Marco Rubio Falls Apart When Asked Why He Has Missed The Most Votes In The Senate

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When pressed during a CNN interview about why he thinks federal workers should be fired for not doing their jobs while he has missed the most votes in the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio put his foot in his mouth and said that voting in the Senate is not important for a Senator.

In an interview that aired on CNN’s State of the Union, Jamie Gangel pointed out to Rubio that other Senators running for president (Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders) have only missed ten votes while the Senator from Florida has missed 59.

Rubio answered, “Well, I can tell you that in the history of presidential politics when they’ve been running for politics in the Senate, they’ve missed votes.”

Sen. Rubio tried to explain away his absences by arguing that the Senate votes don’t mean anything, “A lot of these votes don’t mean anything. They’re not going to pass, and even if they did, the President would veto them.”

Gangel reminded Rubio of his comments on the Senate floor that federal workers who aren’t performing should be fired, “Someone might say you’re not showing up. You’re not doing your job by voting.”

Caught in his hypocrisy, Rubio tried to dig his way out, “Not true. Because voting is not the most important part of the job. The most important thing that a Senator does is constituent services. ”

Gangel stopped him, “Wait a minute. Votes aren’t important. Intelligence Committee hearing aren’t important.”

Rubio was doomed by this point, “We do all the intelligence briefings. I was just there this Tuesday. I got fully briefed and caught up on everything that’s happening in the world. I’m fully aware. We have a staffer that’s assigned to intelligence who gets constant briefings. I think votes,of course, are important, but unfortunately, too many of them today are not meaningful.”

The main purpose of a Senator is to represent the people of his/her state in the Senate. The people aren’t represented if their Senator doesn’t show up. Taxpayers are not paying Rubio a six figure salary to have a staffer handle intelligence briefings.

Once Rubio realized what he had said, he tried to backtrack, but it was too late. Marco Rubio seems to be believe that he doesn’t have to show up and do his job as a Senator because Republicans don’t have a 60 vote majority in the Senate.

Rubio avoided the pointed about his not attending committee hearings by claiming that he gets briefings. Briefings are like skipping class and borrowing a friend’s notes to get caught up on what you missed.

The Republican establishment loves Rubio’s look and bio. No one in establishment politics can figure out why he is failing. Sen. Rubio’s constant habit of self-destructing every time he opens his mouth is why his presidential campaign is going nowhere fast.

Rubio wants to be in the Senate so that he can run for president, but he appears to have no interest in doing his job as a Senator. Marco Rubio’s lack of commitment to the people who elected to serve him is the reason he doesn’t deserve to be in the Senate, much less be considered a serious contender for the White House.
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Source: http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/25/marco-rubio-falls-asked-missed-votes-senate.html
 
His lips were moving and sounds were coming out, but what he was really thinking:

 
I can't stand Rubio, but he's probably correct here with his comments. I don't see any problem or scandal here (though I do wonder if "constituent services" is simply another term for "fundraising").
 
EBounding said:
Has anyone here ever requested "constituent services" from their congresscritter? What did you ask for?
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I haven't but one of the reasons Ron Paul repeatedly won his seat was supposedly excellent constituent services. That was a claim made often by people that would have loved to beat him in an election.
 
erowe1 said:
Is he wrong though? Do these votes he missed really matter?
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for the result of the legislative outcome - less so, unless it's a close vote

for expressing his legislative positions - absolutely, it's all that counts, and that matters to constituents, presidential primary voters, think tanks/report cards, lobbyists, etc. Otherwise, he's just a squish.
 
Why doesn't Rubio just resign now since he isn't even running for reelection?
 
It doesn't even matter if he's right or wrong. It still makes him look like a hypocritical moron especially following his comment about firing federal employees and the fact that Rand Paul has a near perfect voting attendance.

I don't think he's entirely right either though. Even if the vote won't make a difference in the outcome (which could be argued is true for any one vote on a bill that ends up passing or failing by more than 1 vote), the act of voting puts the politician on record, which is important.
 
probably best not to pound this too much tho since it can be turned around on Rand even tho he hasn't missed that many votes, they're already trying to run with the narrative
 
We have a staffer that’s assigned to intelligence who gets constant briefings.
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There you go. Rubio doesn't need to know anything. He has a (neoconservative) staffer who tells him everything he needs to know and say.
 
Ron Paul missed a lot of votes while he was running for president too.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box...n-paul-has-missed-92-percent-of-votes-in-2012

Focused on presidential bid, Ron Paul has missed 92 percent of votes in 2012

<snip>

The Hill reported last July that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) had missed about 37 percent of votes in the House since launching her presidential bid. At that time, Paul had missed only 8 percent of the votes since announcing his White House run in mid-May.

Since then, his absenteeism rate has soared. In 2012, Paul has missed 136 votes while casting only 15.

According to GovTrack.us, Paul has missed 91.8 percent of roll call votes for the first quarter of 2012, the highest in his career. He went long stretches this year without setting foot on the House floor and then would show up to vote on a high-profile bill before jetting off again.

During the longest of these stretches, from Jan. 19 to Feb. 27, he was absent for 69 votes in a row. Paul last voted on March 29 on two amendments to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget. He missed the final vote on passage, however.

“In general, legislators try to keep their participation rates exceedingly high, since no one wants a challenger running an ad against him/her for missing votes,” said Sarah Binder, professor of political science at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “But Rep. Paul’s running for president and he’s giving up his House seat, so I doubt he’s worried about being attacked for failing to show up for work in the House.”

In 2008, Paul had to fend off a primary challenger who accused the lawmaker of not focusing on his Texas district.
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More at link.
 
Rubio always sounds like a Moron. I really can't decide whether the voices of Cruz or Rubio makes me cringe more.

I can listen to everyone else just fine, even Lindsey.
 
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