Marco Rubio Starts to Back Down on Immigration Reform

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is now hinting that he will vote against the immigration reform bill that he was backing. Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Tuesday, Rubio called for changes to the bill that he was championing, namely more commitment to boarder security. Byron York over at Washington Examiner has the details.

York highlights Rubios dilemma:

After playing a major role in drafting the legislation, Rubio has been its public face since then, making countless appearances on television, radio, and in print to gather support for the legislation. What has changed that would mean he would not vote for his own bill? If anything, the security measures in the bill were slightly strengthened in the Senate Judiciary Committee; the bills original intention to apply new security provisions only to high-risk sectors of the U.S.-Mexico border was expanded to apply to all sectors.

So it would be hard to argue that the Judiciary Committee changed the bill in ways that would make it unacceptable to Rubio. But now he says he will vote against the bill approved by the committee, unless major changes are made. It is hard to tell if Rubio really disagrees with the substance of the legislation approved by the committee he suggested to Hewitt that he would vote against the bill because it wouldnt pass without the changes, not because he objected to particular passages in the bill but the result would be that the principal author of comprehensive immigration reform would vote against it in the Senate.

With his eye on the presidency in 2016, Rubios positioning could come back to hurt him. Back in 2004, John Kerry was hurt by Senate procedure and legislative shifts as Republicans had a field day with his I was for it before I was against it line. The same could hold true for Rubio. If he votes against the bill he crafted and strongly championed, Rubio will have to find a message that explains his pivots, reassures conservatives and doesnt descend into legislative linguistics.