(via NY Times Magazine)
After the publication in Florida this week of the following three investigative pieces, today the
Tampa Tribune and the
St. Petersburg Times have published editorials warning Marco Rubio that he must come clean with the voters regarding his GOP credit card statements over 4 years, and the scope of his role as House Speaker in securing the secretive funding for a palatial courthouse in the face of ongoing and devastating budget cuts throughout the state.
Former supporter says Rubio used GOP credit card for home remodeling,
Tampa Tribune, September 23, 2010
E-mail names 'heroes' who got legislative funding for 'Taj Mahal' courthouse,
St. Petersburg Times, September 23, 2010
Senate hopeful Rubio plagued by money problems,
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, September 19, 2010
The two editorials follow:
Tampa Tribune Editorial:
Disclosure needed on Rubio's billsSeptember 24, 2010
Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, dismisses inquiries about his use of a party credit card as "an internal party matter."
That won't wash.
Donors give to a party to advance its political agenda, not to advance a party official's personal cash flow.
Rubio owes voters a candid account about why he used his card for personal expenses - which he maintains he paid directly or repaid - and complete disclosure of his party credit card bills.
It has previously been reported that Rubio says he paid the party's credit card company $16,000 for personal expenses that ranged from wine to minivan repairs.
But now the Tribune's William March reports a former Rubio supporter says the candidate acknowledged he once put home remodeling expenses on the card.
The Rubio camp blames the report on politics but doesn't deny the statement of Tampa political consultant Chris Ingram, who says Rubio told him he spent about $4,000 to $6,000 for new kitchen flooring.
So far the party has refused to reveal credit card bills beyond the past two years. Rubio told us he does not object to the release of the bills but that it is the party's decision. Yet March was shown e-mails from Rubio to Ingram that indicate Rubio has possession of the bills.
Whatever the case, the former state House speaker should arrange the release all of his credit card bills. His credibility is at stake.
.....
The
Tribune editorial cites the recent
article in the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune which found that "by the end of 2005, Rubio had three home mortgages, a home equity line of credit, a car loan and more than $150,000 in student loans -- a total debt load of $1,025,444.58, according to the financial disclosure statement he filed with the state.
That same year, the Republican Party of Florida gave Rubio a credit card to use at his discretion."
The
Tribune continues:
All this, coupled with what appears to be casual, if not cavalier, use of donors' money undermines Rubio's compelling message of fiscal frugality.
Last week the state GOP released a forensic audit of party expenditures and did its utmost to tar Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican running for the Senate as an independent.
The report did show Jim Greer, Crist's selection for state GOP chair, and some others spent wildly. But Crist never had a GOP credit card, and he produced a receipt for a Disney World stay that state GOP Chairman John Thrasher had questioned.
The audit did not address - or reveal - spending prior to Greer's tenure, though Rubio had a credit card then, and that is when the home repairs apparently took place.
If Rubio expects voters to trust him to bring fiscal restraint to Washington, he needs to come clean on his own spending.
St. Petersburg Times Editorial:
Marco Rubio must be frank about the "Taj Mahal" courthouseSeptember 24, 2010
Marco Rubio has a terrible memory or an aversion to telling the truth. Neither trait is desirable in a candidate for U.S. Senate. Despite mounting evidence that he was a driving force behind a ridiculously expensive new courthouse in Tallahassee, the former state House speaker insists he is as surprised as anyone by this monstrosity. He needs to tell voters what really happened — or perhaps a grand jury will do it for him.
The $48 million courthouse being built for the 1st District Court of Appeal is a monument to the Legislature's hypocrisy. While Rubio and his Republican colleagues preached fiscal responsibility in 2007, they quietly approved the money to build this palace at the behest of some of the judges who will move into it. The Miami Republican is stonewalling by first claiming ignorance and then blaming others.
The "Taj Mahal" courthouse has been under construction for months, but only recent reporting by the Times' Lucy Morgan has uncovered how such an indefensible project moved through the Legislature. There was $7.9 million included in the 2007-08 budget — and a suspicious authorization of a $33.5 million bond issue in an unrelated bill approved on the last day of the 2007 session. The chances something of this magnitude would be approved without the House speaker's endorsement are slim to none.
Yet Rubio cannot get his story straight. He first said in August that he didn't recall the project. Then his campaign blamed the state Senate, where the bond issue was added to a transportation bill that was then approved by the House. Then Rubio said he was aware of the project and tried to shift attention to Gov. Charlie Crist, who signed the budget and the transportation bill into law. Now Crist is running against Rubio as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, but Rubio cannot run away from this mess.
.....
Just this week, in the
latest of
several investigative pieces about this palatial courthouse construction, Lucy Morgan at the
St. Petersburg Times reported that Rubio's name has surfaced in e-mail, identifying him as one of the primary individuals to be appreciated for his actions to secure the legislative funding for the courthouse construction.
The
Times continues:
In fact, the court's building committee circulated an e-mail in 2008 that identified "heroes" for their project. It lists Rubio as one of four lawmakers who were "especially helpful.'' And fellow Republicans are in no mood to corroborate Rubio's excuses. State Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa says he sponsored the amendment for the bond issue at the direction of Senate President Ken Pruitt. But Pruitt says he did no such thing, and other lawmakers say the deal would not have been passed without the speaker's approval.
Most revealing: Former Rep. Ray Sansom, who was Rubio's appropriations chairman, said Rubio told him several times that he supported the project. Sansom also said 1st DCA Chief Judge Paul Hawkes frequently reminded him the courthouse was a priority for Rubio.
This would be the same Ray Sansom who is charged with grand theft for inserting millions into the same state budget for an airplane hangar disguised as a community college building.
So the 2007 legislative session was a banner year for surprises: $48 million for an opulent courthouse and $6 million for an airplane hangar. All of this was while Rubio was House speaker, yet he claims his hands are clean and says he wants to go to Washington to rein in spending.
A grand jury indicted Sansom, who has pleaded not guilty. Now another grand jury will be asked next week whether it wants to examine the courthouse scandal. It's worth a look.
The outrage may not be that a crime was committed. The outrage may be that it was a legal waste of public money, and that powerful legislators like Marco Rubio quietly conspired to make it happen.
(emphasis added)
And, by the way:
Mitch Perry at Creative Loafing writes
today:
In the wake of three powerful stories that have been published this week that have dented Marco Rubio’s reputation as a fiscal hawk, the man called by the New York Times Magazine this past January as “The First Senator from the Tea Party,” will be one of several people affiliated with that upstart movement this Sunday morning on CBS’s Face The Nation.
Rubio will appear on the the public affairs program along with Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck and the Tea Party Express’s Sal Russo, an organizer from California.
One can only hope that Schieffer, who was raked over the coals earlier this summer by Fox News Bill O’Reilly and Bernard Goldberg for failing to ask Attorney General Eric Holder about the New Black Panther controversy, will have done his homework this week and read the stories about Rubio published in the St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune and Sarasota Herald-Tribune, all reporting on Rubio’s flexibility when it comes to spending money, whether it be purchasing home improvements with his Republican Party of Florida credit card, or approving a massively overwrought courthouse in the state capitol..
.....
But what can’t happen in the next 39 days is members of the press allowing Rubio to skate by with his responses to some of these vexing questions.
Bob Schieffer, I hope you’re doing your homework today.
Amen.