http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/258611-reid-calls-on-rubio-to-resign-from-senateOctober 29, 2015, 05:39 pm
Reid calls on Rubio to resign from Senate
By Bradford Richardson
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a Thursday interview called on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to resign from the Senate due to his spotty attendance at votes.
“Why shouldn’t he [resign]?” Reid said in an interview with Politico. “Why should the taxpayers of this country and people of Florida put up with having only one senator? Doesn’t seem fair to me.”
The Senate minority leader’s comments follow a Florida Sun Sentinel editorial that called for Rubio to step down if he intended to continue to miss votes while running for president — a call that was echoed by Jeb Bush, one of Rubio’s rivals for the GOP nomination.
Reid called Rubio a “non-entity” in the upper chamber.
“For Marco Rubio here to dump on the Senate, this institution established by our Founding Fathers, he should be ashamed of himself,” Reid said. “And the people of Florida, why they put up with it, I don’t know. They damn sure aren’t getting their money’s worth.”
Rubio defended himself at Wednesday night’s GOP debate when challenged on his voting record by Bush.
He said Bush had supported other presidential candidates who missed Senate votes, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2012.
"The only reason why you’re doing it now is because we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you,” he said.
He added that other presidential candidates, including Secretary of State Kerry, who ran in 2004, and President Obama, who ran in 2008, missed more votes than he has.
“Back in 2004, one of my predecessors to the Senate by the name of Bob Graham, a Democrat, ran for president, missing 30 percent of his votes,” Rubio said at the debate. “Later that year, in 2004, John Kerry ran for president, missing 60 to 70 percent of his votes. ... In 2008 Barack Obama missed 60 or 70 percent of his votes.”
On Thursday, he said his missing votes to run for the White House is preferable to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton winning the White House in 2016.
Reid has a history of attacking Republican presidential candidates. During the 2012 race, he accused GOP nominee Mitt Romney of not paying taxes, then refused to provide evidence for the claim.
