Marco Rubio Doesn't Want to Be a Senator Anymore, So Should He Just Resign?

Marco Rubio doesn't want to be Florida's senator anymore. This much is clear. A New York Times article this the summer quoted anonymous friends claiming that Rubio had grown tired of the work. That's a big part of the reason he's running for president and has sworn he won't backtrack and run for re-election. 

But it seems Rubio can't get out of America's highest legislative body fast enough. The man is missing vote after vote after vote as he chooses to instead run for the White House. He's missed 59 separate votes since his campaign has begun. His fellow sitting senators who are also running for president — Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders — have only missed 10 each. 

This isn't anything new either. A YouGov analysis from February, before Rubio was an official candidate, noted that he had missed 99 votes during his first four years in office. That was more than any other senator during that time who didn't have a health issue or (in John McCain's case) wasn't an actual presidential nominee. Many of the votes he missed were because he was busy on various "book tours" of early primary states. 

It's pretty clear Marco Rubio just doesn't want to do this. So now the editorial board of the Sun-Sentinel is calling on Rubio to just go ahead and resign.

Let us elect someone who wants to be there and earn an honest dollar for an honest day's work. Don't leave us without one of our two representatives in the Senate for the next 15 months or so.

You are paid $174,000 per year to represent us, to fight for us, to solve our problems. Plus you take a $10,000 federal subsidy — declined by some in the Senate — to participate in one of the Obamacare health plans, though you are a big critic of Obamacare.

You are ripping us off, senator.

Then there's also this zinger: 

Two weeks ago, you took to the Senate floor to excoriate federal workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to do their jobs. You said, "there is really no other job in the country where if you don't do your job, you don't get fired."

With the exception of your job, right?

Look, a lot us are frustrated by our jobs and office politics. But we still show up for work every day to earn a paycheck.

By choosing to stay in the Senate and get the publicity, perks and pay that go with the position — without doing the work — you are taking advantage of us.

Turns out that even in this day in age, daily newspaper editorials can actually stir up attention. The Florida Democratic Party's Twitter jumped on the editorial in an apparent show of endorsement. 

‘You are ripping us off': A Florida paper calls for Marco Rubio’s resignation https://t.co/w7tp6YsDQF pic.twitter.com/r8vjhTluIr

— Florida Democrats (@FlaDems) October 28, 2015

Of course, the job of appointing a replacement for Rubio should he actually resign would fall to Rick Scott. Perhaps Democrats should prefer a do-nothing Republican senator to one appointed by America's most Tea Party-happy governor. 

Still, the fact he's missed so many votes is an embarrassment to a man whose campaign once attacked former rival Charlie Crist for being too ambitious. 

Rubio, however, has tried to defend his missing votes by explaining that many of the votes aren't meaningful. 

"Voting is not the only part of the Senate job," Rubio told CNN over the weekend. "I mean, the most important thing a senator does is constituent service. We're still involved in looking out for Florida's issues."