Rubio Takes To Senate Floor To Claim He's Still A Conservative

Via @allahpundit, Marco Rubio went to the Senate floor earlier today to defend his approach to amnesty and to remind people he's still the same old lovable guy he's always been.

“I have received numerous emails and calls from conservatives and tea party activists,” he said at the beginning of his remarks.

“To hear the worry, anxiety, and growing anger in the voices of so many people who helped me get elected to the Senate, who I agree with on virtually every other issue, has been a real trial for me,” he confessed.

But he said he told them that he would go to Washington to “fight to stop what is bad for America,” and that what we have now is, in fact, hurting America. ”I simply wasn’t going to leave it to Democrats alone to try to figure out how to fix it.”

“I got involved because I knew that if conservatives didn’t get involved in shaping this legislation, it would not have any border security reforms our nation desperately needs,” Rubio said.

I guess Rubio thinks he was elected by conservatives because they thought he was more likely to work with Democrats than Charlie Crist. Funny but my recollection is it was exactly the opposite.

I was live tweeting it and he said some things that just are flat out untrue.

First, he claims the money for border security is in teh bill and doesn't rely on future Congresses to spend it. This is untrue. Any future Congress can reprogram or delete money already authorized (which is different than appropriated).

He also said the country needs to fix the illegal immigration problem. True but this bill doesn't do that. You can do fences and agents on the border all day (and we should) but we also have to have interneal enforcement and a tracking system to make sure people who come here leave when they are supposed to. Rubio's bill doesn't have the bio-metric entry/exit system that's been mandated since the mid-90s but has never happened (sounds familiar).

Why is Rubio sounding so defensive?

Hint 1:

Rasmussen: Rubio had 73% favorable rating among Republicans in February. Now 58%. Very favorables down 44% to 21%. http://t.co/8u34BOM5yV

— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 24, 2013

Hint 2:

Former Alaska governor and tea party darling Sarah Palin said Sens. Marco Rubio and Kelly Ayotte better watch out come election time: Voters angry with their support of an immigration bill seen as a cave on amnesty will likely voice their displeasure at the polls.

...

“I think that they should be challenged,” Ms. Palin said on Fox News radio. “I don’t have a problem with heated debates and contested primaries where they have to answer to constituents regarding their flip-flopping.”

Reminder why Rubio's words are meaningless:

"Earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty."- @marcorubio 10/24/10 http://t.co/HmH5IqYO7M

— DrewM (@DrewMTips) June 25, 2013

posted by DrewM. at 02:20 PM

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