Rubio says DeMint is his best friend

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tea Party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is his best friend in Congress.

In a wide-ranging interview with GQ magazine published on Monday, Rubio said that, after his wife, DeMint is his closest friend. 

"He's a great source of wisdom as a person who's had to make decisions that have made him unpopular in his own party," Rubio said of DeMint, who gave him a critical endorsement during his 2010 Senate run. 

He also mentioned former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as someone he admires.

"Jeb Bush is another guy I admire for his ability to analyze issues and call them for what they are."

The high-profile interview with GQ is sure to fuel talk that Rubio is positioning himself for a presidential run in 2016. Many expect him to take a lead role as Republicans try to work toward a deal on immigration reform and win back Hispanic voters who went overwhelmingly for President Obama in the election.

Rubio addressed the Republican strategy of trying to deny the president a second term by obstructing his agenda, and suggested he never saw that as a winning strategy for the party.

"I don't know how many people bought into that. There were some in politics who believed that all you had to do was be the alternative to the incumbent and you would win, but I never believed in that," Rubio said. "I've always believed that you were better on offense than you were on defense. You were much better being for something than against someone."

Rubio said Republicans have failed to effectively communicate to the public what they stand for.

"I think the bigger challenge that we face, and that we continue to face, is that we have not done a good enough job of communicating to people what conservatism is," Rubio said. "In fact, we've allowed a myth to take hold in the minds of some that conservatism is about helping the people who have 'made it' and not about helping the people who are trying to make it.

"I think we have a very compelling argument, which happens to be true: the people who have made it, billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations, they may not like big government, but they can afford to deal with it. They can hire the best lawyers in America and try to figure out the loopholes and the best lobbyists to create them. In fact, they use big government to their advantage. They'll have regulations and rules written to hurt their competition."

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