It takes hubris, stupidity, or both to say "elect me, but I can't promise I'll do the job, much less show up," but that's pretty much the only campaign promise Marco Rubio is making in his run for reelection.
He rarely shows up for work in the Senate now and has an empty record to prove it, including a failed run for higher office. Now he's promising more of the same.
Marco Rubio on Monday refused to commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate should he win reelection. And the former Republican presidential candidate subtly suggested that if he ran for the White House again, he would be prepared to leave politics behind if he lost.
“No one can make that commitment because you don’t know what the future’s gonna hold in your life personally or politically,” the Florida senator told CNN on Monday, opening the door for a presidential run when asked if he could commit to a full Senate term before seeminglyslamming it shut in the next breath.
“I can commit to you this, and that is that if I am running to be a U.S. senator, I am fully prepared to allow the U.S. Senate to be the last political office I ever hold,” he said.
Promises, promises.
We've heard that before, and yet Rubio is still here, running for reelection as a placeholder with only the goal of his future political ambitions in mind.
I previously made the case for voters to send Rubio packing here, but Rubio has made a pretty good case for that himself.
Why wait to let another partially served Senate term with no accomplishments be the last political office Marco Rubio holds? We can just do that now and save him the "trouble" of showing up every once in a while for the job he despises in the first place.
Donald Trump has a new ad airing in Florida targeting the economy. However, as with everything else Trump does and says, all is not as it seems.
As Steve Benen points out, it pays to read the fine print, because Trump's ad touts a tax plan he actually doesn't support:
By and large, it’s pretty much a boilerplate message we’d expect from any GOP candidate in any election cycle, effectively arguing, “Democrats will raise taxes; I’ll cut them; and tax cuts create prosperity.” It’s nothing Americans haven’t heard before.
But what I found notable about the ad was the fine print.
To the Trump campaign’s credit, the commercial includes footnotes of sorts for many of its core claims. For example, at the 15-second mark, when the narrator says “working families get tax relief” in Trump’s America, there’s small text at the bottom that reads, “A Pro-Growth Tax Code For All Americans, GOP: A Better Way, 6/24/16.”
Why does that matter? Because “A Pro-Growth Tax Code For All Americans, GOP: A Better Way, 6/24/16” is House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) tax plan, not Donald Trump’s. They’re actually pretty different, and include their own marginal rates, which makes it odd for Trump to cite the House GOP’s plan as if it were his own.
A couple of seconds later, the same ad includes fine print that reads, “ ‘Details and analysis of the 2016 House Republican Tax Reform Plan,’ Tax Foundation, 7/15/16.” And while I’d take issue with the center-right Tax Foundation’s analysis of Ryan’s plan, the point is, again, that Trump has a different plan.
At the 19-second mark, note that the fine print reads, “ ‘Details and analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan, Tax Foundation, 9/29/15.” And while that’s certainly closer to being applicable, what the ad doesn’t mention is that Trump has since abandoned that tax plan, unveiling a new blueprint three weeks ago.
Benen goes on to point out that while the GOP's tax plan and the Trump tax plan have very different rates, camp Trump doesn't seem to understand that.
Or perhaps they just don't care as long as the voters don't understand that either?
When it comes to Florida, a large segment of voters need a series of interventions to break the hold between them and the Republicans they keep electing and forcing on the rest of us. One of the most obvious should also be the easiest.
Marco Rubio.
I say "should" because Rubio himself has made the argument for tossing him to the curb a no-brainer.
For starters, he says he hates the job, and he claims that's because of gridlock and the inability to get anything done. But no one has more expertise at getting nothing done than Rubio. After all, he has the highest absentee record in the Senate. And it's not like it's a rigorous schedule:
Sure, he says he hates the job, but it's more likely he just hates working. After all, who among us gets this much time off and still gets a nice paycheck every week? He only has 23 work days left before the general election according to this schedule, and given his history of being too busy running for office to show up, what are the chances he'll make an appearance in Washington for any of them? With this kind of schedule, U.S. Senator's a pretty cushy job. I'm guessing part of the reason he flip-flopped on another run at the seat is because he didn't get a better offer from the revolving door sector where he might have had to put in some actual effort. But another reason he jumped back in is because the GOP realized their Donald Trump dumpster fire is in danger of spreading to down ticket races, and they saw Marco Rubio as an easy win. Why? Because Florida voters seem to have a sick form of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to voting against their own self interest time and time again. Worse, the GOP thinks it's an easy win in spite of the fact that Rubio himself supports their spontaneous combustion presidential candidate, because Florida voters. That's how bad it is.
That's why I say it's high time for an intervention, and Rubio is the easiest place to start.
To begin with, if anyone needs reasons to force Rubio to earn a paycheck elsewhere, I've previously documented a handy guide here and here. But those were merely the dozens and dozens that I could recall at the time. There are many more. Because Rubio only shows up for work to complain in front of C-SPAN cameras, say "no," and vote against things that would help Floridians and the rest of the country, despite the fact that many are things Floridans are in favor of, like health care, clean air and water, and basic human rights.
The one thing that Rubio once took a stand over is immigration. But Rubio even flip-flopped on that and voted against his own legislation. Now he's backing Trump who began his campaign proclaiming Mexicans to be rapists and drug dealers and promising to deport "bad people" with abandon while building a magnificent imaginary wall, (today it has morphed into a "virtual wall.") all while pretending that Trump's evolving immigration ideas are perfectly normal. Go figure.
And while Republicans have blocked judicial nominations at historic levels, including the current block on a Supreme Court Justice, Rubio has done his part there too. He placed a block on a judge he himself recommended, and now claims it's because of her support for women's issues and the fact that she has the support of groups who support abortion. So the guy who voted against the Violence Against Women Act and says even women with the Zika virus should not be entitled to an abortion, will continue the GOP War On Women if reelected, not to mention continued judicial gridlock in the courts.
So while Floridans continue to work for a living, sometimes at more than one job just to make ends meet while Republicans like Marco Rubio say even minimum wage is a bridge too far, are they willing to send Rubio back to the Senate while paying him $174,000 a year, along with all his taxpayer funded perks and travel, in return for his doing absolutely nothing on their behalf?
Seriously. It's time for Florida voters to go to the ballot box and tell Marco Rubio to go find a real job.
As of this writing, there are 69 pregnant women in Florida who have tested positive for the Zika virus. The virus first turned up in a south Florida neighborhood, then spread to Miami Beach and today has spread to Pinellas County.
What have Republicans done about it? Well, very little in fact.
Mosquito control in the state immediately became a victim of Rick Scott's war on "big government" soon after he came into office in 2011 when he cut funding. (It has since been discovered that he has an undisclosed financial interest in mosquito control through his wife, just as he signed an executive order in June of this year allocating $26.2 million in state emergency funds for Zika preparedness, including “mosquito surveillance and abatement." Whether any of those funds are going to his wife's company is unknown and no one at the company is responding to questions about it.)
Since Zika became an issue, Republicans in Congress have blocked a Zika funding request from the President, who has had to use funds from elsewhere to fill the gap. Those funds are also running out, yet Congress is on a seven week vacation and there's little to indicate their stance on funding will change when they return. Still, that hasn't stopped politicians like Rick Scott, Marco Rubio and others from using GOP Zika inaction as a political football, in that they've played the blame game and kicked the excuses back at the President and Democrats anyway after they loaded a funding bill with poison pills aimed at further cuts to things like Planned Parenthood, one of the only places some women can afford access to reproductive health care.
Meanwhile, Rick Scott has "urged" pregnant women who are concerned about Zika to see their doctors. This is all well and good, except that Scott and Republicans have refused to expand Medicaid in Florida, have constructed hurdles to health care access in general, and have made access to abortion difficult. Scott's also gone after Planned Parenthood along with his party. So telling women to see their doctors doesn't help much if a good bit of the population of women in Florida are unable to see a doctor or can't afford to.
Then we have Marco Rubio, the Senator who made a career out of saying "no" to most anything that would benefit his constituents. He hates his job so much that he's running for it again after failing at a primary run for higher office and apparently not getting a better offer as a lobbyist. Or he would just prefer to continue getting paid for doing nothing at all in the Senate. He too tried to pin the blame on President Obama until Zika hit his home state. Now he's out pretending that he was all about Zika funding all along and is urging his GOP colleagues to pass the funding. This is an easy thing for him to do, considering everyone knows the chance of that happening is nil, so as usual, he's just talking a good game.
And while trying to satisfy voters back home, Rubio also pretzeled in an incentive to the anti-abortion voter and donor crowd by saying that pregnant women who have contracted Zika should not get abortions, which is a sticky wicket indeed for his so-called "pro-life" cred. Rubio's also a big fan of cutting off access to health care, and considering Florida hasn't expanded Medicaid, that would leave an awful lot of women and children without health care and before, during, and after they've been hurt by the Zika virus. But Rubio's not at all concerned about that.
So here we've gone from the Republican Party doing their best to contribute to conditions favorable to Zika in Florida in the first place, to their blocking funding for Zika, to playing the blame game, and then finally sounding the alarm while knowing talk is cheap when their promises have no teeth, all the while making prevention and health care that much harder for women to gain access to.
It's just business as usual by the do-nothing GOP.
And while they continue to do nothing, or very little, Zika's not going anywhere.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women not to travel to Florida in areas where the Zika virus has been found. This comes after the virus was found to have spread to Miami Beach. The virus was previously found only in the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami:
Federal health authorities suggested Friday that pregnant women and their partners consider postponing travel to all of Miami-Dade County after Florida identified a second zone of local Zika transmission, a swath of Miami Beach that includes the popular tourist magnet of South Beach.
Pregnant women should not travel to that particular zone where the Zika virus is active, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, and “pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.”
Because of the nature of virus and its absence of symptoms and the incubation period, the C.D.C. warns that the restricted areas may not be limited to just Wynwood and Miami Beach.
But while the feds are sounding the alarm, Rick Scott, who has continued to encourage tourists to visit Florida, is trying to minimize the threat:
“We have two small areas,” he said. “One less than a mile, and we’ve already been able to reduce the footprint. We have another area now that’s 1.5 miles on Miami Beach. That’s out of a state that takes 15 hours to drive from Key West to Pensacola, so let’s put things in perspective.”
Given that until recently Scott had little interest in worrying about Zika beyond trying to somehow blame GOP Congressional inaction on President Obama, I'd trust the feds on this one.
As you'll recall, the President asked for Zika funding months ago, but instead, Republicans blocked it and are currently taking a seven week vacation while they ignore it.
Since he prefers to run government like a business, it's hardly surprising he would seek to minimize health dangers when they might cut into the bottom line of the tourism industry that cuts him some pretty hefty campaign checks on a regular basis.
Either the bubble in which Marco Rubio resides is extremely thick, Rubio is himself extremely thick, or he's shameless, doesn't care, and will say anything and do anything to win. I personally think all of the above apply.
But no matter how you look at it, this statement alone should disqualify Rubio from public office, especially when you consider the committees he currently sits on, including the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, just to name two.
Given that he sits on these committees, it's Rubio's job to be more than just "aware" of things like this. But even if he didn't, at the very least, it hardly takes a genius to Google "Paul Manafort" and "Russia" to discover an endless supply of those links between Trump's staff and Russia.
As we all know, Rubio hates his job and rarely shows up for it, just two more reasons why running for it all over again makes no sense, except for the fact that he wants the title when he takes another run for the Presidency, another office he's woefully unqualified for, especially if he plays dumb or ignores the fact that Russia and Putin may be putting their thumbs on the scale against Hillary Clinton in favor of Trump while interfering in our elections.
But Rubio has a pattern of playing dumb and flip-flopping if it's to his advantage politically, and he's shameless about doing so.
Here's just another example, which also involves Donald Trump:
If you go the the above March 1 tweet of Rubio's, which is still there, and you click on the link, this is what you'll see when you try to find out why Rubio thinks Trump is dangerous:
Oops. I guess Rubio is no longer "aware" that Trump is a dangerous man who is unqualified to be President.
Suggest your opponent be dealt with as per the Second Amendment?
Incite violence against protesters and the media?
Along with thoroughly humiliating him during the primaries, apparently these are all things Marco Rubio is perfectly willing to tolerate from Donald Trump.
“ISIS is honoring President Obama,” he said during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “He’s the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS."
“I would say the co-founder would be Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump added of Obama’s former secretary of State and his Democratic rival.
In spite of this obviously ridiculous comment, and even after many a conservative tried to help Trump walk it back, he doubled down and insisted it was true before trying to claim it was merely "sarcasm" today.
Of course, it doesn't really matter to Trump supporters, who he, Rubio, and the GOP have primed with inaccuracies to foment hate against the President for years now. After all, Trump is indeed the "founder" of the Birther movement.
Still, Rubio has jumped into the fray, apparently pretending to be the adult in the room.
There's just one problem. While trying to clean up Trump's latest mess, "Little Marco" missed a spot. See if you can find it here:
"ISIS was founded by radical jihadists, not by the president," Rubio said Thursday, according to the Naples Daily News.
Rubio, who is running for reelection in Florida, made the comment in Naples before heading to Orlando to campaign with Trump, according to the report.
That's right. Rubio made the comment as he was on his way to campaign WITH Donald Trump.
Marco Rubio, the guy who holds himself out as an expert on terrorism, will still support presidential candidate Trump in spite of the fact that he casually throws words and harebrained ideas about nuclear weapons and terrorism around just to get a reaction for his own personal amusement on the campaign trail.
When it comes to selling snake oil to the public no matter who gets hurt in the process, Donald Trump and the man he taunted as "Little Marco" really are birds of a feather.
UPDATE: Just minutes after publishing this, Trump flip-flopped again and said he wasn't being sarcastic when he said that President Obama was the founder of ISIS. Because of course he did.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio continues to support Trump anyway. Because of course he does.
Are you a member of the growing list of people who were screwed over by Donald Trump in Florida? If so, Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi would love to hear from you.
If you're a Floridian who's a Trump victim and Bondi isn't taking your calls, there's a new website to share the details with people who care and want to correct the shady and unethical business practices.
The Donald Trump Screwed Me website is a team effort by Progress Florida and American Bridge:
The website is being promoted across the state through online advertisements with an emphasis in the Tampa Bay, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm areas of the state where Trump owns property or has been connected to failed projects. Other areas in Florida are likely to have more victims of Trump’s unethical business practices because of scandals such as Trump University.
Much of Trump’s wealth and success have been at the expense of his employees and working families. His business practices are designed to benefit Donald Trump and to keep those who are hurt silent and afraid to share what really happened. Floridians deserve to know how Trump has hurt our neighbors and our state in his quest for personal gain and this new website will help victims to stand up and fight back.
We think a billionaire making a quick buck by taking advantage of hardworking Floridians should be held accountable and the DonaldTrumpScrewedMe.com website provides Floridians a way to make that happen.
Floridans have suffered enough under businessmen-turned-politicans who turn government into a for-profit enterprise. They don't need a President who does the same.
Tickets For Trump's Titanic Non-Refundable, Of Course
"Little Marco," the political opportunist who rarely shows up for work except to cash his paycheck, is losing ground in his effort to keep that Senate seat he hates.
Rubio has a marginal 3-point lead over Murphy, 48 percent to 45 percent, in the latest poll of likely voters. However, last month’s Quinnipiac poll showed Rubio ahead by 13 points, 50 percent to 37 percent. Factoring in the new poll's 3-point error-margin, the Senate race is now "too close to call," Quinnipiac said in a news release.
Perhaps Florida's Republican voters are finally waking up to the fact that Rubio hasn't done them any favors unless they prefer paying him for nothing?
Sure, that's a nice thought, but this poll suggests another big problem for Rubio, and if Rubio were the political "genius" he holds himself out to be, he would have probably seen this coming:
Quinnipiac’s assistant polling director, Peter A. Brown, suggested Trump’s struggles are hurting Rubio in Florida — just as he appears to be damaging Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania. Toomey trails his Democratic challenger, Katie McGinty, in the portion of the poll surveying likely Pennsylvania voters.
This is hardly surprising. Candidates who have tied themselves to a Trump endorsement are hurting themselves, and every day Trump says or does something worse than the last, he's an anchor that's pulling them down with him. Rubio made a bet that flip-flopping on Trump support yet again would be to his advantage to scare voters into putting him back in that Senate seat in spite of the fact that he wants it merely as a placeholder for his next race.
Rubio's an empty suit who tied himself to a louder, more empty one, and he may lose that bet.
Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”
Mr. Trump, the officials warn, “would be the most reckless president in American history.”
The letter says Mr. Trump would weaken the United States’ moral authority and questions his knowledge of and belief in the Constitution. It says he has “demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding” of the nation’s “vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values” on which American policy should be based. And it laments that “Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself.”
Despite having called Trump a maniac who should never get near the White House, much less near nuclear weapons during the primaries, Marco Rubio, who pretends to hold himself out as a foreign policy and national security expert, now fully supports and endorses Donald Trump.
