Two days after his as-quiet-as-possible endorsement of Marco Rubio, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott finally talked to a reporter about it. And he made it even worse.
He told Seven Days’ Terri Hallenbeck that he had planned to endorse John Kasich until the Ohio governor signed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood. For the self-described pro-choicer Scott, that was a deal-breaker.
But wait: Rubio is, if anything, more profoundly anti-choice than Kasich. He has voted, numerous times, to defund Planned Parenthood, and opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape or incest. Scott’s weasely response?
Scott acknowledged that Rubio opposes funding Planned Parenthood, but said, “He didn’t sign a bill doing so.”
Oh, what a load of crap.
Which is worse: endorsing an actual Planned Parenthood defunder, or endorsing an anti-Planned Parenthood candidate to, among other things, nominate Supreme Court justices?
Now I understand why Phil Scott didn’t attend the Rubio endorsement presser. He can’t give a coherent explanation for choosing Rubio as the potential Leader of the Free World.
Scott said something else that’s looking even worse in retrospect.
“I’m looking for somebody who can build consensus within the party,” said Scott… “I think he has treated people and the process with respect… I think he has a calming effect.”
Treated people with respect? Has a calming effect?
Shall we review some of the things Rubio has said about Donald J. Trump in the last two days? Here’s a tidbit from the Winston Churchill Advanced Lexicon of Political Discourse:
Rubio said that Trump “actually was pretty calm after I punched him around a little bit” on Friday.
“But he’s flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting,” Rubio said.
…”So here’s the one tweet he put out, he put out a picture of me having makeup put on me at the debate,” Rubio told the crowd. “Which is amazing to me, that the guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup.”
“Donald Trump likes to sue people; he should sue whoever did that to his face,” Rubio then added.
Yeah, that’s respectful and calming.
Those rhetorical flourishes came one day after Rubio suggested, in words that would make Abraham Lincoln proud, that Trump had soiled himself on national television.
“Let me tell you something, last night in the debate during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage and he was having a meltdown,” Rubio claimed. ”First he had one of those makeup things applying around his mustache because he had one of those sweat mustaches. Then, then he asked for a full length mirror, I don’t know why because the podium goes up to here (gestures to chest). I don’t know why maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet.”
Respectful. Calming.
Presidential.
Look, I realize that Rubio has been getting knocked around by The Donald, and obviously felt compelled to fight back. But it discredits Phil Scott’s rationale for his endorsement. Rubio is just as extremely conservative as the other candidates in the GOP race. And now, he’s just as nasty, too.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Phil must have received his visit from a Koch brother who told him to back Rubio, or else. Of course, Rubio does apply his makeup with a trowel, just like Phil, so maybe he heard Donald’s comments and converted to a kindred spirit.
There is no excuse for endorsing ANY of the pack of wolves running in the current Republican primary. If Phil Scott really did have Vermont values, he would have refused to endorse entirely.
Of course that would have compromised his ability to rake in financial support for his campaign from on high.
Endorsements are a big deal in understanding what Scott’s agenda as governor would be. Endorsing Rubio says that Scott doesn’t believe in protecting the environment, healthcare for all,
LGBT rights, ANY minimum wage, or a woman’s right to choose. It also says that he agrees with the idea of building an anti-immigrant wall.
And let’s be perfectly clear about one thing: you don’t have to believe that abortion is the right choice in order to support a woman’s RIGHT to choose. So it’s no good hiding behind religion in order to violate a woman’s right to make her own moral decisions.