Marco Rubio's New Chief of Staff

Marco Rubio, the conservative Republican from Florida who won a U.S. Senate seat in the recent mid-term elections, named Cesar Conda as his chief of staff. The story comes from the Weekly Standard and was reprinted in today's Washington Post.

The appointment matters. Rubio is a young, Sun Belt face of the right wing. He is articulate and telegenic. He piggybacked on the Tea Party surge to help win a tight election. Conda, shown in the photograph, offers a strong clue about Rubio's intentions. According to the Weekly Standard story, Conda was Dick Cheney's right hand (no pun intended) for domestic affairs during the first two years of the Bush-Cheney regime. "In that capacity," the story noted, "(Conda played a critical behind-the-scenes role in conceiving the Bush tax cuts and Bush economic policy more broadly."

One suspects that Conda -- and others -- are grooming Rubio for a larger domestic role. Rubio represents a state of great importance in presidential elections. Keep in mind that Barack Obama, who is Rubio's age peer, was a first-term U.S. senator when he ran for the presidency.