Joe Henderson: Marco Rubio should let it loose on Trump

I wish Marco Rubio would just let it go and tell everyone how he really feels about President Donald Trump.

I think Florida’s junior U.S. Senator, like many Republicans, really wants to do that.

He tiptoes up the edge but can’t quite go there. He doesn’t unleash oratory of fire and fury the likes of which we have never seen on a president whose administration is built on mockery and intimidation.

Rubio did that again Sunday with his appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

The first question he was asked by moderator Chuck Todd was about the way now-former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired last week 48 hours before he was due to retire, jeopardizing the federal pension he earned during 20 years of service.

“I don’t like the way it happened. He should have been allowed to finish through the weekend. That said, there is an inspector general report that is due and work that is being done,” Rubio said. “After he had retired if that report indicated wrongdoing or something that was actionable, there are things that could have been done after the fact.

“But with 48 hours to go before retirement, I certainly would have done it differently.”

I think anyone with a dram of decency would agree that, yeah, it should have been done differently. And I guess Rubio figured he was showing such decency by his measured, gentlemanly response to the question.

But don’t you wish Rubio would have called the action technically taken by Attorney General Jeff “Whew, It Wasn’t Me This Time” Sessions but likely orchestrated by the president for the craven political retaliation that it was?

I think something like “the president obviously is out to squash the Russia investigation and anyone associated with it, and that makes me think he is guilty as sin” would have been what politicians call a “proportional response” in this matter.

As Rubio later noted in that interview, “I don’t like the way it went down. I would have done it differently. But I’m not the president.”

Part of the reason Rubio isn’t president is that he got bullied in during the 2016 campaign. Who can forget Trump hanging the “Little Marco” insult on him? Rubio never recovered and was embarrassed by Trump during the Florida Republican primary.

Given that, what does Rubio owe to a president who demands unflinching loyalty but gives none himself, even to those closest to him?

In other words, let it loose man!

Trump has rewritten the rules – temporarily at last – about governance, and the only way to deal with a bully is to put it right back in his face.

So, when Rubio says, as he did Sunday, “I don’t like the whole tone” of this issue, well … OK.

That’s telling him off!

Come on, Senator Rubio.

Someone has to emerge as the Republican face of “enough is enough” when it comes to this president. Rubio could be that guy.

All he has to do is say what I believe is really on his mind about our country and the man at the top.

Look at the polls. To use the president’s own words, what have you got to lose?