…unlike everyone else.
…at least when he bothers to show up to vote, which isn’t often.
Still, to be fair to Marco, Ethics Alarms notes that Joshua Stanton, a lawyer and North Korea policy expert who has advised the Hill on legislation, writes:
By now, most of you know that the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, the Senate’s version of H.R. 757, passed the Senate unanimously Wednesday night. The House is expected to pass the Senate’s version this morning and send it to the President’s desk.
In an election year, when floor time is especially precious, it was remarkable and humbling that the Senate spent an entire day debating this bill….Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio interrupted their presidential campaigns to fly back to Washington and cast “yea” votes. Both senators have been solid supporters of the bill. Two years ago, Senator Rubio personally read every line of an earlier version. I hope I’m not giving away a trade secret here, but it’s pretty damn rare for representatives and senators to personally read lengthy, legalistic bills themselves; most delegate that to their staffers. Rubio did so with obvious care and understanding, leaving no doubt that he’s extremely bright. I saw his tracked changes and comment bubbles in the draft, and suspect that the mineral export ban the Senate added to section 104 was (at least in part) his idea. That provision could be quite powerful, akin to previous legislation that banned Iran’s oil sales.
This suggests to me that Rubio, while not having the goods to be President, could be an excellent, responsible Senator, if he wanted to be.
Too bad he doesn’t want to be.
[There is still no excuse for every member of Congress not personally reading and understanding ever piece of legislation they vote on. For elected officials to vote into law bills they have not read carefully and fully understand is unethical—lazy, irresponsible, incompetent.]
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Pointer: Fred, who is on a roll…
Ethics Alarms 
He reads bills before he votes? That explains why he misses so many votes…
That is an achievement that should be on his tombstone. If I remember correctly, none of the senators who passed the Patriot Act in October 2001 had actually read it all the way through. The American public suffered for it because the bill was sloppy.
Then there’s the Affordable Care Act…
My understanding of the Patriot Act was that it was horrifyingly authoritarian, and one of the worst bills ever passed, but had actually been written fairly well. I remember thinking as it was passing that the bill could not possibly have been a reaction to 9-11, because there just hadn’t been the time to pen it, rather, someone had it collecting dust in a drawer somewhere, waiting for an appropriate disaster to dust it off for.
That and PNAC. Supposedly Paul Wolfowitz had written that in the days of Bush the Elder’s administration, but it wound up in the bottom drawer after 1992. 9/11 hit, and PW supposedly ran hotfoot to the White House insisting he must see the president.