The DC's Matt Lewis has the scoop:
2 smart & connected sources have told me Marco Rubio is frustrated in the Senate / Both speculate he will not seek re-election.
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) March 6, 2015Can you blame him? Honestly, even with majority-control, congressional Republicans are still struggling to green light tremendously popular, bipartisan job and infrastructure bills. The gridlock is frustrating. For him and the American people.
And yet the general consensus -- at least as I understand it -- is that Rubio was probably rolling the dice in 2016 because he would not run for two national offices concurrently. So he had to reluctantly choose one and his gut told him to run for president. According to these sources, however, there's more to the story. Rubio's "frustrated" in his current job and thus uninterested in sticking around or becoming the next Teddy Kennedy or Bob Byrd. In retrospect, we saw hints of this as recently as last week.
“I don’t want to be in politics my whole life,” he told Sean Hannity at CPAC. “I want to serve our country and do some other things.”
Reading between the lines, what are we to make of such statements? Is this a clear indication he's ready to leave the Senate? After all, he just locked up another mega-donor, all but declaring he's laying the groundwork for a widely anticipated presidential run.
We'll know with certainty soon enough.