Teabagger Marco Rubio, who’s looking like a lock to win the Florida Republican primary against Charlie Crist, has some explaining to do:
Rubio billed the party for more than $100,000 during the two years he served as House speaker, according to credit card statements obtained by The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. The charges included repairs to the family minivan, grocery bills, plane tickets for his wife, and purchases from retailers ranging from a wine store near his home to Apple’s on-line store. Rubio also charged the party for dozens of meals during the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee, even though he received taxpayer subsidies for his meals.
Rubio is now the target of an IRS investigation. I’m sure this will turn out fine, since the IRS isn’t part of the constitution, and James Madison believed that politicians can use their party American Express card to fix dents in the family minivan.
(via TPM)
scav
Duck House! Duck House! Duck House!
OK, well my real favorite might actually be the moat cleaning.
beltane
My kitchen needs a remodeling. Maybe I should become a Republican so they will pay for it. Marble countertops sound nice.
Lisa K.
Which will only endear him more to his base.
Used to be, even the right cared if you were a crook. Now look at who their heroes are…
MikeJ
Did he get his moat cleaned?
Damn you scav, editing while I’m posting.
Admiral_Komack
Palin/Rubio 2012
“We’ll rob you blind…uh, Wolverines!”
mr. whipple
Wow.
He shoulda paid for that stuff in chickens.
MattF
The irony meter has just exploded.
Robertdsc-iphone
@Admiral_Komack:
LOL!
Punchy
The IRS is a liberal PAC hell-bent on persecuting Baggers. Then watch as 39% of his supporters believe that wholeheartedly.
Crashman
Surprised be didn’t just pay for everything in chickens… Would have totally avoided this kind of mess.
Mike in NC
Where’s the problem here? Just followin’ the Michael
StealSteele handbook.dmsilev
Apple? Aren’t all Apple buyers hippies who sit in coffeeshops swilling lattes and leeching off the free WiFi instead of doing Real Productive Work?
dms, typing this on his Mac…
Crashman
@mr. whipple: Whoops, you beat me to it.
scav
@MikeJ: oops, sorry! At least this way people will know our comments are at least a folie à deux and not entirely random.
Violet
All those things he bought are still in the belly of the plane.
JGabriel
In other (imaginary) news, Charlie Crist announced his departure from the GOP today, and that he would run for Senate as an independent, saying, “Rubio is the perfect Republican nominee. They can have him.”
.
burnspbesq
@dmsilev:
“Apple? Aren’t all Apple buyers hippies who sit in coffeeshops swilling lattes and leeching off the free WiFi instead of doing Real Productive Work?”
Some of us are fighting the good fight against our companies IT trolls so that we can be more productive by using the best tools available.
Bill E Pilgrim
@mr. whipple:
Well done.
With all the slapstick comedy on the GOP side, I have a question: if you pay for something in rubber chickens, does that mean the check bounces?
JGabriel
@Lisa K.:
To be accurate, they cared if you got caught. Somewhere around circa 1973, they realized they weren’t, on average, bright enough to require that as a criteria.
.
Bob L
@burnspbesq:
That is impossible, IT Trolls are professionals at reducing productivity threw technology. Only hippies look for positive results! Wolverines!
JGabriel
@mr. whipple: Damn, nicely played.
.
Violet
@Lisa K.:
Conservatives aren’t crooks. If someone who claims to be a conservative gets caught, they’re not “real conservatives.” See how easy that is?
anonymous
Don’t mess with Charlie.
zhak
It’s really true that none of this will matter to the Republicans. First, the “brain trust” will assume that that Rubio scamp was pulling a fast one & getting away with shit, and that’ll just elevate him in their eyes. Second, the brainless followers will assume that it’s all a liberal plot to discredit a shining beacon of Republican light.
burnspbesq
Shocking, I tell you.
” In other words, on the most pressing national disputes of our day—from campaign finance to health care reform and financial reform—conservatives are embracing the very definition of judicial activism they spent the past 40 years denouncing, asking unelected judges to reverse their defeats in the political arena and all the while redefining this strategy as judicial restraint.”
Well, maybe not so shocking.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-battle-over-the-court
cleek
Rubio is being unfairly persecuted by Obama’s jackbooted thugs at the IRS, because of his conservative beliefs and because Obama just can’t tolerate the fact that his gay RINO-buddy is being rejected by Florida’s Real Americans!
/asshole
JGabriel
Speaking of Teabaggers & Grifters, Palin has a new fan club, Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, who have made their home at JewsForSarah.com.
No, it’s not a parody.
.
JGabriel
@zhak:
I’m always mildly flabbergasted by this example of GOP logic, though I know it to be a common trope: how does “getting caught” = “getting away with it”?
Just makes no damn sense.
.
Lolis
It is true, Republicans seem to be all in with crooks these days. A Republican Cogressional staffer explained to me why health care reform was bad by saying that hospitals and doctors defraud Medicare. My response was well why don’t you do something about that? Oh, the hospitals and doctors are just trying to make money. Somehow he said the fraud was the fault of the government. We are dealing with people who probably secretly admire Bernie Madoff for being such a good capitalist.
PeakVT
Which will only endear him more to his base.
But also piss off swing voters, which will be a big plus if Crist doesn’t jump ship and goes down in the primary.
The Moar You Know
Rubio is lucky. In any other state but Florida, the teabaggerati would be screaming for him to be deported to his country of origin.
But I guess the primary battle that’s not going to happen answers my question about what Republicans find more threatening, Mexicans or homosexuals.
The Grand Panjandrum
At least the guy at the RNC got a lesbian bondage show out of his “investment” of party funds. Sheesh, Rubio is a real amateur. Either that or we are about to find out he has a secret stash of wetsuits and dildoes stashed somewhere.
The Moar You Know
@PeakVT: Crist is jumping ship; his veto of Measure 6 made that very clear.
He’ll be the Lieberman of the GOP. Sad thing is that I’ll probably like him more than the Lieberman of the Democrats.
Svensker
The timing of the this “investigation” is very “convenient”, don’t you think? Hmmmmmm?
Just another example of the Alinsky playbook from the Obambi thugs.
Svensker
@JGabriel:
Oy. Vey.
jibeaux
I have always wanted, somehow, to use the line of Scott Baio as the corporate defense lawyer in Arrested Development: “Why should you be punished for a crime that someone else…. noticed?”
It doesn’t fit perfectly here, I know, but I just want to say it, ok?
Ed Drone
Wrong! They didn’t have minivans in Madison’s day — he used the Amex Card to fix cracks in his two-horse brougham carriage!
Get it right, man!
Ed
Ash Can
Hey, if Rubio, Palin, Steele et al. want to shake GOP organizations down for money that would otherwise be spent on getting chicken-traders and white supremacists elected to public office, it’s A-OK by me.
El Cruzado
@dmsilev: Apple fandom appears to be somewhat bipartisan. I think it was Bill O’Reilly who is a lifelong apple fan, and IIRC Karl Rove and others in his orbit got iPhones on release.
Anne Laurie
@dmsilev:
Apple is still the default .edu brand, innite? So Rubio was spending that money on his wee kiddies, because he’s a good family man, unlike that you-know-what Crist!
kay
@Lolis:
Scott Brown says health care reform is going to destroy the medical equipment business in his state. The only thing I can figure out is the transparency provisions, where doctors and hospitals have to reveal contacts they have with medical equipment providers.
So why would that kill a business?
I swear, they’re banking on kickbacks. Let’s keep this racket up and running!