By GottaLaff
Why what have we here? Marco! Polo! Keep waving that flag!
Ahem, calling all Marco Rubio opponents: Code Red:
Marco Rubio was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny.
About $600,000 in contributions was stowed in two inconspicuous political committees controlled by Rubio, now the Republican front-runner for the U.S. Senate, and his wife.
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald did a blow-by-blow analysis of Rubio's expenses and wow. A must-read. Here's a teaser:
• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.
• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as "courier fees" and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for "gas and meals."
• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified "travel expenses'' to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee's entire haul.
Ouch, this is painful. But in a good way.
Rubio's high-roller political spending belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of antiestablishment fervor and gunning to knock off Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. A Times/Herald review of other legislators' committees shows they typically contributed far more to other candidates and reported vastly fewer credit card payments.
This can't end well, I just know it.
Campaign adviser Todd Harris:
"Marco put his on a credit card and the other guys put theirs on a debit card. So sue us."
Don't tempt us.
Um, not so sure he can. Not any more.
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