Landrieu is a professional lobbyist for the Walton Family Foundation. Education privatization reform is their specialty. It's also Jeb Bush's pet issue.

Bandwidth

Monday night tens of people tuned in to CSPAN to see the Republican Presidential candidates play an exhibition warm-up forum prior to Thursday night's prime time debates. Fans were disappointed to learn that Donald Trump would not be there. But, because this was a pre-season game, it only makes sense that team GOP rested their starter in order to avoid injuries.

Much like an NFL exhibition, this event did not challenge any of the candidates with direct regular season competition as much as it provided a controlled environment for individual evaluation.  Hard core fans will probably want to watch the game film here. But keep in mind, this was also muck like an NFL exhibition in that it's very difficult to say what, if anything, of value was learned.

Each candidate was given about a minute or two on stage to answer what appeared to be pre-arranged questions suited to his or her favorite talking points. After all 14 participants had rotated in, they were called back for a second, very similar, round but with 30 seconds added for "closing statements."

This was a heavily scripted performance of each candidate's standard stump schtick.  But it's worth at least observing how well they pull that off on stage. So, there were a few notes worth scribbling down, or tweeting out, or whatever I did. Here are those.

Given that the substance is staged boilerplate, I guess the thing we're looking for first here is style points. Sadly, everyone was pretty bland. The only candidates who distinguished themselves did so in the negative sense.

For example, Lindsey Graham's description of his trade policy, "Clinched fist or open hand. You choose," sounded weird the first time he said it. By the third repetition it started to sound almost dirty. Rick Perry didn't forget any list items or anything. But he did squirm in his chair a lot and generally look goofy. Ben Carson seems half asleep when he speaks and holds his "Gifted Hands" awkwardly. Ted Cruz was tangibly creepy but that's nothing new.

The most disappointing presentation by far was from presumed contender Marco Rubio who just isn't very good at talking. Rubio, like the two other Senators who participated, was beamed in via satellite link but was the only one of the three who couldn't figure out that he needed to wait on the delay to avoid talking over the host.  He also stumbled over his own words a few times and looked very much like he needed a glass of water.. which is kind of a problem when people are specifically watching for that.
 
Almost all of the candidates wanted to talk about "border security." Rick Perry began by saying he once "looked the President in the eye" and told him that Texas would secure the border if the feds would not. And then, according to Perry, Texas went ahead and did that so I don't really know what he's complaining about now.

Other Republicans talked more effectively about "border security" in relation to the version of economic populism many of them will try to sell this year.  John Kasich, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey Graham all talked about the effects of immigration on wages in the US.  Although they also spoke in favor of "guestworker" programs which apparently don't hurt anybody. (oops!) It's interesting also that all of these "free traders" have spent their careers supporting agreements like NAFTA, and now the TPP and TTIP which demolish fair labor and environmental standards across international borders but have no shame in demagoguing against their deleterious effects.

But hypocrisy is a given on the campaign trail.  This is how Chris Christie can declare, "The war on drugs has been a failure" the same week that he also said this.

"If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it," Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, said during a town-hall event in the early voting state of New Hampshire, according to Bloomberg.

“As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws,” he added.

Christie, who has long opposed recreational marijuana and said early this month that he has never tried pot, has stated that unlike President Obama he would not selectively choose which federal laws to enforce.

It's also how  Ted Cruz can, with a straight face, rail against "career politicians in bed with special interests" while this is going on.

Senator Ted Cruz’s standing in many national polls may be middling, but Friday brought fresh evidence as to why he should not be underestimated: The Texas Republican is a magnet for big donors.

How big? Toby Neugebauer, an energy investor, donated $10 million to Keep the Promise II, a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Cruz.

The donation represents one of the largest amounts given by a single donor to a Super PAC so far this campaign cycle and demonstrates the potential influence that individuals can have upon a presidential election and with a senior lawmaker.

Mr. Neugebauer, the son of Representative Randy Neugebauer, Republican of Texas, is the co-founder of Quantum Energy Partners and has been an active investor in the oil and gas sectors, overseeing billions of dollars of assets.

There were other knee-slappers.

"Libertarian" Rand Paul seemed pretty adamant that the government has a right to summarily execute you as long as it says you are a "terrorist."

Scott Walker says it's important that climate change policy is "balanced" against the needs of industry which seems like a totally legitimate way to go about things given the circumstances.

George Pataki is also running for President.

Of course our friend Bobby Jindal was there too.  He comported himself pretty well, in fact. This was not a repeat of his infamous State of the Union response which I think we should all just stop talking about now.  Bobby has improved his presentation at least to a level where it is no longer laughable.

I'm less impressed with his improvement than Oyster seems to be, though. Jindal will always come off as a nerd and a phony.  But we've elected nerds before. (Think George H. W. Bush) And certainly we've elected phonies. (Think every President ever.) So there's no reason to dismiss Bobby Jindal's campaign based on style. One poor impression he made on TV six years ago does not mean he isn't to be taken seriously now.

The things he says are ridiculous too but no more ridiculous than any of his opponents' offerings listed above. Monday night Jindal coolly recited some of the pet phrases he's been honing during his many trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.

"I'm tired of talkers. We need doers."

"We need to get off of the path towards socialism."

"American Dream" vs. "European Nightmare"

You may have heard these before.  Have you heard this new one yet, though?

“We need a doer, not a talker,” he said in his valedictory. “We can’t afford four more years of on-the-job training.”

And, he assured the audience, he has the “bandwidth” and “backbone” to get the job done.

“We’ve had seven years of a great talker,” he said. “Let’s elect a doer.

“Let us believe in America again.”

What on Earth could that "bandwidth" thing possibly mean, we asked Twitter. Twitter responded, convincingly enough.

@champsuperstar @skooks it means he can handle a lot of things at once. It's common lame business jargon.

— Larry (@LarryLarmeu) August 4, 2015

In other words, Bobby is going for that "Geek Appeal" again. 

But as long as Bobby is talking about his "bandwidth" maybe one or two local Iowa or New Hampshire reporters would like to take it as an opening to ask him why he has so much while his state has so little. 

Louisiana was set to receive an $80 million federal grant to expand broadband access in North and Central Louisiana. I know, for an absolute fact that, behind the scenes, Mary Landrieu’s staff worked diligently to ensure Louisiana had an opportunity, and I’m not at all surprised that Senator Landrieu has been so vocal about this issue. You see, last week, the Commerce Department rescinded the grant because Louisiana couldn’t get its act together. More specifically, Governor Jindal and his administration couldn’t get their acts together

Of course it won't make much difference.  Bobby will simply say that, because the $80 million in broadband access for the poor was coming from the federal government and not a private cable operator, that he was really giving us "freedom" instead of bandwidth and isn't that better anyway.  It won't hurt Bobby with Republicans to have to say that.

In fact, it will be right in step with Scott Walker's claim that "freedom" is better than a union job with full benefits or George Pataki's claim that "patient empowerment" is better than actual health care. This is the meat they're all serving this year. These are the lies you tell if you want to be the Republican nominee And Jindal tells them every bit as well as or better than the rest of them.   

Bobby is doing OK

People think nobody likes him. But that's only really true in Louisiana and, as Bobby clearly demonstrates that he knows, Louisiana doesn't really count.  

Two new polls out this week on the race for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nomination offer a mixed bag for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

In New Hampshire, a Public Policy Polling survey found Jindal had one of the best favorability ratings of all the possible candidates that respondents were asked about.

“He may be someone to keep a closer eye on moving forward,” PPP concludes.

Think about it in terms of this analysis of Hillary vs the GOP field from earlier in the week.

The ones who are at least relatively well-known are much less popular. The ones who are close to her net approval are close to unknown. The best takeaway for the GOP is that Rubio and Walker are basically unknown and thus don't bring a lot of negatives with them. But still, for an age of extreme partisan polarization, Clinton is pretty popular.

It's becoming more widely understood now that Jeb Bush is in no way a foregone conclusion for the GOP nomination.  Walker and Rubio have more room to grow as they get a chance to introduce themselves. They have their weaknesses, of course. Rubio is not exactly popular with hispanics outside of the Florida Cuban exile community.  Walker is a tremendous douchebag. But neither of them is really any better off than Jindal excepting the fact that their names are slightly more familiar nationally right now.  That can and will change once the campaigning begins in earnest. (Hell, Bobby hasn't even announced his candidacy yet.)
 
Not saying Bobby is gonna win the thing. Just that he's doing pretty okay right now.

I know I keep saying so but I swear I've got a lot more on this soon. 

Early voting begins today

Here is where you will find your favorite Senate Candidates.

Senator Landrieu of the Gret Stet of the Flag Of Texaco is promoting this statewide "Souls to the Polls" rally.. which is actually kind of confusing in that the fliers merely list polling locations in each parish.  But these are definitely rallies.  At least according to Mary's website they are.

NEW ORLEANS, LA – This Saturday, November 22, Louisiana leaders and members of Congress from across the country will participate in more than 30 “Meet Me At the Polls” events around the state, where they will remind voters about the importance of voting early and highlight Senator Mary Landrieu’s record of fighting and delivering for Louisiana.

“We will never stop fighting to raise the minimum wage, ensure we have quality schools for our children, or provide affordable health care to all working families,” Senator Landrieu said. “This weekend, thousands of Louisianians will join our campaign by voting early and, together, we will continue to fight so every Louisiana family has the opportunity to build a prosperous future.”

The “Meet Me At the Polls” initiative was created to call voters to action, while highlighting the importance of early voting in the runoff election. More than 30 events this weekend will be spearheaded by Terrebonne Parish Councilmember Arlanda Williams and Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson. U.S. Senator Cory Booker, U.S. Congressman Cedric Richmond, and Democratic National Committee Secretary and Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, are only a few of the headliners of “Meet Me At the Polls.”

The most high profile participant in the "rallies" is Senator Booker (D-NJ). Booker's star has been rising steadily as he's become better and better at pushing whatever horseshit agenda the big banks ask him to much the same way Mary has done for big oil over the years.  Booker also just got finished voting against Mary's Keystone gambit this week.  Anyway, so have fun capturing that magic.

Meanwhile Wannabe Senator Frankenberry is rallying alongside Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today in Gonzales and in Kenner.  The two will spend most of their time telling really big lies about immigration, probably.

You see, when Cassidy claims that Mary Landrieu “voted against stopping executive amnesty,” what he really means is that Landrieu, along with 67 other Senators, voted in favor of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.

Guess who else voted for that bill? I’ll give you a hint: He was a member of the so-called “Gang of Eight.” Remember them?

No, it wasn’t John McCain, though he supported the legislation and has campaigned for Cassidy. And it wasn’t Lindsay Graham, who co-authored the bill and worked tirelessly to ensure its passage. After the bill passed, Graham told Politico (bold mine), “I consider this an astounding success. You could ratify a treaty or override a veto. This is as good as it gets in the Senate.”

Who else could it be?

It was, in fact, another one of its authors, none other than Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Quoting again from Politico (bold mine):

Before the final vote, the legislation’s chief authors took turns defending the bill and reflecting on the hard-fought path toward reform. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) spoke of the ups and down of his 12-year fight on behalf of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. And Rubio detailed the journey of his parents as they emigrated from Cuba.
“Here in America, generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass,” Rubio said on the Senate floor. “That’s why I support this reform.”

Remember, this legislation is the very same thing that Cassidy is attacking Landrieu for supporting, and tomorrow, he will be campaigning with one of the bill’s most prominent supporters and co-authors. “[I]nstead of saying Landrieu ‘represents Barack Obama’ on the immigration issue,” FactCheck.org reported, “the Cassidy ad could just as easily have said her vote ‘represents’ Graham or Rubio.”