![](http://images.politico.com/global/2012/03/120302_marco_rubio_ethcs_ap_605.jpg)
Marco Rubio
AP (via Politico)
Politico:
March 2, 2012
.....
In a letter to the Florida Commission on Ethics, the freshman GOP senator described the (ethics) complaint as “baseless” and politically motivated. He said the panel only informed his office of the complaint in August 2011 — some 16 months after a Democratic donor filed it in the midst of Rubio’s tough Senate race against then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
.....
“(O)ur political opponents will be tempted to try to mischaracterize this process. They will try to create the perception that this complaint has some merit by claiming that this process had been going on for two years. Or they will simply try to claim that I am under some sort of ‘investigation,” Rubio wrote.
.....
In his letter, Rubio said his office was verbally notified that the ethics panel staffers had recommended the complaint be “thrown out as legally insufficient” and that the “vast majority” of the complaint had in fact been dismissed.
“It has been almost 2 years since this politically motivated complaint was filed. It was never properly served. No work was done on it at all for over 16 months,” Rubio wrote. “And now, after we were finally notified of its existence, another 6 months have passed with no action at all.”
So, Mr. Rubio, you claim didn't know of this citizen complaint until August, 2011, some 16 months after it was filed? That would be in April of 2010, wouldn't it?
Well, then, maybe Mr. Rubio is thinking about that
OTHER investigation that commenced at the same time, in April of 2010.
Here it is.It was the glaring headline in the
Tampa Bay Times and other newspapers around the state on April 21, 2010:
U.S. attorney, IRS and FBI investigating Florida GOP credit card useFederal law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.
.....
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in the inquiry, which grew out of the state investigation into former House Speaker Ray Sansom. He was indicted on criminal charges that he stashed $6 million in the state budget for an airplane hangar for a friend and campaign donor.
(
Who is Ray Sansom? Why... he used to be Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio's hand-picked budget chief.)
.....
Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders — former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson — to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.
* * * *
“(O)ur political opponents will be tempted to try to mischaracterize this process. They will try to create the perception that this complaint has some merit by claiming that this process had been going on for two years. Or they will simply try to claim that I am under some sort of ‘investigation,” Rubio wrote.* * * *
Well, Mr. Rubio, it certainly DOES appear that you are under "some sort of investigation", doesn't it?
Actually, it looks like three investigations.
Let's see... politically motivated, you say? Not so much. The U.S. attorney, IRS and FBI launched this one.
And it actually
has been going on for nearly two years now.
It's not difficult to determine exactly who is the liar here.
The people deserve to know about Marco Rubio. They certainly did not know fully about him when he
carefully embellished his personal narrative to glean their votes.
And after he took those votes, he rode to the U. S. Senate.