Becerra Should've Sat This Game Out
SAN DIEGO -- Democrats have a creepy new parlor game: pushing the concept that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are fake Latinos.
Apparently, somewhere, there is a test. And these overachievers failed it -- even though Rubio speaks better Spanish than many of his detractors and, as a child, Cruz was known as "Felito," which paid homage to his father, Rafael.
Still, the partisans claim, the Republican presidential candidates don't "identify" as Latino.
What happened to what Democrats told us in 2008 and 2012, about how one of Barack Obama's chief attributes was that he was "post-racial"? Didn't it used to be a good thing not to be hung up on race or ethnicity?
Not anymore. In December, The New York Times charged into the arena with a presumptuous article titled: "Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Diverge in Approach to Their Hispanic Identity."
Recently, I was on a public radio show in New York when the host, who is Jewish, asked a question that we never hear from the media: "How Jewish is Bernie Sanders?" Huh? The obvious answer is: "As Jewish as he wants to be. Mind your own business. Next question."
Cruz and Rubio aren't so lucky. While Sanders' identity is treated as a personal matter, theirs is a matter for public debate.
Remember how it was a sign of enlightenment that Obama was seen by many not as a black president but as a president who happened to be black? Why not say that Cruz and Rubio aren't Latino senators but senators who happen to be Latino?
Not happening. In the media, and other Democratic circles, it's open season on these Cuban-Americans.
The latest shot came from Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., who joined the chorus by accusing Cruz and Rubio of "running from their heritage."
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