Marco Rubio's reservations put Trump's NASA nominee in jeopardy

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio continues to harbor deep reservations about Rep. Jim Bridenstine’s nomination to be NASA’s next administrator, dimming the Oklahoma Republican’s chances of running the space agency.

“I remain very concerned about the politicization of NASA, not even because he would do it on purpose but just given some of the resistance he’s already engendered,” Rubio said in an interview Friday. “I don’t think NASA at this critical stage of its history can afford that ... As of this moment, I can’t assure anyone that I would support his nomination if it came to a vote.”

Rubio’s comments are his strongest yet and suggest that his initial misgivings when President Donald Trump announced Bridenstine’s nomination in early September have only grown.

A broad swath of Democrats from Washington Sen. Patty Murray to Florida Sen. Bill Nelson have already announced their opposition to Bridenstine over a range of his past statements, including ones skeptical of climate science and opposing same-sex marriage.

Earlier this month, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee narrowly forwarded his nomination to the full Senate. The vote was 14-13 with every Democrat opposed to Bridenstine.

If that party-line opposition holds, Bridenstine will need almost all of the 52 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber to support him. But if other Republicans are as skeptical of his nomination as Rubio is, Trump’s choice to run NASA might not even get a vote.

Rubio and Bridenstine have a history.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Bridenstine appeared in ads on behalf of Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz that suggested Rubio, then a candidate for the White House, was soft on terror and slammed Rubio’s support of immigration reform.

After Cruz dropped out, Bridentstine became an enthusiastic supporter of Trump and was said to have spent months lobbying the White House for the NASA administrator job.

Bridenstine would be the first elected member of Congress to run the agency that has a reputation for being nonpartisan. During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, the three-term congressman and former naval aviator pledged to keep working across the aisle on issues important to the space program.

In the interview Friday, Rubio never mentioned the campaign ads. But he did say Bridenstine’s political background could be harmful.

“NASA is very important to the state of Florida. And it is really important to me that whoever runs NASA is a professional and commands the respect of NASA’s workforce but is also someone we think we can work with in a productive and constructive way,” he said. “As of this moment, I’m not convinced that Congressman Bridenstine fits that profile.”

Curbelo calls rejection from Hispanic Caucus "shameful"

Apparently, being a Hispanic in Congress does not automatically qualify you to join the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Capitol Hill organization that counts 31 Democrats (29 House members and two senators) among its ranks — and zero Republicans — has rejected a request by Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo to join the group.

"After due consideration, the CHC determined not to accept Rep. Curbelo’s request to join the Caucus,” CHC spokesman Carlos Paz, Jr. said in a statement. “The CHC isn’t just an organization for Hispanics; it is a Caucus that represents certain values. This vote reflects the position of many of our members that Rep. Curbelo and his record are not consistent with those values.”

Curbelo is a Miami-Dade lawmaker who is considered one of Congress' most moderate Republicans. Earlier this year, his office issued a news release showing that Curbelo has co-sponsored 74 bills in the 115th Congress (2017-18) and 327 bills in the 114th Congress (2015-16) that had a Democratic sponsor or co-sponsor.

But he's also angered Democrats by supporting repeal of the Affordable Care Act and, Thursday, voting to pass a massive Republican tax cut program that opponents say will hurt middle-class families at the expense of corporations and the wealthy.

Curbelo denounced the decision by the caucus in a statement that his office also provided in Spanish:

“It is truly shameful the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has decided to build a wall around the organization to exclude Hispanic-Americans who aren’t registered in the Democratic Party. This sends a powerful and harmful message of discrimination, bigotry, and division. Unbelievably, petty partisan interests have led the CHC to formally endorse the segregation of American Hispanics. It is a dark day on Capitol Hill. However, this only strengthens my commitment to working with my colleagues on both sides to urgently seek a solution for young immigrants in the DACA Program.”

He was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era initiative that has protected undocumented immigrants who immigrated as children to the U.S. with their parents.

Paz said he could not recall another instance where a member who asked to join was turned down.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, founded in 1976, describes itself as being "dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories."

There used to be Republicans in the caucus but they split in the 1990s after disagreements over Cuba policy. Shortly after, the Republicans formed their own group: the Congressional Hispanic Conference.

Lawmakers seek deportation protection for Haitians

Florida’s two senators – Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio — and a bipartisan group of South Florida House members are asking the Trump administration to extend for 18 months Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for some 60,000 Haitians living in the United States, many in Florida.

Haitians who want to remain in the U.S. face dangers if they are deported back to their home country in the immediate future, the lawmakers wrote in a letter Friday to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke.

“The need for a full extension is clear,” the letter states. “Haiti—the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—continues to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and displaced more than a million. To this day, Haiti struggles to combat an outbreak of cholera introduced by United Nations relief workers following the earthquake that has already killed more than 10,000 people.”

It goes on to say that Hurricane Matthew last year impeded Haiti’s recovery by destroying much of Haiti’s food crops.

“We owe it to the Haitian people to assist them in their efforts, especially as they begin to make limited progress,” the lawmakers wrote. “Haiti simply cannot absorb the premature return of 60,000 people at once.”

Also signing the letter were GOP Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; and Democratic Reps. Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Alcee Hastings, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Frederica Wilson.

Trump’s awkward water moment echoes Rubio’s

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, mocked for his water etiquette by President Trump during last year’s campaign, got to enjoy a small measure of payback this past week.

While appearing before the cameras Wednesday to discuss his just-completed trip to Asia, Trump had an awkward moment. After first mistakenly thinking there was no water available at the podium he was speaking from, the president stopped twice during remarks to take a drink from a Fiji water bottle.

The stumble immediately went viral on social media as people drew comparisons to Rubio’s similarly uncomfortable reach for water in 2013 when he was giving the Republican nationally broadcast response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

Of course, Rubio couldn’t resist teasing Trump, suggesting he should have kept looking into the camera while he fumbled for water.

Trump had poked fun at “Little Marco” during the campaign on a number of occasions. Several of them involved Rubio’s frequent thirst for water.

Since the election, the two have forged an amiable relationship as evidenced by the playfulness of Rubio’s tweet on Trump’s water moment.

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking