WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offered some wisdom on Monday to his colleague and fellow presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is reportedly frustrated with the pace of the Senate and has all but given up on it.
According to The Washington Post, Rubio "hates" being a senator and has decided not to run for re-election, citing his distaste for the institution as the reason he has missed so many votes there.
Graham, however, feels differently about the Senate, where he is currently serving his third term.
"I love it," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "We're done by 6 o'clock. Everybody goes home. The average age is 85, I feel like a young guy."
Asked to respond to Rubio's complaints, Graham offered some advice.
"Patience is a virtue. You do have to be patient," he said.
Graham compared Rubio to former Sen. Barack Obama, another freshman senator turned presidential candidate who also had substantial truancy issues.
"He was a young man in a hurry. A young man in a hurry," Graham said of both Obama and Rubio. He added that the two men are "very ambitious, which is a good thing. But the Senate is a wonderful place. Look at [former Sen.] Joe Biden. He made a life out of it. I've enjoyed it."
Rubio has missed the most votes of any senator, but Graham himself follows closely behind in second place. Yet the South Carolina Republican has avoided most of the criticism that's been directed at his younger rival. The reason may be the 2016 Republican primary polls, where Graham has averaged just 1 to 2 percent support, compared to Rubio, who is one of the front-runners.
Graham expressed some frustration about his standing on Monday.
"On our side, you've got the No. 2 guy tried to kill someone at 14 and the No. 1 is high-energy and crazy as hell," he said, referring to Ben Carson and Donald Trump, respectively. "How am I losing to these people?"