Editor’s Note: The following was written by Scott Wong, an excellent congressional reporter for Politico.
** ** **
The same tea party wave swept them into the Senate last year, but freshmen phenoms Rand Paul and Marco Rubio couldn’t be more different in how they’ve approached their anti-spending mandate in Washington.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, is blazing an outsider’s path, ruffling Senate traditions and proposing hopeless bills and resolutions that are ignored by leaders but cheered by his activist followers. Rubio has quickly worked to make himself an establishment favorite, playing the insider’s game while drawing crowds of grass-roots activists back home in Florida.
The divergent paths taken by two of the Senate’s biggest stars cuts to the vexing questions facing the tea party as it matures and enjoys elected influence in Congress: Do they work the system, make deals and try to change things from within? Or do they dig in and say no to everything that falls short of their dramatic vision for shaking up Washington?
Rubio is betting heavily on the insider’s path — even making a few subtle moves that created daylight between him and Paul. Rubio refused to join Paul in the Senate tea party caucus, and earlier this month he sent a letter to the other GOP freshmen touting aid to Israel — after Paul called for an end to all U.S. foreign aid.
Matt Kibbe, president of the tea-party-affiliated FreedomWorks, said both styles can be effective, but he suggested the approach employed by Rubio, a former Florida House speaker, will help take the tea party to its third act: enacting legislation and reforms.
“The first iteration was a protest movement where we were simply banging on the castle doors trying to get someone to pay attention to our agenda, then there was the get-out-the-vote machine of the November election and now we’re in a legislative mode,” said Kibbe, whose group was founded by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
“Every agenda needs a guy willing to stand across the railroad tracks and say, ‘Stop this train’ — that is Rand’s approach. But once you stop the train, you need to pull together a winning coalition to pass legislation.”
Paul, however, seems to be relishing his role as a rabble-rouser, recently telling CNN that “the people of Kentucky elected me to shake things up.” His spokeswoman, Moira Bagley, said Paul believes a “bold approach” is required to tackle the debt crisis, balance the budget and reduce the size of government. But bold is one thing — his budget proposal to slash $500 billion in one year is a whole different level of thinking not shared by any other senator.
“I’ve heard members say, ‘I believe in what Rand Paul is trying to do and agree with his end goal, but I don’t like how he’s trying to get there,’” said one Senate GOP aide. “Marco Rubio is advocating principles of the people within the fringe elements but not being pigeonholed by that label.”
