Freshman Carlos Curbelo is on a roll - or is it a spin?

Freshman Miami Congressman Carlos “Cry Baby” Curbelo is on a roll in Washington, D.C.

The former Miami-Dade School Board member whose rise to Capitol Hill was planned and developed years ago by and with his mentors, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, has done a rather good job of making himself relevant in the short time he’s been in office.

The rookie Republican took a stand voting against the GOP-led bill to undo President Barack Obama’s controversial executive actions on immigration. He has cosponsored or glommed onto seven bills, including a bill with sanctions against North Korea and a flooding relief bill that sets up rate-increase protections for second homes and commercial properties, which were left off last year’s legislation. He is less chatty about cosponsoring a controversial bill coming to the House floor next week that aims to ban abortion after 20 weeks and the one that would change the definition of full time and lessen the number of employees a company had to pay Affordable Care Act insurance for.

And he says is one of a handful of Congress members who were contacted by GOP presidential hopefuls seeking his support. which makes one think (1) What a big head he has already to think his endorsement means anything and (2) How is he going to choose between Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush and former presidential nominee Mitt Romney when all three endorsed him last year? (Ladra bets Rubio gets last place because he came out after the primary).

Curbelo, photographed here with his family at the swearing in, sure is getting a lot of ink about all this piddly, predictable crap. He certainly gets a lot of soundbites on everything from U.S. Cuba policy (which he got right) to sea level rise. We have to remember, however, that he is not only a lobbyist but also a media strategist who is among the top political and government spinmeisters produced in the 305.

None of this changes the fact that he still hid his client list under his wife’s name, a practice he has said he has no intention of changing after being elected to Congress. None of this changes the fact that he could be lobbying for folks who are going before the U.S. government for federal contracts and other favors. None of this changes the fact that he failed to report nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions right before Election Day, which he conveniently blamed on a computer glitch.

Just the kind of stuff we want in the guy to give the GOP’s Spanish-language “counter speech” to President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union Address Tuesday, right? In what universe? Or are there that few Latinos to draw from?

Let Ladra say it now, because everybody is thinking it: Curbelo ain’t no Marco Rubio.

Sen. Rubio, who gave the anti SOTU on 2012, is an engaging speaker and charming and funny and passionate. Curbelo is none of the above. Rubio elicits conviction and determination. Curbelo elicits curiousity about his sexual identity. Sure, his Spanish is okay, better than Ladra’s. But it’s not great like Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who gave the SOTU response last yea. Unless he’s been practicing.

Maybe it’s because of all his self-promotional brouhaha. Maybe it’s because he’s the new kid on the block. Maybe it’s because he is the Diaz-Balart’s pet project. Maybe it is because of the influence of someone he is secretly lobbying. But there has to be a reason why the Spanish-language anti SOTU speech was given to this little weasel freshman who is still tainted by his lobbying firm being in his wife’s name and the failure to timely report $100,000 in donations and is sitting in one of the most vulnerable and flippable seats in 2016.

Oh, wait. Could that be it? Could it be that the party is trying to prop him up further because they know how vulnerable he is?

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Carlos Curbelo, Joe Garcia, Marco Rubio

Freshman Carlos Curbelo is on a roll — or is it a spin? added by Ladra on January 19, 2015
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