Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were once good friends - Wednesday night, that changed
By Mark Rhoads -
A familiar sad pattern in politics is played out when a former mentor becomes jealous of a younger candidate he regards as his protege but who has taken the spotlight as the mentor gets older.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush at age 68 62 appears to be jealous of Sen. Marco Rubio at age 44. That might in part explain his unprovoked attack on Rubio's absence from Senate floor votes in the Oct. 28 CNBC debate. The criticism of Rubio is legitimate to a degree but no more so than other senators who have campaigned for president in the past and do so now.
Rubio replied to Bush: "Someone is advising you that attacking me will help you." Rubio's reply is on the mark and the advice Bush is getting is very bad advice. Sen. Rubio is not to blame for the Bush drop in the polls or the failure of Bush to catch fire.
Sen. Rubio won over the voters of Florida by very hard work on his own in an uphill campaign against Gov. Charlie Crist three years ago in 2010. By his own choice, Jeb Bush has not been on the ballot in Florida since 2002 and left office more than 8 years ago in January 2007.
Rubio is not to blame for the Bush decision to retire for 8 years. Rubio is not being disloyal to any help Bush might have offered him many years ago. Rubio earned the Speakership of the Florida House on his own and he definitely earned his seat in the U.S. Senate by his own efforts and those of his enthusiastic supporters. Bush did not give him the seat.
So the apparent jealousy of the elder Jeb Bush is badly misplaced and unbecoming of a candidate for president who has relied far too much on his family name to advance. For his part, Sen. Rubio has kept up a positive campaign where negative attacks on others have not been featured. So who is the more mature candidate? Bush or Rubio?
