In todays edition of the Washington Post they take a very good in-depth look at Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The column penned by Paul Kane looks at both Rubio and Congressman Paul Ryan who were one year ago the shinning stars of the GOP and now things have changed for both men.
Last summer, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were paired in an ad campaign touting Rubio’s immigration legislation. Last week, they were on opposite sides of a cable news snit about the efficacy of a two-year budget deal co-authored by Ryan.
For these two young princes of the GOP’s, often hailed as the future of the Republican Party, a year of great ambition is ending in a muddle of unfinished business and disappointing compromises that may call both their futures into question.
Once atop every list of potential presidential contenders, Rubio and Ryan now find themselves looking up at a handful of GOP governors, ex-governors and outspoken tea party leaders in the 2016 sweepstakes.
And it seem that the cause of this diminished presidential stature can be traced directly to a single factor: the taint of Congress, the reviled institution in which they serve. Rubio, 42, and Ryan, 43, have spent the past months engaged in the ugly political process of legislative give and take: first Rubio’s immigration effort, which passed the Senate and is now stuck in the House, then Ryan’s compromise budget deal, which is on a glide path to passage but isn’t earning him any medals for aspiration. More…
