Rubio jokes senators should ‘keep water nearby’ during filibuster

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) joined Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) ongoing filibuster Wednesday afternoon on the Senate floor, and opened his time with a sly acknowledgment of his now infamous water bottle incident during his rebuttal to the State of the Union.

{mosads}Addressing Paul, who had been conducting the filibuster for nearly five hours, Rubio quipped that it was important to stay hydrated.

“Let me give you some free advice: Keep some water nearby,” Rubio said.

While giving the Republican response to President Obama’s annual address last month, Rubio became parched and grabbed for an off-screen water bottle. The awkward moment became the subject of jokes and ridicule on social media networks and liberal talk show programs.

Speaking Wednesday, Rubio went on to make reference to the winter weather hitting some of the Washington area, quipping that the ongoing filibuster effort was “great for people snowed in at home with nothing better to watch but C-SPAN.” The capital city braced for what was expected to be a serious snowstorm on Wednesday, although forecast accumulation never materialized within the city limits.

Paul launched the filibuster Wednesday morning to protest the Obama Administration’s refusal to absolutely rule out ever conducting a drone strike against American citizens on U.S. soil. In a letter to the Kentucky lawmaker, Attorney General Eric Holder said the administration had “no intention of doing so,” but believed it had constitutional authority to do so in an “extraordinary circumstance” like Pearl Harbor or the September 11 attacks.

Throughout the proceedings, a bipartisan group of senators, including Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have taken time to ask questions of Paul, prolonging the proceedings and giving the Kentucky lawmaker a chance to rest without yielding control of the Senate floor.

Rubio praised Paul on Wednesday, saying the Kentucky senator was performing an important constitutional duty.

“It is a constitutional obligation to ask relevant questions to public policy … if we’re not going to ask these questions, who will?” Rubio said.