A Rare Sighting Of The Rubio
If you blinked, you likely missed him, but Marco Rubio took a break from campaigning, groveling for money, and interviews on FOX yesterday to show up for a vote in Washington.
Just kidding about the FOX interviews. He still did one, because of course, but more about that in a minute.
Rubio showed up to vote on an immigration related bill, and if you're thinking it was a newfound effort of outreach on Rubio's part, you will be disappointed. No sir. Rubio is still firmly in the "pull up the ladder behind you and then burn it just in case" camp, and he proved himself again to the white bigot voters yesterday by voting in favor of a "Sanctuary Cities" bill that would block funding from certain cities that don't deport undocumented immigrants fast enough for Marco's liking.
“For Marco Rubio to show up for this particular vote as a son of immigrants is distressing,” said House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra on a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee. “He projects that he came from an immigrant family and yet votes to harm immigrants who are trying to participate civically with police departments and report crimes knowing that they won’t be turned in for being undocumented.”
“Marco Rubio’s parents immigrated to the United States with documents, I assume,” said Rep. Grijalva, who called the Vitter bill a “Donald Trump Bill.”
“If he succeeds [in getting the bill passed], women are particularly vulnerable to violence due to their undocumented status. What sanctuary cities are doing is allowing victims of domestic violence and witnesses who see crime to come forward and report the situation, to tell the police, with the key assurance that their immigration status will not condemn them,” Grijalva said, who noted that sheriff deputies take a sympathetic view to the immigration of undocumented immigrants in most Arizona communities, except in Maricopa County.
Not only should we not be surprised by his stance against undocumented immigrants, but also not surprised he cares even less about victims of domestic violence. After all, Rubio has also voted against the Violence Against Women Act twice for absurd reasons, but that's Marco for you.
Rubio's absurdities didn't end there. Next on his hypocritical agenda was Veterans Affairs. If you thought this was an effort to help veterans, wrong again. Far from it. It was another example of Rubio doing what he does best, saying one thing while meaning another entirely. Worse, the argument he chose to say it with was so deep in a lack of self awareness that it was worthy of The Onion:
"This should actually be the rule in the entire government," the Florida senator said. "If you're not doing your job, you should be fired."
Rubio sought unanimous approval for legislation that would give Veterans Affairs officials more power to demote or remove employees. Republicans have pushed the measure in the wake of a scandal over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records covering up the waits.
Rubio took advantage of his brief time in the Senate to argue for the veterans' bill, saying Veterans Affairs officials who were doing their jobs would be better served by the legislation.
"It isn't fair to them that there are people on the payroll taking up seats, taking up slots, taking up money and taking up time that aren't doing their jobs and they literally cannot be fired," Rubio said.
Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.
According to Rubio, why is Rubio not demanding he be fired since he is taking up a seat, a slot, money, and time for not doing his job? Oh that's right, because Rubio cannot be fired. Of course, Rubio has one up on those he would call slackers in the VA. Rubio can run around the country mingling taxpayer money and his campaign funds without anyone knowing the difference if he feels like it. (More on that below.)
After you get past his hypocrisy, you're left with the rest of what he was saying. His answer to "help" veterans who are waiting for care is to just fire more VA employees. In other words, those lines aren't nearly long enough for Rubio yet. Better yet, the longer those lines, the better the talking points for Rubio and his party when they try to swoop in and privatize the VA as per the Koch brothers plan. Because what could be more patriotic than forcing veterans to wait longer now so they can pay more for less care later on if Rubio and the GOP are successful?
But getting back to the commingling of funds and those FOX interviews. It seems Rubio may have violated ethics rules yesterday as well when he made a plea for campaign donations on the air:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) may have just violated ethics rules that prohibit soliciting campaign funds while on Senate property.
Rubio gave an interview to Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Tuesday, speaking from the Russell Senate Office Building. When asked about lagging behind some of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, the senator attempted to tout the strength of his fundraising.
In doing so, however, Rubio made a direct appeal for donations.
"I knew we wouldn't be the leading fundraiser in this race, because we are not the top choice of the entrenched political establishment," Rubio told Cavuto. "But I’m confident we have the resources and continue to build the resources to be able to communicate our message. And obviously if somebody watching this program wants to help us, they should go to marcorubio.com and chip in."
According to Senate ethics rules, "Senate Members and staff may not receive or solicit campaign contributions in any federal building."
Is this a firing offense for Sen. Slacker? Maybe not, but the above piece goes on to point out "any of Rubio's opponents could file a complaint about the interview." Anyone out there listening? Jeb? Trump? Anyone else riding in the clown bus want to jump in here? Now's your chance.
Naturally, Rubio had no comment on the potential ethics violation. He was probably too busy fleeing Washington for a meeting with Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers, the only real "constituents" he has, in his mind.
Finally, one more item from the Rubio just isn't very bright files. Last week, NBC, the network who famously "cut ties" (wink, wink) with Donald Trump after he declared all but a select few Mexicans were rapists and drug dealers, announced that Trump would host an upcoming SNL. (Oh shameless profits, NBC just can't quit you!) This angered the Hispanic community, and rightfully so, and many among them have launched petition drives, and called for boycotts and protests against the network, demanding that it disinvite he who wants to make America great again with such slurs, and policies like the one Rubio favors above on the deportation of brown people.
Well, Rubio had some thoughts on those protests in his possibly unethical FOX interview. Can you guess what they were? I'll bet you can.
He dismissed them, and in one of his dumbest statements yet:
Rubio appeared on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Fox News and had some advice for those who wanted to protest his Republican presidential rival’s appearance.
“Don’t watch the show,” Rubio said. “I mean, if you don’t like some show that he’s on, then they should turn the channel off and not watch it. It’s a free country. I don’t agree with everything Donald Trump says. I don’t’ agree with everything the other side says either, but if you don’t like it, don’t watch the show. It’s on at 11:35 on Saturday nights and there are plenty of other things you can watch or you can just go to bed early.”
Bless his sanctimonious, dimwitted little heart. He doesn't understand what the word "protest" means? Did he assume they were planning to protest while watching the show? It's either that or he's grasping in desperation for anything that gains him attention for going after Trump.
Maybe Trump should give him that attention he's seeking. I hear there's a potential ethics violation floating around out there....
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