The Weekly Standard's cover story on Florida Senator-elect Marco Rubio is breathless and laudatory, right down to the description of Rubio's wife, Jeanette. ("A stunning former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who looks like she just walked off the field despite having given birth to four kids in the last ten years.") The thesis is that Rubio is a different kind of Republican, right down to his taste in pre-debate music, which is more Biggie Smalls than Brahms. Explains Stephen L. Hayes:

I asked two of Rubio’s top aides—Albert Martinez, who handled communications for Rubio during his rise in Florida politics and served as a consultant on the Senate race, and Alex Burgos, the communications director on the Senate campaign—what Rubio listened to in order to get himself in the right frame of mind for such a big moment. Burgos guessed it was probably Tupac. Martinez thought maybe NWA. Rubio, 39, like so many men his age, is a closet fan of gangsta rap.

Martinez picked up the iPod, glanced at the last tune played, and shook his head. “I don’t believe this,” he said, laughing. It wasn’t gangsta rap, but club music. Rubio, who had spent three hours in debate prep the previous afternoon, had been gathering his final pre-debate thoughts to “Sexy Bitch,” by French DJ David Guetta and rapper Akon.

Although as we've learned this election cycle, the GOP's hip-hop caucus is more influential than one would think. Can talk of a Rubio-RZA dream ticket be far off?

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Ray Gustini