Goodbye to Senator Rubio

“The people of Florida will be losing an important leader, and conservatives should be thankful for his service” – God Paul did you miss the boat on this one.

There is a rather strange phenomena regarding Marco Rubio, as the fresh faced new up and comer to politics that just doesn’t fit the facts. Rubio was and is a well known local player out of Miami (Miami-Dade Metro) since the late 1990’s and served in the Florida legislature for over ten years, ending up as speaker (a very rapid and unusual rise). He may have been a fresh face on the national scene but that was certainly not the case in the state in which I grew up and retain many close friends.

Ask yourself why the native son, born and raised in Greater Miami, attending South Miami High School and later University of Miami law school, when up against a must win presidential primary in his home state could NOT carry a single county in the entire state except Miami-Dade in the south. This rejection was stunning but the reality is if not for reinventing himself as a non-vetted Tea Party Movement candidate (they were really bad at this) while far down in the polls, running against Charlie Crist, his political career was largely done and in tatters from repeated accusations of misconduct and financial irregularities during his time in state office. His tenure in the Tallahassee legislature from 2000 to 2009 dovetails with what many call the golden age of corruption in Sunshine State politics culminating in the FBI and the IRS descending on Florida in 2010 to investigate how Florida Republican officials and top pols, including Rubio, used their state party credit cards. Many were prosecuted and while Rubio was on his way out the State House door and was not finally charged he was never in the end required to release his credit card records from 2005 to 2007. Frankly he dodged a bullet. This did not involve minor discrepancies but tens of thousands of dollars of misappropriated state funds.

During his stint in the state house, Rubio also started two political action committees that together took in about $600,000 over a period of less than three years and often made very questionable payments including one example of $14,000 for “couriers” that were in effect three relatives of Rubio’s who were doing unspecified political work around the state. One of these committees, Floridians for Conservative Leadership, established to support state and local candidates, following an investigation by the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times revealed that in 2010, the committee spent nearly $150,000 on administrative and operating costs and only $2,000 in actual candidate contributions. Again credit card expenses were an issue with charges as high as $50,000 with little to no information about how the money was actually spent.

One of Rubio’s closest friends, David Rivera, a state representative who became a Representative of the US Congress (FL 25th District 2011–2013), and is often referred to in Florida as one of it’s most corrupt politicians, worked closely with him in the legislature to secure his speakership, as well as shared a Tallahassee residence with him, while the state legislature was in session, was under investigation for years by state and federal officials for an exhaustive list of alleged misuses of political money. One example, investigators suspected that Rivera had accepted more than $500,000 in payments from the owner of a Miami dog track for Rivera’s help on a local initiative to allow slot machines at gambling sites. Rivera slipped off the hook in 2012 after an 18-month investigation, with authorities citing the statute of limitations and Florida’s lax campaign finance laws. His stint in the US House was though was over.

This was and is Marco Rubio’s political world in his home base in Florida. Floridians and Rubio understand what an apparent significant number of Washington politicians didn’t that he had little to no political future in Florida and was facing a significant challenge for any re-election effort that early on as a first term Senator he denied he was interested in pursuing regardless. He understood his political skeletons had not all been put to rest in Florida and any future re-election efforts would drag them back out into the open with the possibility of further investigations. For those that still haven’t caught the drift here the Florida voter base did not hold a very high opinion of his honesty and very questionable financial activities. Thankful for his service, it takes a long, long pause to swallow that one.

Need my hip boots.

How cavalier you skip over the ‘GANG of 8’ debacle!!! When Marco Rubio BETRAYED the Tea Party – yes spit in our eye – by joining with the Democrats/liberals in Congress to try and cram amnesty DOWN OUR THROATS!

He fooled me once, but not again! I gave him money and supported him – but under his duplicious false pretences. (And poor Marco – the useful idiot – got BURNED by his Gang of 8 brethern. Such are the vagarencies of politics.)

BTW – any and all readers who think Trump is somehow hurting the “conservative” brand – you couldn’t be MORE wrong! Marco Rubio flushed that word down the toilet.

Sorry to read this. I voted for him in the Va. primary. I also liked Rand Paul. Not sure who to support now.