I read Senator Marco Rubio’s statement on Syria today (H/T Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard) and found myself taken aback by his first sentence:

Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime’s enablers lost their legitimacy to govern a long time ago.

Could anyone please tell me a time during the course of Assad’s presidency, which dates back to June 10, 2000, when he was ever legitimate? It annoys me to no end when I hear people, whether its Rubio or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, proclaim that a dictator has lost his legitimacy. I would dare say it annoys me even more hearing it from Rubio considering his family were Cuban exiles with no love lost for Fidel Castro.

Bashar al-Assad did not lose legitimacy. He has no legitimacy to lose. The only thing for him to lose is absolute power.