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DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS SPECIAL RUBIO EDITION: WELCOME TO THE RACE LIDDLE MARCO

Yeah…like you actually thought we wouldn’t address the terrible news week for Marco Rubio surrounding his decision to go back on his word and launch a re-election campaign. To recap…

On Wednesday, Marco Rubio went back on the pledge he made “like 10000 times” that he wouldn’t run again, and launched his re-election bid (If you haven’t yet, check out our breakdown of Rubio’s “Why I’m running” statement…warning, it’s sure to give you the spins). The media coverage wasn’t exactly ideal…

Sun Sentinel: Marco Rubio flip-flops on re-election, wants another term as U.S. senator

Tampa Bay Times: Marco Rubio reverses course, announces he’s running for re-election to the Senate

PolitiFact: Marco Rubio flip-flops on running for Senate

Washington Examiner: Marco Rubio faces rocky road to re-election

Washington Post: The 2016 election shows why people don’t trust politicians

Daily Beast: Marco Rubio Wants to Return to a Job He Hates

MSNBC: Rubio breaks his word, decides to seek re-election

Washington Post: Marco Rubio is running for Senate again. So that he can run for president again. 

CNN: 9 times Senate candidate Marco Rubio told us he didn’t like the Senate

NY Times: In Reversal, Marco Rubio to Seek Re-election to Senate

Miami Herald: Rubio says yes to another Senate run after all

NY Mag: Rubio Comes Full Circle, Will Run for Reelection

Tampa Bay Times: Beruff hits Rubio in county where Rubio struggled in presidential primary

Washington Times: The rise and fall of Marco Rubio

Miami Herald (Editorial): Sen. Marco Rubio plays fast and loose with his pledge not to run

Rubio’s home state editorial boards and opinion pages also weren’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for their absentee Senator:

After spending a year telling anyone who asked that he really couldn’t stand being in the U.S. Senate, given how it’s so ineffective and such a waste of time, all of a sudden Marco Rubio has undergone an epiphany. He wants back in!

…But his flip-flop will seem too pat, too orchestrated, too opportunistic to anyone not firmly planted in the Rubio camp. The sudden switch puts his honesty into question. How can he persuade voters that he will be an effective champion for Florida after he’s said that the Senate is no place for anyone who wants to get things done? The famously impatient senator told one interviewer during the campaign that he couldn’t stay there because he was too “frustrated.”

…Sen. Rubio has explained that he felt a call to duty after a gunman carried out the largest mass shooting in modern times in Orlando. That made him reconsider his promise not to run again. Yet he’s still a sitting senator. If he couldn’t prevent it now, how will running for another term change anything? Especially since he voted the straight NRA line this week by nixing all efforts to impose sensible control on firearms.

…Voters don’t want an anointed candidate, and they don’t want to give the Senate seat to a candidate as a consolation prize for losing the presidential primary. Mr. Rubio has his work cut out for him — and a lot of skepticism to overcome.

Naples Daily News: Editorial: Promises, unpromises from Rubio leave splintered U.S. Senate contest

It’s not up to GOP leadership, of course, to determine if the onetime darling of the party is damaged goods to Florida voters and whether the decision will backfire, as we believe it could.

…There’s no guarantee Rubio will emerge from the Aug. 30 primary, however, and we already see signs of a campaign at risk of a down-spiral as quickly as it started.

…As the fall ballot gets formalized this week, sadly Rubio repeatedly refused to commit to serving a full Senate term if he wins. That will resonate with many Floridians because of his record of missing Senate votes while campaigning for president this year.

Florida Politics: Joe Henderson: It’s not that Marco Rubio reneged; it’s that he did a lousy job in Senate

The fact that Marco Rubio reneged on a vow not to run for re-election to the United States Senate isn’t that big of a deal. Politicians change their minds all the time. That fact that he has done a spectacularly lousy job since Floridians sent him to the Senate in 2010 is a much bigger deal, a piece of reality Marco apologists choose to ignore. And then there is this: A part of his motivation to return to a job he has loudly and often said he loathes was some sort of epiphany after the Orlando massacre June 12.

…Even giving Rubio the benefit of the doubt on all that as he seeks a second term, the biggest question is whether he would even show up for work. Rubio’s consistently poor voting was a key point that Donald Trump repeatedly hammered during the presidential campaign en route to a nearly 19-point victory in Florida.

…At some point, though, it comes down to governing, and Rubio hasn’t provided evidence he knows how to do that. Worse, he hasn’t shown that he even really cares.

Miami Herald: Who needs Jesus when we have Marco Rubio? 

Those crowds gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol shouting “Do your job!” to lawmakers mean nothing to him. He’s an NRA man. He did show up to the Senate this week to vote against all measures to close loopholes on background checks and keep assault weapons away from home-grown terrorists.

 

His real talent, as we’re seeing again, is to get out of that frustrating legislative chamber when taxpayers who fund his paycheck are demanding substance. If re-elected, he’d accomplish more of what he has done the last four years: Nothing.

…He’s flip-flopping on his pledge to become “a private citizen” come January to join a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats. But hey, hitting the campaign trail gets Marco Rubio out of the office.

As if the terrible coverage wasn’t enough, Rubio was embarrassed by former ally, Florida Governor Rick Scott, who wouldn’t endorse Rubio’s Senate bid, but instead praised opponent Carlos Beruff.

Morning Consult: Florida Governor Encourages Republican Challenging Rubio in Primary

Washington Times: Rick Scott heaps praise on political ‘outsider’ Carlos Beruff, Marco Rubio’s challenger

Palm Beach Post: Rick Scott weighs in for ‘good friend’ Carlos Beruff vs. Marco Rubio

USA Today: Gov. Scott backs Beruff over Rubio for U.S. Senate seat

Orlando Sentinel: Scott doesn’t endorse Rubio, praises Beruff

The Hill: Rick Scott won’t endorse Rubio

Florida Politics: Rick Scott says voters deserve opportunity to consider Carlos Beruff in Senate race

Politico: Scott declines to endorse Rubio

And Scott isn’t the only one rebuffing Rubio…one of Jeb Bush’s highest profile Miami supporters said he won’t be voting for Marco, saying he’s “incredibly disappointed” in him.

Here are a few more must-reads from Rubio’s terrible week.

Buzzfeed: Rubio May See Complications If He Wants To Campaign On Addiction Treatment Issue

The same might be expected from Sen. Marco Rubio — who announced Wednesday that he will run for re-election in a state that’s often called the “pill mill capital” — but there’s one problem: He didn’t actually vote on the bill because of his presidential campaign.

“The failure of this bill was my biggest disappointment in the legislature,” said then-state Sen. Lock Burt, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, in an interview. “It caused more deaths than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“I got it out of the Senate four different times. Rubio in my view had a major role in killing it.”

Politico: Rubio skips foreign policy hearing as he announces reelection

Marco Rubio missed a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday morning — at the same time he was announcing plans to run for reelection.

 

The first-term Republican senator, who was pilloried during his presidential run for his record of missed votes and hearings, skipped a closed hearing on security for sales of military equipment to other nations, according to attendees from both parties.

TWEET OF THE WEEK – RUBIO EDITION. This week’s special Rubio edition Tweet of the Week goes out to Miami Herald’s political cartoonist Jim Morin for his depiction of what a Rubio campaign stop should look like: “@MorinToon: Oh, swell. Another awful summer rerun #morintoon #MarcoRubio #GOP #FloriDUH pic.twitter.com/kiS1KU4laq

rubio comic

Good luck Marco, we’ll make sure it will only get worse from here!

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