Let’s face it… liberals are simply more caring, compassionate and kind than conservatives, even when it comes to how they treat their opponents. It’s just one of those well known facts we just need to live with. Further evidence of this phenomenon comes to us from the pages of the Huffington Post, where Laura Wides-Munoz and Brendan Farrington are terribly, terribly worried about the political future of Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The care and compassion ring through so loudly you can nearly taste the saccharin in the back of your throat while reading it.

For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back…

“Marco Rubio is a huge star in the Republican Party in much the same way that Barack Obama was in the Democratic Party between his convention speech in 2004 and his candidacy for the president,” said Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to GOP Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “There are a lot of pluses when you look at Marco Rubio as a potential vice presidential candidate, but there are also unknowns.”

It’s kind of touching, isn’t it? You can tell that they don’t hold anything against Rubio… they’re just worried about the poor boy’s future! Heaven forbid that somebody dig up some dirt on him and go spreading it all over the web, possibly extinguishing his brilliant political future.

And with that, they then proceed to spend 22 paragraphs digging up dirt on him and spreading it all over the web. But hey… who doesn’t love a good scandal, right? At least we’ll get to read up on all the hot new gossip surrounding Rubio.

Sadly… not so much.

The 40-year-old Florida lawmaker has close ties to a colleague accused of questionable financial dealings. He once was enmeshed in a controversy over the use of the state party’s credit card for his personal expenses. Since emerging on the national political scene, he has faced increased personal scrutiny. There are conflicting details about his parents’ immigration from Cuba and his recently disclosed ties to the Mormon faith.

This is the same tired old load of flapping gums we were treated to two years ago, none of which bore any substantive fruit. Yes, he is friends with David Rivera who has serious questions to answer about some past financial deals, but Rubio has already said as much himself. His own involvement was minimal at best and written off to some youthful poor judgement. We’ve already sent this movie to re-runs.

The credit card scandal was definitely real for some Florida officials, but again, Rubio released all of that information. He did, at times, put a personal purchase on it here and there, but he also reimbursed for those charges when the bill came, well before anyone tried to make hay over it. As with the previous story, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing in the world – as Rubio acknowledged himself – but there was hardly malice involved.

And are we really going to dredge up yet again what precise date his family left their home country? And which church they enrolled him in as a child?

I’m always up for a good, entertaining hit piece on a politician, but this is one of the more lame efforts to cross the Hot Air desk in some time. If you’re really worried about Rubio being the VP nominee and torpedoing Obama’s chances and want to hit him on something, try an approach you can back up. Say that he’s only in his second year in the Senate and could use more seasoning before a national run.

Of course, he’s already flatly stated that he’s not interested in the job anyway, so I’m not sure why Huffpo is mounting this sort of ineffective attack right now anyway. Then again, the political machine moves in strange and mysterious ways, I suppose.