Sunday shows: Rubio, Ryan, Reid, Cornyn, Durbin

ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Gen. James Jones, Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.y.), with Torie Clarke, George Will and David Ignatius.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Billy Packer, ex-CBS Sports, on college basketball.

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

CNN "Fareed Zakaria GPS": Norman Benotman, Robert Baer, Richard Haass, Bernard Henri Kevy and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Gen. Jones, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), William Bennett and Donna Brazile.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), with Brit Hume, Juan Williams, Bill Kristol and Mara Liasson.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), with Mike Murphy, Marc Morial, Doris Goodwin and Daniel Yergin.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Click here now to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle now. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share this item with friends.

Photo: Gary Rothstein / EPA (Rubio).

Comments

[Florida Home]

Re: "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)

Another faux-interview with Senator Marco Rubio on Fox News.

The Senator again trots his routine sound bites about Government debt, but he can’t hold a candle to the articulate and informed Congressman Paul Ryan.

Senator Rubio cannot even coherently defend his veto of the GOP proposed budget compromise, when the alternative might mean the Government defaults on its debt. Rubio dithers, and hides behind meaningless, evasive verbiage when asked a simple, direct question by Wallace.

On the subject of Libya, and Senator Rubio’s proposed Senate Resolution that would commit the US to ousting Gadhafi and giving recognition and total support to the rebels, Senator Rubio was again inarticulate. When speaking of NATO involvement, Senator Rubio now says “We should always try to have allies in this endeavor.” Yet only a few weeks ago he ridiculed efforts to get UN support, and ultimately NATO support, as being “weak and naïve.”

When asked if he would support having US troops on the ground in Libya, Rubio is non-commital. When asked if we should arm the Libyan rebels, Rubio says, “I think we need to learn more about who they are and how they're working. And when you talk about the Libyan rebels, well, that's a lot of different people. We need to learn about who they are and whether it would make a difference.”

What? Considering that Senator Rubio, through his proposed Senate Resolution, has urged that the US fully commit to backing the rebels and recognizing them as the legitimate government of Libya, shouldn’t he have already “known who they are and how they’re working”? How capricious can Sen. Rubio be with American money and blood?

Here are some questions that Chris Wallace should have asked Senator Rubio:

1. How much would you think it would cost the US in terms of time and money, to achieve the goals of your Senate Resolution? A ballpark answer will do. Would you be willing to invest more than that if Gadhafi and his loyalists prove tougher than imagined?

2. After Gadhafi is defeated, does your commitment to installing the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya include helping them establish political processes, a constitution, laws, public education, health care services, etc.?

3. After Gadhafi is defeated, does your commitment to installing the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya include rebuilding and modernizing the destroyed infrastructure of Libya? How much money are you prepared to commit to that?

4. Would you commit to a long-term presence of US forces in Libya for training the new Libyan army, keeping the peace, protecting the resources (oil fields) from any post-war terrorist or guerilla activity?

5. Would you fund your Libyan involvement by adding further debt to the US financial crisis? If not, how would you provide funding for your Libyan commitment? Would you take the savings from Congressman Ryan’s cuts to domestic programs, and apply that money to the Libyans?

Chris Wallace avoided the elephant in the room, and asked none of those questions. Perhaps he realized early-on that Senator Rubio only does soft interviews, and has no real answers or solutions.

But in all fairness to Senator Rubio, we need to recognize that on ABC's Nightline he did tell the world that he likes to listen to the hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj. At least he made a definite, clear commitment to something.