Reid calls on Rubio to resign from Senate

“Why shouldn’t he [resign]? There are a lot of people who are living paycheck to paycheck in Florida, and they’re looking for a senator who can fight for them each and every day”.

“I think he can be fairly criticized for not being there for the important votes, those that are pivotal, those where you can’t predict the outcome”, U.S. Rep. Steve King told Herald Radio’s “Herald Drive” show.

Reid continued his completely non-trolling call for the Florida Senator’s resignation by describing him as a “non-entity” in the body. “He hates the Senate”, Reid reportedly said. “It’s one thing to walk into a voting booth and put up a vote and leave that behind you…an endorsement is a much heavier decision, so I say it has to be a conviction”.

Senate historian Betty Koed explained to Vocativ that members from the minority party sometimes stay away because they “have less of an interest in getting bills passed”.

But then there’s Sen.

Rubio told CNN Sunday that he’s missed past votes because he’s campaigning, but the editorial board said that’s an insufficient excuse.

On his Smart Politics blog, Eric J. Ostermeier of the University of Minnesota writes that since 1972 there have been a total of 50 presidential candidacies by 45 sitting US senators.

But the worst moment came early, when Bush assailed Rubio for his absentee senate record – and Rubio dismissed the criticism as the canned stunt that it was.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel published a sharp editorial Wednesday demanding that Rubio resign.

Rubio’s truancy rate, which is not only the highest among the various senators running for president but the highest in the entire Senate, has increasingly become an issue on the campaign trail. John Kerry for missing Senate business when he ran for president in 2004.

GUTHRIE: Do the substance of Govenor Bush’s accusations – and I know you’ve heard this time and again recently – once and for all, answer The Sun Sentinel’s question, should you resign, would you resign?

Rubio noted that the same newspaper actually endorsed Kerry and Obama, calling it “another example of the double standard that exists in this country between the mainstream media and the conservative movement”.

He’s missed 26 percent in the past year. Ted Cruz. Jeff King, the congressman’s son, runs a super PAC backing Cruz.

From October 23, 2006, to October 22, 2007, McCain was absent for 51 percent of Senate votes and Obama for 29 percent.

And yet, Rubio’s chief rival for establishment support, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, glommed on. I don’t recall the Sun – in fact, the Sun-Sentinel endorsed him. “He’s a gifted politician”, Bush said.

“When you signed up, it was a six-year term”.

“The vast majority of work that happens in any Senate office is direct constituent services”, he said. You have like three days where you have to show up? “If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it”. You know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying out that furious comeback that you’re now modeling after?