I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Republicans would have to be nuts to nominate Marco Rubio. His credit cards are probably the least of his ethical problems, but they’re enough on their own to destroy his credibility.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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If the Clintons’ many major league “ethical problems” have not been enough to destroy them, exactly why do you think Rubio’s little league problems will destroy him ?
Just askin’…
I am curious.
AG
Extend it out to the general election and it’s not a bad way for the GOP to go. Democrats will drag out all of Rubio’s somewhat recent unsavory/corrupt behaviors and that will give Republicans license to drag out all the old and newer Clinton unsavory/corrupt behaviors. Democrats will rally around the Clintons and scream “false equivalence.” Republicans will counter with “not equivalent at all” — Rubio is a piker in comparison. So, whichever side gets more mud to stick to the opponent will be persuasive to some needed portion of the Independents.
Yes!!!
That’s the way the ball runs on a muddy field.
AG
I find your certainty refreshing.
I’m Team Carson, myself.
Rubio could probably have survived having his immigration reform shot down. He’s not going to survive supporting the DREAM Act as well. Has anyone started attacking Rubio on this?
That said, even if Rubio sticks to his guns (which he won’t, having already flip-flopped) an additional scandal will cause him to sink below Bush-level. There are enough not-insane Republicans to keep Rubio as a top-tier candidate even if Carson and Trump pound him relentlessly on immigration, the problem comes when/if he has additional negatives and doesn’t have a backstop of wingnuts to buoy his numbers.
Jeb Bush might survive this after all. I bet Walker is kicking himself for not having enough cash-on-hand to last another two months.
Trump has started attacking Rubio on this.
https:/www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/03/donald-trump-turns-his-buzz-saw-towards
-marco-rubio
Na. Gah. Hapn.
In order for a scandal to do damage, the subject has to be at least conflicted (or usually, feeling guilty). Rubio, like Trump, Carson and Reagan, has not sense of shame, and so will defend attacks with sufficient vigor that they won’t matter.
Bill Clinton had a guilty conscience as he knew he had cheated on Hillary. So attacks against him on those grounds resonated — with him! Hence his “meaning of what ‘is’ is” nonsense.
Reagan intentionally violated an act of Congress and lied about it. He arranged for Iran to hold on to the US hostages so that he could get elected. He surrounded himself with crooks and charlatans but managed to believe that they were all wonderful. So with Trump, Carson…and Rubio.
Rubio is able to project a sense of betrayal when accused of wrong-doing that will be more than sufficient to ward off issues with his personal finances, etc. If Rubio falls, these financial and personal issues won’t be the reason…
Anyway, voters don’t particularly mind crooks. Bridgeport CT just elected as mayor a former mayor who recently finished 7 years in the slammer for corruption. Buddy Cianci was elected mayor of Providence after a felony conviction. These are deep blue cities, BTW.
As for the Clintons, Whitewater was a hoax and most of the mud thrown at them is bogus, but there’s plenty the opponent can work with. It remains to be seen if Rubio really has a major problem, as far as I’m concerned.
Actually, Whitewater wasn’t a hoax. It was a sleazy deal. However, Bill Clinton’s abuse of power occurred years before he was elected POTUS when he was AR governor and therefore, wasn’t a proper issue for federal investigation when he was President. Reporters couldn’t figure out Bill’s involvement with McDougal before Bill ran for POTUS because they couldn’t get their hands on enough documentation available to them and it was just complicated enough that it was entirely possible that Bill hadn’t done anything untoward. Plus at that time reporters were chasing so much sleaze in so many S&L failures that Madison fell into the “chump change” category. Silverardo and Neil Bush were a much bigger deal and Bush got away with that.
It was a larger problem for Hillary, but she wasn’t a public official; so, she was under less scrutiny and a few lies and failure to produce documentation within a timely manner, got her a pass. But others paid a big price for the GOP unfocused and relentless attacks on this matter.
The problem is when either side gives someone a pass on unethical behaviors, it’s difficult not to give someone on the other side a pass for equivalent behavior.
Whitewater was investigated for years at a cost of tens of millions and the Republicans found NOTHING actionable. Calling it a scandal is indeed a hoax.
Rubio’s actions are straight-up embezzlement – use of funds for personal purposes. Had Whitewater included anything like that Clinton would have been drummed out of office. The Republican party chose to settle rather than press charges, for a number of understandable reasons, but it was still criminal and people sit in jail for less.
how many financial frauds or in office corruption activities are “actionable” over a decade after the fact?
Basic details. Real estate purchase, no money down, allegedly passive “investors” that would collect 50% of the profits. Oh, and Clinton hired McDougal as an economic advisor as soon as he was governor. Okay — just a sleazy, get rich scheme that went south and the Clintons were completely in the dark about hos McDougal moved money around various S&Ls, including Madison that he purchased years after the investment. Although the Clintons did take tax deduction in the first two years that they were not entitled to.
And Hillary didn’t do any legal work for any questionable activities at Madison Savings. That’s why the computer billing file at the Rose Law firm was deleted in 1992.
Not unless he’s got a sexual scandal lurking.
sex scandals only hurt Democrats
In order to gain the forgiveness due sinners, it’s important to sin first. Once that’s out of the way all the good Christians can line up to vote for you.
The fake gay sex scandal to cover up a hetero affair GOPers in Michigan lost, IIRC.
The GOP years back abandoned holding any of their members as credible or accountable for anything they say or do. They will nominate Rubio without even giving it a thought and their base will vote for him for they are told to, have no doubt about that.
Seeing as how whoever will be running against either the fanged she-devil or The Socialist, I’m sure you are right. No crossover votes in 2016 no matter who the ultimate two candidates are. The election will hang on 1) base turnout and/or 2) independents. However, I think independents will be disgusted with the likely candidates and stay home, so only 1) applies.
were he a Democrat, the national media wouldn’t talk about anything else, and he’d be toast.
but the rules are different for Republicans. This does nothing to reduce his electability.
Something like that, yes. Doubly so if Hillary’s the nominee and she had a similar story to explain away. Fatal to her chances of getting elected. 24/7 CorpMedia firestorm.
And our side doesn’t do “negative campaigning” well, or at all, in recent times. We usually self-righteously take the high road attitude of trying to win solely “on the issues.” Going after the other guy, even with truthful stuff involving public actions, is considered getting in the gutter.
And if our side did try to introduce the cc abuse scandal, there would be serious pushback in the CorpMedia by the Repubs, with only Rachel Maddow’s show on Msnbc left to occasionally, politely, mention it.
I’m not sure that’s true. It was, after all, the national media that tossed Rubio’s financial “mishandling” out there in the last GOP debate. So far, it’s not resonating as a big deal with the public and Rubio isn’t a small enough fish for the media to have an interest in taking him down at this point. Rubio has enough money in a SuperPac with the promise of more to follow and that’s money for media buys and the media wants those bucks.
Now if these financial shenanigans were Paul’s or Huck’s they’d probably go after them. If it were Jeb, they wouldn’t want to push to hard; only enough to get him to loosen up with more of his SuperPac money.
Now if this were Sanders, they wouldn’t let go until they’d beaten him to a pulp. No SuperPac and TPTB don’t want him in the race after IA.
Its so refreshing to hear that Hillary and {Rubio (embezzlement and fraud), Bush (S & L fraud, voter fraud), Paul (Misogynist, racist, stupid), Trump (5 bankruptcies, hot wives) and Carson (pimping herbal remedies as a Dr)} are exactly the same.
Who says the progressives don’t ask the tough questions? The tough questions that have been investigated for 30 years by 12 congresses? The tough questions about Vince Foster and the BILLIONS of dollars the Clintons made running drugs.
right. Talk about cutting of your nose to spite your face. This crap I can get on Breitbart or RedState.
But, he went and told Mr. Ramos that, no…he’ll work with the DREAMERS…..
and, turns right around and does this..
Uh huh
Uh huh
………….
Marco Rubio’s Immigration Reversal Is Complete: He Promises To Deport Dreamers
BY ESTHER YU-HSI LEE NOV 4, 2015 3:21PM
long, long time ago, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) got on the Senate floor and made a heartwarming speech about giving millions of undocumented immigrants the chance at a pathway to citizenship before casting a decisive vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that he helped craft. As many bills do in a contentious, bicameral Congress, the bill died. Wounded from defeat, Rubio retreated from his own bill, stating that he’s learned his lesson, sharply tipping his support instead towards improving border security measures and piecemeal legislation.
Now as a Republican presidential contender in a field dominated by candidates supporting mass deportation and the end to birthright citizenship (currently a constitutional right granted to kids born on U.S. soil), Rubio wants it known that he will end the only protection that some undocumented immigrants have — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was created through executive action in 2012 by President Obama. The executive action has since granted temporary deportation relief and work authorization to as many as 680,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.
During a Young Professionals event in Manchester, New Hampshire, Rubio said that he would eventually end the DACA program, even if Congress didn’t act on a permanent legislative fix, according to at least two reporters, MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin and The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui.
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/11/04/3719376/marco-rubio-daca/
Rubio’s first flip when he abandoned his immigration legislation lost him all the non Cuban latino immigrants. Rubio has made himself a target for the Dreamers. Does he run from them like Sharron Angle? Or will he go all wingnut and be rude and crude?
Seems like we were all so sure everyone would be freaked out about all the iffy stuff Mitt Romney did, too. He wouldn’t even release more than a year or so of his taxes. Didn’t stop a sizable portion of the electorate from voting for him. It’s Okay If You’re A Republican.
The Republican are nuts.
Oh, yes. Once upon a time they weren’t. The current crew is at least 50% bat-shit nuts.
But what to do about it? Do you think that around half of the country is crazy?
I don’t think so. I think that about 20% are crazy and there are a bunch of ex-Republicans that “identify” as Independents.
I have little respect for those fence-straddlers. Back in Texas we would have said “chicken shits”.
IMO, even as we cluck about all these petty things, J. E. Bush! is undergoing intense charm schooling. There’s not much doubt about who the PTB want in the White House.
Some of us will get fooled again!
So let the good times roll.
One more reason why the ‘machine’ better settle on who they are going to back.
and this shocks folks?
Ben Carson’s Love Affair With a “Nutjob” Conspiracy Theorist
A top GOP presidential contender has embraced the dark, paranoid, and crazy worldview of a far-right pseudohistorian.
By David Corn | Tue Sep. 29, 2015 5:00 AM EDT
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and political novice near the top of the GOP presidential polls, does not spend much time and energy promoting specific policy stances. He has soared to a statistical tie with Donald Trump by emphasizing his outsider status and calling to revive America, deploying general right-wing rhetoric that resonates with social conservatives. At the recent Republican debate, he said, “The thing that is probably most important is having a brain.” But he has provided one important clue as to his fundamental political worldview, by repeatedly endorsing a far-right conspiracy theorist named W. Cleon Skousen, who was characterized in 2007 by the conservative National Review as an “all-around nutjob.” Skousen came to prominence in the 1950s as a virulent anti-Communist crusader; he later claimed that a global cabal of bankers controlled the world from behind the scenes, and he once wrote a book that referred to the “blessings of slavery.”
Carson swears by Skousen, who died in 2006. In a July 2014 interview, Carson contended that Marxist forces had been using liberals and the mainstream media to undermine the United States. His source: Skousen. “There is a book called The Naked Communist,” he said. “It was written in 1958. Cleon Skousen lays out the whole agenda, including the importance of getting people into important positions in the mainstream media so they can help drive the agenda. Well, that’s what’s going on now.” Four months later, while being interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox News, Carson denounced unnamed Marxists who were presently seeking to destroy American society: “There was a guy who was a former CIA agent by the name of Cleon Skousen who wrote a book in 1958 called The Naked Communist, and it laid out the whole agenda. You would think by reading it that it was written last year–showing what they’re trying to do to American families, what they’re trying to do to our Judeo-Christian faith, what they’re doing to morality.” (Skousen had been an FBI employee–not a CIA officer–and mainly engaged in administrative and clerical duties; later he was a professor at Brigham Young University and police chief of Salt Lake City.) And the most recent edition of this Skousen book boasts Carson’s endorsement on the front cover: “The Naked Communist lays out the whole progressive plan. It is unbelievable how fast it has been achieved.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/ben-carson-conspiracy-theory-cleon-skousen
Omigod! That is so 1950! Is he channeling J. Edgar? Eisenhower was part of this Communist Conspiracy, right?
I might believe the international banking cabal, at least in the Western world. But it wouldn’t be as cozy as presented. It would be (if it exists) more like the Roman Senate, a group of rich patricians who act in concert on actions threatening their control, but bitterly infighting among themselves for power and wealth. But I think Carson will next start talking about the international Jewish conspiracy and the gnomes of Zurich.
This nutjob belongs on a street corner in Greenwich Village, not on a ballot.
And Yes! TRUMP is a more serious candidate! Carson belongs in a rubber room.
It’s also been revealed that Dr Ben, in a 1998 speech at a church, said the pyramids in Egypt were built to store grain, and that he doesn’t believe the “scientists” who say they were built by space aliens.
Laughable nutty stuff on several counts.
This should provide more fodder for Trump.
Dr Ben has some scary strange beliefs.
I worked for many years in an office at a large public university. For my last few years there, I was in charge of buying stuff for the office–office supplies, conference registration, whatever. I had a credit card to use for this. When I bought something with the card, before the University would pay the bill, I had to go to a web site and click the “Yes, this is a legit purchase” box, and my boss had to go the web site and click the box, too. So my boss always knew what I was buying and the university wouldn’t pay until the boss OK’ed it.
How come the Florida Republicans didn’t have such a system? If they’d had, somebody in the Florida GOP main office would have said, “Hey, Marco. What’s with the flooring and airline tickets to your family reunion? You must have used the wrong card. We’re not paying for this.”
It seems that a public university had a better system to avoid personal spending with employer credit cards that the Florida GOP.
Could be poor management, maybe.
Alternatively, maybe Florida GOP did not mind that kind of thing as much.