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Stories tagged with “Mel Martinez”

Election

Romney Adviser Admits GOP Budget ‘Probably Doesn’t’ Have Support In ‘Most Places’

By Adam Peck and Scott Keyes on Aug 29, 2012 at 1:58 pm

Former Florida Senator and RNC Chairman Mel Martinez (R)

Mitt Romney has thrown his full support behind Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) budget and his campaign has repeatedly insisted that the former Massachusetts governor would have signed it into law.

But now, some of Romney’s key advisers are expressing skepticism about how the document — and it’s conservative ideology — will play in local races. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Mel Martinez — Romney’s top Hispanic Steering Committee adviser and a former senator — argued that many voters will reject Ryan’s economic policies:

SCOTT KEYES: Do you think [Ryan's] budget will play a positive role in the campaign for Republicans? You’re former RNC chair, is that something you would recommend to, say Republican house candidates, to run on the Ryan budget and Medicare?

MARTINEZ: You know what, I think house races have their own chemistry. I would not attempt to nationalize a house race. I think you have to do that district by district, maybe in some places it makes sense to nationalize it, most places it probably doesn’t. I would say, it’s not really about the congressional races, I think it’s about the presidential when it comes to that.

Watch it:

Perhaps Martinez is right to dissuade Republicans from running on the Ryan budget. The last time a Republican campaigned on a promise to support and vote for the Ryan budget — a 2011 special election in New York — Republican Jane Corwin lost handily to Democrat Kathy Hochul in one of the most reliably conservative districts in the country despite outspending Hochul by a 2-1 margin. Since 1857, just three Republicans had ever lost congressional races in the district.

Justice

Top Adviser Says Romney Will Back Away From ‘Self-Deportation’ Policy

By Adam Peck and Scott Keyes on Aug 28, 2012 at 3:48 pm

Former Sen. and RNC Chair Mel Martinez (R-FL)

TAMPA, Florida — Mitt Romney will reverse course on his campaign pledge to pursue an immigration strategy of “self-deportation” — whereby society makes life so harsh for undocumented immigrants that they deport themselves — according to one of his top Hispanic Steering Committee advisers.

Mel Martinez, the former Florida Republican senator and chairman of the Republican Party, told ThinkProgress on Tuesday that Romney will almost certainly reverse course and take a more “sensible view” on immigration. He argued that Romney’s “self-deportation” policy was simply a product of the bruising Republican primary. When asked if Romney would stick to it if elected, Martinez was frank: “I really, really don’t.”

KEYES: In the primaries, he was advocating a position of self-deportation. Do you think he’ll stick to that?

MARTINEZ: I don’t think so, no I really, really don’t. I think that campaigns are not the best place to make good policy, and primaries are probably the worst place. I think that Governor Romney will have a sensible view towards immigration, which I think hopefully will be good for the country.

Watch it:

Though Martinez may try to Etch-a-Sketch away Romney’s primary positions, Latino voters are unlikely to be moved. A poll last month showed Romney trailing President Obama among Hispanic Americans by 48 percentage points, 70-22.

In addition, Romney still counts Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — the author of Arizona’s discriminatory SB 1070 bill — among his closest advisers on matters of immigration, and his campaign has indicated he would reinstate mass deportations of young undocumented immigrants that President Obama has curbed.

Martinez may hope for a more “sensible” immigration approach from his candidate, but until Romney says otherwise, voters will have no choice but to take him at his word that “self-deportation” is the policy.

Justice

Better Know A Right-Wing Attack Group: American Action Network

By Josh Israel and Scott Keyes on Aug 9, 2012 at 5:20 pm

American Action Network logoPart four of ThinkProgress’ profiles of right-wing groups that are taking advantage of the Citizens United ruling to flood the airways with independent attack ads. See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

American Action Network is a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization.

Founded in 2010, AAN is chaired by former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). Its president is Brian O. Walsh, a former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. AAN says it is an “action tank” that aims to “create, encourage and promote center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security.”

According to the group’s website, it was founded by Fred Malek — the controversial Republican activist best known for co-chairing Nixon’s notorious Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CREEP). Malek has since become a private equity millionaire.

Others on the board are former Sen. Mel Martinez (a Florida Republican and former RNC chairman who abruptly resigned midway through his sole Senate term to pursue a private sector career), former Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA), and former Rep. Vin Weber (R-MN), and former Bush Ambassdor C. Boyden Gray (the man enlisted by Karl Rove to create an organization to push for confirmation of George W. Bush’s judicial nominees).

Sample AAN ad:

Affiliates:

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanActNet
Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/AAN

Graphics by Adam Peck. Christina Lewis and Ellie Sandmeyer contributed to this report

Security

Rep. Rohrabacher: Obama Is A ‘Cream Puff’ For Not Interfering In Iran

By Ryan Powers on Jun 17, 2009 at 4:49 pm

rohrabacherYesterday, President Obama explained his relative public silence with regard to the situation in Iran, saying, “It’s not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling, the U.S. president meddling in Iranian elections.” Later in the day, on Radio America’s Dateline Washington, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) responded to Obama’s measured statements on Iran by calling him a “cream puff” and predicting that under Obama’s leadership “things” will get “very bad, very quickly”:

DATELINE: What is the best way to approach this? … President Obama though says that we don’t want to take sides too publicly because then the ruling regime there could use us as the straw man to beat back this public uprising. How do you read this?

ROHRABACHER: Well I think that Mr. Obama, if he continues to have these types of attitudes, we’re going to see things get very bad, very quickly. Already the North Koreans have challenged him and realized that he’s a cream puff, if that is what he is indeed going to be as a President.… [N]ow if the Mullahs in Iran are permitted to just roll over opposition something like Tienanmen square, we will have missed a great opportunity.

Later in the interview, Rohrabacher said that he had distributed a video to the people of Iran that declared “we’re with them, be courageous, don’t let this moment go by” and that Ronald Reagan “always knew that — at the very least — we should be vocally supportive of all those people who are oppressed.” Listen here:

Rohrabacher’s view of Obama’s actions on Iran is not shared by some of his Republican colleagues in Congress or even some conservative commentators. Indeed, as Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) said on CBS’s Early Show yesterday, “I think for the moment our position is to allow the Iranians to work out their situation.” Likewise, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) told Politico that Obama should “absolutely not” be more forceful on Iran. Pat Buchanan wrote on the conservative TownHall.com that “[t]he Obama policy of extending an open hand to Iran is working and ought not be abandoned because of the grim events in Tehran.”

But perhaps the most compelling endorsement of the Obama administration’s reaction to the election crisis in Iran came from Morehead Kennedy, who was held hostage for 444 days by Iranian revolutions while serving as acting head of the U.S. Embassy’s economic section in Tehran in 1979. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Kennedy “praised Joe Biden’s reaction to the protesters Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, in which the vice president cast doubt on the election results but shied away from a more pronounced condemnation.” “It’s very counterproductive to interfere in someone else’s election. I think the best thing the U.S. can do is shut up,” he said.

Update

Matt Yglesias writes, “[P]eople who work full-time, all-the-time on the difficult issues of democracy, human rights, and humanitarianism are much less interested in tough talk and posturing than are political pundits who like to parachute into situations and start demanding maximalist rhetoric.”

Politics

Martinez dismisses uproar over Sotomayor’s ‘wise Latina’ comment: ‘I understand what she is trying to say.’

By Victor Zapanta on Jun 9, 2009 at 3:35 pm

melmartinezCNN reports Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) is now predicting the successful confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, although he stopped short of endorsing her. Dismissing the controversy over Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” statement, Martinez said:

For someone who is of Latin background, personally, I understand what she is trying to say. Which is, the richness of her experience forms who she is. It forms who I am.

Sen. Martinez’s comments come following a one-on-one meeting he had with Sotomayor.

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