The Rubio story was barely noticeable when it first emerged. We had a Cuban-American conservative poster boy in a heated Senate Republican primary running against Florida Governor Charlie Crist. The headline to the early stories was that Rubio had charged more than $100,000 on his GOP American Express card. Republican leaders were quietly upset that the new face for ultra-conservative politics had used GOP money to pay for bottles of liquor, groceries, personal travel, family car repair and $130-haircuts. GOP critics complained that donors who gave money to the party did not anticipate that one-hundred thousand dollars worth of their contributions would be used as mad money by Rubio.

Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine and a contributing writer at DeSmogBlog.com. He is the co-host / guest host for Ring of Fire Radio. His writings have appeared on Alternet, Truthout, and The Huffington Post. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009. Follow him on Twitter @farronbalanced