Friday, June 5, 2015

You be the judge

Senator Marco Rubio has been in a hurry to get to the top, rising from state legislator to United States senator in the span of a decade and now running for president at age 44.
But politics is not the only area where Mr. Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has an affinity for the fast track. He and his wife, Jeanette, have also shown a tendency to be in a rush on the road.

According to a search of the Miami-Dade and Duval County court dockets, the Rubios have been cited for numerous infractions over the years for incidents that included speeding, driving through red lights and careless driving. A review of records dating back to 1997 shows that the couple had a combined 17 citations: Mr. Rubio with four and his wife with 13. On four separate occasions they agreed to attend remedial driving school after a violation.

Mr. Rubio’s troubles behind the wheel predate his days in politics. In 1997, when he was cited for careless driving by a Florida Highway Patrol officer, he was fined and took voluntary driving classes. A dozen years later, in 2009, he was ticketed for speeding on a highway in Duval County and found himself back in driver improvement school.

Things got more complicated in 2011 when Mr. Rubio was alerted to the fact that his license was facing suspension after a traffic camera caught him failing to stop at a red light in his beige Buick. His lawyer, Alex Hanna, paid a $16 fee to delay the suspension and eventually it was dismissed.
View the Rubio Traffic Infractions
County records show Senator Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette, have been cited for numerous driving incidents over the years.

“Senator Rubio’s license has always been in good standing,” Mr. Hanna said in a statement provided by Mr. Rubio’s campaign. “This matter was resolved by the court system and at no point was the license suspended by the D.M.V.”

That was not the last time Mr. Rubio was ticketed. In 2012 he was caught failing to obey a stop sign, but the infraction was dismissed.
Ms. Rubio’s driving record is even messier.

According to the records, her driver’s license faced suspension on three occasions, including after a 2009 episode where she was driving a white Cadillac at 58 miles per hour on a road in West Miami with a speed limit of 35 m.p.h. She paid a $302 fine and agreed to attend a four-hour course at a local traffic school.

However, Ms. Rubio, who also took a four-hour basic driver improvement course after a careless driving incident in 2000, failed to complete the class and had to pay another $34 penalty.
The lessons apparently did not stick. A year later, in 2010, she was stopped for driving 23 m.p.h. in a school zone where the speed limit was 15 m.p.h. She was fined $185.
It is not clear how the numerous infractions have affected the Rubios’ car insurance policy or premiums. On at least one occasion, Ms. Rubio was cited for lacking documentation that her car was insured.

The Rubios have spent more than $1,000 paying traffic penalties over the years, but after Mr. Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010 they took a different approach to handling their tickets.
Mr. Rubio hired Mr. Hanna, a Miami-based lawyer and donor, whose website sales pitch says, “Have you received a traffic ticket? Don’t pay it.” With Mr. Hanna’s help, Mr. Rubio’s last two citations were dismissed and seven of Ms. Rubio’s last eight were cleared.


Mr. Rubio’s campaign had no comment on the traffic violations or whether Ms. Rubio’s license was ever actually suspended.  And not all accidents become police matters. Earlier this year, Ms. Rubio, a former cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins, sideswiped a Porsche Panamera while driving her husband’s Ford F-150 truck to a donor event at the Delano Hotel in Miami Beach. According to the Miami Herald, the police declined to take a report on the incident because it was a “minor” fender bender.

If Mr. Rubio is fortunate to make it as far as the White House, there will be many perks that come with the job. Chief among them, however, might be having a driver.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Beneath the eye-catching headline and opening, however, the Times clarified that most of those tickets were for his wife Jeanette. The records dating back to 1997 showed Rubio himself only got four. 

A hack job.  Partisanship at the Times to be sure.I do not particularly like Rubio however the media continues to bury problems on the left while preforming a hack job on the right.  We deserve better from the press.

17 comments:

  1. Forgot the link to the article.

    http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/05/marco-rubio-and-his-wife-cited-17-times-for-traffic-infractions-2/

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    1. It is a hack job and it's a meaningless story that addresses nothing I find important.

      Delete
  2. Is it a hack job? I have been driving since 1973 and haven't got 4 tickets. Of course it is blown out of proportion louman. Traffic tickets don't matter cause if Rubio was to become president he wouldn't be driving much anyway.

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    1. The question remains, why would the NYT shoot for sensationalism? Reminiscent of bridge gate.

      Why is it media no longer vets candidates but put this trash out, reminiscent of the dog on the roof story. Who cares anyway?

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    2. Lou
      Please see my post re "Power of the Purse”. You make the point perfectly and I have read much of the contents from the references you gave me. We have a long way to go to catch up with your standards but unfortunately, I a certain we shall try. Again my thanks

      Cheers from Aussie

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    3. Bridge gate was a different story. As it appears right now, that little stunt was pulled for purely political reasons and says much more about the kind of leader the person is than a handful of speeding tickets.

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    4. It's reminiscent of the dog on the roof or beating a kid up at Cranbrook.

      The point, as media struggles to remain relevant they slip to the sensational absurd.

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    5. "The point, as media struggles to remain relevant they slip to the sensational absurd."

      Well, on some level, that is what Capitalism is about. Prior to the internet, the news was dominated and shaped by a handful of organizations. At a bad extreme, you had people like Randolph Hearst who used that power to destroy anyone he disliked. At a better extreme, you had some true journalists who presented the news and gave some commentary that Americans found meaningful. With the growth of the internet and cable news, there are few objective places left to find news and further, no matter what your beliefs are, you can find a place on the dial so to speak that will completely validate your views and not make you consider an ounce of opposition thought.

      You and I could start a podcast together and be considered "media" when the reality is we would just be content providers. Page hits on the internet generate advertising and money. For the most part, what generates the hits is really inconsequential.

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    6. Front page article of the Denver Post:

      Shot dead by the police: "2015 rate is twice the10 year average"

      First para: "In Denver, police gunned down a 17 year old girl joyriding .

      What they failed to mention until the end of the article, the car was stolen. She was accelerating at the officer, attempting to run him over.

      The media always has an agenda.

      Lost at the bottom of the article was

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    7. "The media always has an agenda."

      IMO, the agenda these days is simply to generate readers. I don't honestly mind bias, whether I agree or not, when the bias is introduced to establsish...(wait for it) context. Many of the stories I read are not meant to establish context and tell me why something matters, like the story posted at the top and for that matter, the thousands and growing articles about Benghazi. I'll concede that perhaps I'm no better than the rest of the masses in that I want a story to tell me why something is important to me. Articles that belittle Clinton or any of the growing list of Republican candidates by framing stupid shit they said of showing a picture of them smoking a bong after the age of 20 are worthless. Sometimes it's a thin line between meaningful criticism and hackery, but I keep going back to standard reply, we get the sensationalism because that is what sells. There wouldn't be so much porn on the internet if people din't watch it

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    8. This says more about the NY Times than it ever will about Rubio. Reading the NYT is like watching CNN. A sordid examination of news sources nearing their death beds.

      Max is correct thought. The NYT is progressive porn.

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    9. "Reading the NYT is like watching CNN. A sordid examination of news sources nearing their death beds. "

      Yawn. That's about as funny as Ted Cruz making jokes about Joe Biden.

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    10. Zuckerberg or Musk will own the NYT within the decade.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. I did a stint as a manager of 60 technicians with a support staff. The 60 techs had company vehicles. Not a month went by when a vehicle was booted because of parking tickets. Not once did it make the news. Had 1 tech DUI, didn't make the news either. The most egregious was a tech with 3 speeding tickets in 1 year.

      I did terminate the people with DUI's, tickets. The people with booted vehicles lost a days pay and either paid the tickets or I paid them and terminated them.

      All typical Colorado drivers.

      Sad but none made the news.

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    2. But none of your techs announced a run for the highest office in the land. You open yourself up to complete scrutiny once you make that announcement. Right or wrong that is todays world.

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    3. You open yourself up to complete scrutiny

      Perhaps in your mind. Reality, some do, some do not. Media bias determines who is vetted and who is not.

      Delete