Aug 7, 2009 1:37 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: Martinez's Choice To Resign Not Difficult
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Mel Martinez's decision to resign his Senate seat with more than a year left in his term follows the same thinking that led to his earlier decision not to seek a second term. As I wrote back in December when Martinez announced he wasn't interested in running for re-election, the Cuban-American Republican has always been a reluctant Senator.
His legislative accomplishments were modest at best. Now, with a Democrat in the White House and having 60 votes in the Senate, the prospect of just hanging on for another year was even less appealing.
Not that there was much appeal for Martinez to begin with. There always seemed to be a sense of obligation behind Martinez's initial run for the Senate, what Martinez described in December as a "call to duty."
"We proved the American Dream is alive and well truly when an immigrant arriving here with nothing can one day be elected to serve in the United States
Senate," he said.
Before he was the reluctant Senator, Martinez was the reluctant candidate. He had been tapped by President Bush in 2001 to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and then pushed by Karl Rove and others to run for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Rove knew that with Martinez on the ballot it would boost Hispanic Republican turnout in Florida and ultimately help President Bush with his own re-election campaign.
Two years later, when Bush needed to reach out to Hispanics who were upset with the party's growing vitriol on immigration reform, the President recruited Martinez to become head of the Republican National Committee. But Martinez wasn't a very good RNC chairman and he gave up the post in less than a year.
With Bush in the White House, Martinez had a role to play. He was their guy. The one they could turn to when they needed help.
Now, with Bush gone, Martinez has no clearly defined role, and for the first time in a long time he doesn't politically owe anyone anything. He gets to do what he wants. And he just wants to go home.
There will be natural comparisons to Sarah Palin and her decision to resign as Governor of Alaska, but I don't think those are necessarily fair. Martinez is leaving not out of a sense of some future political calculation, but because he believes he has paid his dues. And with the rancor in Washington growing even fiercer on issues such as health care, the moderate, even-tempered Martinez just doesn't have the stomach to stick around and be an obstructionist. Because right now that's what being a Republican is all about – it's about saying no to everything.
I also don't think it is a coincidence that the decision comes immediately after the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Martinez was one of only nine Republicans to vote for Sotomayor, who will become the first Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court. Supporting her was a nice way to end his time in Washington.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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