Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, is set to become the latest potential 2016 presidential contender to head to Louisiana in support of GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy, who will face Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in a Dec. 6 runoff.
The Associated Press reported that Mr. Rubio is scheduled to attend two rallies for Mr. Cassidy this weekend as early voting gets underway, following in the footsteps of other big-name Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal,who have also worked to boost Mr. Cassidy.
Mrs. Landrieu’s already-uphill climb toward re-election was dealt perhaps a fatal blow Tuesday evening, when she failed to muster enough of her fellow Democrats to get the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to advance a measure authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.
The failed vote came just days after the House advanced its own Cassidy-sponsored piece of legislation authorizing the pipeline on a bipartisan basis. Coupled with the pending loss of her energy committee chairmanship in a chamber soon to be controlled by Republicans, the vote undermined a key theme of Mrs. Landrieu’s campaign that Louisianans should give her another term because of the clout she has in the Senate.
Mr. Rubio, though his original support for a bipartisan immigration bill last year upset some hard-line conservatives, has since carved out an interesting niche ahead of a possible presidential run, emphasizing the need for strong U.S. national security at a time when potential presidential hopefuls such as Mr. Paul have garnered support from a more libertarian-minded crowd.
Interestingly, both men voted no Tuesday on advancing a bill to wind down the U.S. government program allowing for the bulk collection of metadata from Americans’ phone records, but for very different reasons.
Mr. Rubio said the legislation would weaken the country’s counter-terrorism capabilities, while Mr. Paul objected on the grounds that it extended key provisions of the post-9/11 Patriot Act.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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