I’ve been bringing this up with a number of Republicans that have endorsed Marco Rubio. They say that the Republican Party has turned a corner and can be trusted to govern again. At the same time, they fall all over themselves to endorse Marco Rubio, the Florida Senate candidate that has got himself in some trouble for misusing Republican Party credit cards.

Reports I’ve heard indicate that Rubio used those cards for things like groceries and music and electronics from Amazon.com. I haven’t seen any actual statements, so I cannot make any definitive statement with regards to the accuracy of those reports.

But let’s assume for a second that they are true. Let’s also assume that Marco Rubio personally pulled the card from his wallet when the purchases were made. Those are two big assumptions, but until Rubio sits down and puts this issue to rest, I think it is fair to assume the worst from politicians. After all, a politician’s reputation for integrity is critical; scandals involving graft (or tax evasion) can be fatal. For that reason, it’s hard to understand why Rubio wouldn’t sit down with a reporter, the credit card statements and his tax records to put all of this behind him once and for all. Since he is not opening is books, it leaves the impression in my mind that he’s got something to hide.

The way he answered my questions has done little to retire my concerns.

Let’s go through his answers:

Q: Why would you use the corporate credit card instead of your own?
Rubio: Well, the majority of them were actually mistakes by travel agents or staff…

What about the minority of charges that were not mistakes by staff or travel agents? Which charges were made by you personally, and again, why did you choose to use the Republican Party card instead of your own? I don’t know anyone in my personal life that would pass over their own credit cards to use the company card for personal purchases. Which of the charges were you personally responsible for and how did that happen?

Q: So there was nothing there that lasted a long time that you only repaid after you got caught?
Rubio: No, no… other than the state travel…

What were those state travel expenses? How much time transpired between the charge and your repayment? Who made the decision with regards to which card to use for those expenses?

Ultimately, the only thing that will dissipate the cloud hovering above the Rubio campaign is full sunlight. Rubio should release the full records, annotate the charges for which he was personally responsible and then have a press availability of some sort to answer any remaining questions. To his credit, I haven’t heard the classic dodge, “On the advice of counsel, I cannot comment on these matters while an investigation is underway,” but Rubio hasn’t been as transparent and forthcoming as he could be. In fact, even this brief questioning was cut short by his staff.