A GQ interview with Sen. Marco Rubio is mainly getting attention because of his incoherent answer (“I’m not a scientist, man!”) to the question: “How old do you thing the Earth is?” Brother Benen notes that Rubio is a member of the Senate Science Committee (not necessarily a big credential since the House counterpart committee includes such fine specimens as Todd Akin and Paul Broun). Sarah Posner tries to dissect Rubio’s “word salad.”
Others, I suspect, will focus on Rubio’s discussion of his favorite rap songs, which turn out to be:
“Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A. “Killuminati” by Tupac. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”
But I found this exchange most interesting:
GQ: Who’s your best friend?
Marco Rubio: My wife. We talk every day.
GQ: Besides your wife.
Marco Rubio: [South Carolina Senator and Tea Party favorite] Jim DeMint. He’s a great source of wisdom as a person who’s had to make decisions that have made him unpopular in his own party. Jeb Bush is another guy I admire for his ability to analyze issues and call them for what they are.
Wow. It’s bad enough that Rubio mentions his Florida political patron, Jeb Bush, as an afterthought. But anyone who thinks of Rubio as a potential GOP vehicle for “modernizing” the party should think again given his proud kinship to the antediluvian DeMint, the heaviest right-wing heavy of them all. You don’t need to be a “scientist, man” to spot a brontosaurus when you see one.
