In the wake of three powerful stories that have been published this week that have dented Marco Rubio's reputation as a fiscal hawk, the man called by the New York Times Magazine this past January as "The First Senator from the Tea Party," will be one of several people affiliated with that upstart movement this Sunday morning on CBS's Face The Nation.
Rubio will appear on the the public affairs program along with Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck and the Tea Party Express's Sal Russo, an organizer from California.
One can only hope that Schieffer, who was raked over the coals earlier this summer by Fox News Bill O'Reilly and Bernard Goldberg for failing to ask Attorney General Eric Holder about the New Black Panther controversy, will have done his homework this week and read the stories about Rubio published in the St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune and Sarasota Herald-Tribune, all reporting on Rubio's flexibility when it comes to spending money, whether it be purchasing home improvements with his Republican Party of Florida credit card, or approving a massively overwrought courthouse in the state capitol..
But to quote the Rolling Stones from 1978's hit Shattered, Does it matter?
The Trib thinks so. In an op-ed this morning the paper calls for Rubio to give full disclosure on his credit card charges back when he was the House Speaker, writing that "his credibility is at stake."
The Trib also cites Zac Anderson's revealing portrait of Rubio's finances that was published last Sunday in Sarasota:
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that Rubio has been plagued by debt. In 2005, he owed more than "$1 million with mortgages on three homes, a home equity line of credit, a car loan and more than $150,000 in student loans."
All this, coupled with what appears to be casual, if not cavalier, use of donors' money undermines Rubio's compelling message of fiscal frugality.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.