Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!

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Marco Rubio, the Republican party's favorite Latino for his claims of being the son of Anti-Castro Cuban exiles, has not, it seems, been that truthful with his family history. In fact, his parents had left Cuba during the Batista right wing dictatorship, before Castro had ever come into power.
This might not seem to be such a big deal, except - - Rubio has based his whole political career - his whole identity in fact - on being the scion of refugees who had fled the leftist terror.
Maybe he figured he could tell a little white lie in order to get the votes of the Anti-Communist Cuban-American community in Florida - I know what you feel, being the son of dispossessed Anti-Communist fighters. But once he began gaining national recognition, that little white lie snowballed out of control. Frankly, I'm amazed no one had tried checking out his story years ago.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I was watching Operation Repo earlier, where a criminal faked being a soldier coming out of Iraq so he didn't have to have his SUV towed. It's amazing what people think they can get away with.

I'm definitely going to have to check this one out. If true, it is just typical of politicians ON BOTH SIDES!! ! The only thing besides the Second Coming that will change this cabal of criminals is massive civil disobedience including both the occupy folks and the tea party (provided neither get co-opted by a political party). I honestly don't see any real difference whatsoever between a republican and a democrat except the promises made during campaigning.

Sorry, but I really have to stop you on this load of bull right here and now, this has already been debunked royally. You didn't even bother to provide your source, which I'm guessing traces back to Washington Post or a leftist partisan hack site.


The Washington Post just released this interesting story headlined "Marco Rubio’s compelling family story embellishes facts, documents show." The paper flagged a clear inaccuracy in his official Senate biography that states the Senator's parents "came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.”

That's false. Rubio's parents came to the US before then, in 1956. They remained in the US after Castro took over in 1959. They returned to Cuba for brief stints early on, before the country devolved into Soviet-style totalitarianism.

But the top of the story suggests Rubio himself has given this "dramatic account:" that "he was the son of exiles, he told audiences, Cuban Americans forced off their beloved island after 'a thug,' Fidel Castro, took power." (Update note: The story struck the word "dramatic").

However, the story doesn't cite one speech where Rubio actually said that.

To back up the lead, the Washington Post excerpts from a 2006 address in the Florida House where Rubio said “in January of 1959 a thug named Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and countless Cubans were forced to flee... Today your children and grandchildren are the secretary of commerce of the United States and multiple members of Congress...and soon, even speaker of the Florida House.”

The catch: If you listen to the speech, Rubio isn't just talking about those who specifically fled Cuba after Castro took power. He doesn't say that his parents fled Cuba. Instead, he was talking about "a community of exiles." That is: He was talking about all the Cubans who live in Miami.

Regardless of when his parents left Cuba, they were exiles because they stayed in the US, specifically Miami, in a community where they soon felt they couldn't go back to their homeland. Though the story said his parents left for economic reasons, it's silent about the fact that the dictator before Castro, Batista, was so brutal that it made Castro look like a good alternative at first. (Insert debate over the fairness of the post-Castro Cuban Adjustment Act here).

The Post also says "the supposed flight of Rubio’s parents has been at the core of the young senator’s political identity." That's a stretch. The actual story of the "flight" is far less emphasized than the fact that Rubio's an Hispanic Republican, and the child of immigrants and exiles (Update note: I mistakenly called him an immigrant and exile in original post).

So to suggest Rubio serially embellished the "dramatic" story of his parents fleeing Cuba could be a little too dramatic itself. And it might be an embellishment as well -- absent more information clearly showing Rubio has repeatedly said his parents fled Castro's Cuba.


Rubio's office has told both the Washinton Post, the St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald that his parents came to the United States prior to Castro taking power. And he has said it more than once. In the article we wrote last month about his pending autobiography, Rubio clearly told us his parents came here before Castro took power. He struggled to recall the year (this isn't in the story, it's in my notes) and said it was in "57 or 58 or 59."

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpol ... z1bxUAXkTF

The article goes on to point out that Rubio isn't good with remembering dates, something that a lot of us here have problems with.

Now if you'd like to keep this up I can easily find more sources that have torpedoed Washington Post's story, including the fact about the author of said piece has a serious ax to grind towards Rubio...

Just because the Rubio's had gone back to Cuba briefly hardly makes them exiles in the sense of those Cubans who were literally fleeing for their lives, often with just the shirts on their backs. The Rubios had a life in America - that does not a refugee make. And while it is more than possible that the Senator's family had fled the political oppression of the Batista regime, he himself never made such a claim. It was always Castro, who has since become the bogeyman for the exile community in Florida. Had he claimed his family had fled Batista, there would hardly have been the same resonance among his constituents. In fact, as many people who had opposed Batista were themselves very often leftists, while many - though not all - Anti-Castroites were to the right, many exiles and their children and grandchildren might think that he had some explaining to do.
As it turns out, he does have explaining to do.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

So you're going to keep parrot this even when this was debunked back on October 20th, by the Miami Herald.

Does the Miami Herald have a dog in this fight?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Maybe, but the Miami Herald isn't the only one that has ripped the Washington Post a new one on this. However, I don't think the Miami Herald is a Rubio supporter.

Regardless, if they want to make him the son of Cuban exiles, they can do it, whether he is or not.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Except that as the Miami Herald pointed out, he never said he was the son of Cuban Exiles.

Now, that is something I find myself in disagreement with the Miami Herald. The fact is, since Rubio hit the national stage, it was constantly broadcast by both the right and the left that he was the son of Cuban exiles. Say even if by the unlikely chance that he had never himself made this claim, he still never corrected the various news sources for this misinformation.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Rubio is still a Cuban American, and he has better things to do than correct every media outlet that jumps to conclusions. Also if you read the Miami Herald article, they said the same thing you did.

If the media wants to hype a story and not do a better fact check, they're the ones responsible for this in the first place. If Rubio had jumped on them over this, all it would have done was make it look like he lied to the outlets to embarass them, when in fact they were just trying to hype the story.

Or maybe he was trying to milk his non-existent exile history for all it was worth for political gain.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

So since your attack on Rubio making statements that weren't true has been debunked, you're now attacking him for not wasting his time trying to go after the media for hyping something.

I'm not convinced that those statements have been debunked.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

If you look at the speech the Washington Post used as their evidence though, it is rather clear that Rubio did not say what Washington Post said that he said. This was pointed out by the Miami Herald, the fact this story kinda died afterward, is another good indicator that the story backfired on the Washington Post.