Marco Rubio Turns From Immigration Reform to Focus on Other Issues

Beth Reinhard over at National Journal has an article on how U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has moved to the sidelines now that his immigration reform bill has passed the Senate and is now in the House, where conservative Republicans who control that chamber are expected to sink it. Instead, Rubio is focusing on other issues:

After relentlessly defending an ambitious overhaul of the nation's immigration laws for months, Marco Rubio didn't respond when House Republican leaders last week trashed it as a "flawed massive, Obamacare-like bill."

The Florida senator's office, which churned out countless press releases touting his interviews and speeches about the legislation, hasn't said a word about immigration since the Senate passed the bill on June 27.

The silence is a sign that, at least publicly, Rubio won't try to dissuade the House from a piecemeal approach that excludes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Instead, Rubio is turning to the safer, more conservative-friendly issues he campaigned on in 2010 -- President Obama's health care law, federal spending, the deficit -- but with less support from Republicans than before, according to public polls. He's put off abortion opponents clamoring for him to spearhead a controversial ban after 20 weeks and staying put while potential rivals in 2016 jockey in the early-primary states.

H/T Political Wire