I don’t see where this makes Rubio a “sleazeball”. He used a card and reimbursed the card holder. At worst, that means he’s guilty of not having his personal card on hand, or of grabbing the wrong one out of his wallet.

Crist, on the other hand, has run his campaign in a way that appears improper – a primary campaign co-located with the state GOP is asking for charges of favoritism. Crist has threatened to bolt the party. Crist has violated Reagan’s 11th commandment by trying to portray Rubio as “dirty”.

Before and during the *primary*, I am in 100% agreement with you – we need to demand rockstar candidates who are pure as the driven snow. It’s a little late in the game, though, to be complaining that, surprise surprise, both Rubio and Crist are human beings, who have made mistakes.

Your reaction, or rather, your *over*reaction of saying you can’t vote for either candidate in the primary, has the effect of lowering your influence. Clearly, neither of the two candidates can win your vote, being human, so you just take your ball and go home.

The time to have this kind of a reaction was when other potential candidates were thinking of getting into the race – talking up one of them who meets your high standards. Now, when the time to register is long gone, is the time to pick the lesser of the available evils.

Mew

Most people don’t know how expense accounts work, or how card pay-and-reimburse works, etc. Most folk don’t work in sales or have CEO-CIO-COO jobs where this kind of card is commonly used. This means they can be led to believe that it’s an abuse when it’s actually a standard practice.

Remember, the media want no part of a Senator Rubio, and will do whatever they can to weaken him for the Dem to finish him off in the general.

Mew

See, this is not the cite that I asked you for.

This specifically says that the IRS is looking at Rubio, Greer, and Johnson. One would imagine Crist could also be looked at.

All this means is if Rubio followed the rules, there’s nothing here, and Rubio’s campaign is saying no need to adjust taxes, meaning Rubio followed the rules.

While the Dems, their media allies, and their patsy Crist will use this in the general, as stories go it’s got the potential to throw much more tar on Crist.

And as for the cheap shot in your title, thanks for the glimpse at your character.

Mew

That’s not at all the same thing as opening a criminal investigation.

The “crime”, in this case, would be something like whether Rubio failed to reimburse the state party; that would mean Rubio had to pay taxes on the money since it could be seen as “income”. There’s also the potential that, if Rubio delayed reimbursing too long, there’d be charges filed.

All that’s going on now is the IRS is performing something akin to an audit of both the Rubios’ numbers, and the state GOP numbers.

What’s interesting to me is that the news media is spinning it as though Rubio is a crook, without mentioning that Crist and Greer and most Republican officeholders in Florida also have these cards and, if the IRS looks at the party, they’ll likely catch some other fish.

I’ll wait to see if any indictments are handed down.

Mew

It is perfectly legitimate to use a corporate card for personal expenses provided the money to pay the bill is returned to the corporation before they pay the bill. Sorta like writing the mortgage check a day or two before you deposit your paycheck.

The American political system is not structured to accept more than two parties. The minute an ideologically driven “third party” gets traction, one of the two national parties will adopt the ideology. It’s happened over, and over, and over in our history.

If the Tea Partiers try to form a third party, get used to a long string of Dems in power. This is not a criticism of the ideas or the will of the Tea Partiers – it’s just the reality on the ground.

Mew

First, there is no tax avoidance because the money is never borrowed from the RPOF. It’s borrowed from AmEx, on the same terms that AmEx gives every corporate card holder, “Pay by the end of the period”.

Second, there is no way for a third party to supplant either majority party – the system is rigged that way. If a third party puts forth ideas that are popular, one of the two major parties will co-opt the message, stealing most of the supporters of the third party and frequently getting the candidate from the other major party elected along the way.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Mew

Carter on the Dem side barely won a bruising primary against Teddy “Binge!” Kennedy, while on the Repub side, John Anderson refused to back Reagan and ran as an independent.

Anderson is a footnote to history at best, Reagan clobbered the now-weakened Carter, and it’s quite likely Anderson actually hurt Carter more than Reagan….

The lesson I see here is that, if the Tea Party comes together inside the GOP apparatus (as ColdWarrior has suggested innumerable times) then the Tea Partiers can pick and elect winning candidates.

If the Tea Party choose to go their own way, they’ll be footnotes.

Mew