Reid calls on Rubio to resign

[Historic NY]

Source: Politico

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid tore into Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday, calling on the Florida Republican and 2016 presidential contender to resign his Senate seat as he racks up no-shows on his voting record while campaigning for the White House.

“Why shouldn’t he [resign]? He hates the Senate,” Reid said in an interview with POLITICO on Thursday. “Why should the taxpayers of this country and people of Florida put up with having only one senator? Doesn’t seem fair to me.”

Rubio’s opponents – both Democrats and Republicans – have attacked the senator for his declining attendance record. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of Rubio’s home-state newspapers, has called on Rubio to give up his seat, and Jeb Bush also seized on Rubio’s missed votes during Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate – although the former Florida governor’s attacks were largely seen as having backfired.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/senate-reid-rubio-215363#ixzz3pzU2daFY


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/senate-reid-rubio-215363

[BootinUp]

1. Rip him a new one Harry! Lol. nt

[irisblue]

2. go Harry! nt

[Iliyah]

3. Rubio has been missing the Senate for a long period of time

and they are just now realizing it. LOL. Can you image him as President, oh my. What a turkey.

[maxsolomon]

4. Tee-hee!

Keep sniping at him, Harry!

BTW, he'll never ever ever ever leave the Senate voluntarily.

[leftieNanner]

5. Oh, I'm gonna miss Harry!

Never realized what a tough guy he is until things started to get WEIRD. Do not let that soft voice fool you into dismissing him. Let's hope Nevada finds a good Dem to replace him. I hear Sharon Angle is thinking of running again...... HAHAHAHAHA. Oh wait. I thought Joni Ernst was funny too. And Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. Nobody would EVER elect those idiots.

[mcar]

6. Go Harry!

[Mendocino]

7. Poor Marco can't help it

that he's always out in the hall at the drinking fountain when it's his turn to vote.

[charlyvi]

11. He does seem to have a problem with hydration

LOL!

[charlyvi]

8. Took him to the woodshed, he did.

Harry Reid is a political genius with superlative timing. The twists, turns, whirlpools and political mazes his mind easily navigates to undermine and discredit his opposition is truly scary! Like when he endorsed Ryan for Speaker........the endorsement from Hell if you are Paul Ryan. God, I'm going to miss that man!

[Blue_Adept]

9. The rules of decorum...

The senate does still maintain a lot of that elder statesman stuff, but once a particular bandage is pulled away and the scab is visible, they'll go to burn it off as quickly as they can.

This will be an interesting area to watch. It's surprising to see Reid go this route, but he's also feeling pretty free at the moment about a lot of things.

[yellowdogintexas]

31. Like the President, he has a way with the 3D chessboard

Also like the president, he has no more damns left to give.

It has to be a real sense of freedom for Harry; I expect to hear more of same until his replacement is sworn in.

[onenote]

10. I'm not sure what the point of this is.

Let the repubs fight amongst themselves. The historical record doesn't really put a Democrat in the best of positions to make this argument. (The historical record being that Democrats running for their party's nomination don't have the most stellar attendance records either). By jumping in like this, Reid only invites scrutiny of those candidate's records.

Sometimes it's better just to stand back and let the other side shoot at themselves.

[Redford]

21. It worked out well for the current President

Harry is so despised by the right his criticism of the waterboy will only help Rubio

[SDjack]

27. Correct. And when your opponent is making a mistake, your best play

is to offer NO corrective advice.

[Martin Eden]

12. On the other hand ...

... maybe Reid should encourage all Republican senators as well as House members to stop showing up for votes.

[Myrina]

32. ^^ this ^^

Nt

[ashling]

13. Frankly, the more non-voting, no show Republican senators the better

Perfectly demonstrates their attitude toward governing and their contempt for the people.

[Fritz Walter]

14. Just one tiny, little flaw here

If Rubio resigns, the governor of Florida -- Rick Scott, a known crook and opportunist -- gets to appoint his fill-in.

After Scott bought his last election, the buzz around the Sunshine State was that Slick Rick had his eyes on a senate seat as the next jewel in his political crown. So he would have a couple of options: name a seat-warmer like George LeMieux until Scott finishes his disastrous term as governor, or resign that position and slide into the senate seat, where he'd have the advantage of incumbency (not to mention his ill-gotten vast wealth).

It's yet another case of the devil you know versus the devil only a few of us know.

[24601]

15. Does anyone know Rubio's vote attendance compared to Senator Obama's in 2007-2008? If it was

comparable and Reid didn't call for Senator Obama's resignation, than it's just a partisan hack attack? When your opponents are tearing into each other, it's a great opportunity to STFU and smile. Mouth off and you change the dynamic, just proving that you and the media are in league with each other.

[blm]

16. That'd be a neat trick, but, for the FACT that corpmedia is predominantly RightWing.

Proving? I'd love to see the facts that you THINK back you up on that RW propaganda.

[karynnj]

17. It is partisan, but Rubio is out in January 2017 anyway because he is not running for re-election.

[BlueStater]

24. Did Obama ever display the same sort of disdain for his job as Marco does?

Plus, the little shit already had one of the worst attendance records in Congress even before he started running for president.

[onenote]

28. Yes.And Rubio's record is marginally better than Obama's

and much better than Kerry's.

Govtrack.us is a source for information on missed votes by quarter for current and former members of Congress.

If you look at the missed vote records for Kerry and Obama for 2003 and 2007, Kerry missed 64 percent of the votes (peaking at missing 94.4 percent of the votes in the third quarter of 2003). Obama's record during the comparable time frame was better but not particularly good: he missed 37.5 percent of the votes in 2007 (peaking at 89.4 percent missed in the third quarter). Rubio, from January 2015 to date (roughly one month into the third quarter), has missed 34 percent.

Which is why Reid's move seems ill-advised.

[moonscape]

34. Oh, that does seem like backfire material ... n/t

[MBS]

18. Give him hell, Harry!

[itsrobert]

19. Rubio seems like a slimy John Edwards

without the intellect.

[madville]

20. This line of attack is interesting

Since Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Kerry all missed many more votes than Rubio has so far.

I'm thinking that it will minimal affect in the primaries and won't be able to be used at all against Hillary if Rubio is her opponent since she missed something like 85% of her votes in 2008, Rubio is at around 50% right now.

[IronLionZion]

22. Republicans always told us government is wasteful and inefficient

then they get elected and prove it! The election is an entire year away and this piece of shit has already checked out.

What did Donald Trump always say on his show? You're fired!

[Cha]

23. Good on Harry... Mahalo Historic!

[riversedge]

25. Go Harry!!

[MADem]

26. Give him hell, Harry!

Get him on the ropes!

Get him so nervous that he's parched and grabbing for a water bottle!!!




GLUG, Marco.....GLUG!!!!!!

[question everything]

33. Really hypocrisy

I don't think that Rubio has missed more than Obama, Clinton, Dodd and Biden in 2007 and 2008.

And, of course, Ted Kennedy missed all of 2009 until his death. But no one called on him to resign, when the 60 majority was hanging by a thread.