Marco Rubio Embarks on Perilous Mission

Reflecting on the long-rumored entry of Marco Rubio into the race for U.S. Senate in 2010 against the inevitable candidacy of the formidable Florida governor, one can't help but recall that opening scene of Apocalypse Now: An underwear-wearing Martin Sheen doing drunken judo chops in some squalid hotel room in Saigon, as his voice-over intones:

Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.

Or maybe that's just me. In any case, Rubio's officially in. For now, his campaign is resisting Apocalypse Now comparisons, announcing the bid in more traditional fashion, as seen below.



After the jump, more evidence that this is Apocalypse Now Redux Again.

And like Willard, Rubio is backed by those with a belief in ideological purity. In this case, it's true conservative principles, rather than the moderate ways of Crist. One can easily imagine Rubio having a conversation like the briefing Willard had with the U.S. general. Except Rubio would have had his with GOP Chairman Michael Steele, who recently expressed his intolerance for moderates. I changed only three words from this memorable scene:

Well, you see Marco... In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, and practical political necessity. Out there with these natives it must be a temptation to be God. Because there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. The good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Charlie Crist has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane.

The horror, the horror.