Fresh off their shocking revelation that [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] drives himself around like some peasant, getting speeding tickets in the process, the NYT is back at it again. The latest broadside against Rubio reveals – shockingly – that Rubio has struggled to pay his bills just like some regular old, non-1%er American:

WEST MIAMI, Fla. — For years, Senator [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] struggled under the weight of student debt, mortgages and an extra loan against the value of his home totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in 2012, financial salvation seemed to have arrived: A publisher paid him $800,000 to write a book about growing up as the son of Cuban immigrants.

In speeches, Mr. Rubio, a Florida Republican, spoke of his prudent plan for using the cash to finally pay off his law school loans, expressing relief that he no longer owed “a lady named Sallie Mae,” as he once called the lender.

* * *

Other moves seemed simply unwise: A few weeks ago, he disclosed that he hadliquidated a $68,000 retirement account, a move that is widely discouraged by financial experts and which probably cost him about $24,000 in taxes and penalties.

In the past week, he suffered a new loss when he sold his second home in Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, for $18,000 less than he and a friend paid for it a decade ago. The house had previously faced foreclosure after Mr. Rubio and his friend failed to make mortgage payments for five months.

I have read the NYT piece in its entirety and it is completely devoid of any indication that the Rubios have actually defaulted on a loan or failed to fulfill an obligation that they owed. It instead paints a picture that’s pretty common in America of a couple who got in debt over their heads and struggled for years to get caught up and back out.

Now, with respect to these Rubio hit pieces, we all have to pretty much assume at this point that they are being spoonfed this information by Democrat opposition research firms. What I don’t get is how the coordinated Democrat/Press attack machine does not understand that this will backfire on Hillary. While Hillary already struggles in the “understands the problems and concerns of people like me” category of most polls, stories showing that [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] gets (and pays) traffic tickets, struggles to make his mortgage and student loan payments, and sometimes has to make difficult choices with his money that he would rather not. The irony, of course, is that this same media relentlessly painted Mitt Romney as being rich and out of touch because he was wealthy and an assiduous manager of his money.

The NYT tries to simultaneously make Rubio out to be a recently-minted 1%er by pointing out that he was paid $800,000 to write a book. In doing so, they are trying in some feeble way to both smear Rubio as a commoner and simultaneously imply that now he is unlike you normal people who might vote for him. After all, everyone has disdain for the nouveau riche, right?

By way of contrast, of course, the Clintons have been spending the last 15 years charging charity schools $500,000 to give a one hour speech and being chauffeured about mostly by taxpayer funded armed guards. They have been by any account some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the entire world since Bill’s election in 1992 after famously moaning that they “never had two nickels to rub together” before Bill’s election as President.

The stench of desperation in these attacks, so close together, I think stands as a clear indication of who, on the GOP side, the Democrats fear most.