Tuesday, February 11, 2014 10:09am
Alex Leary

Sen. Marco Rubio, an architect of the Senate’s immigration bill, has put distance between himself and the bill by turning focus to President Obama. People can’t trust him, Rubio says (echoing other Republicans) so we can’t tackle this issue.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to call Republicans out on this notion, suggesting on Meet The Press that, “There's a simple solution: Let's enact the law this year but simply not let it actually start until 2017, after President Obama's term is over.”

Republicans balked and so has Rubio, who fielded our question while campaigning for David Jolly on Monday in Pinellas County.

“And at the end of the day, all that does is just an excuse to not implement the law until 2017,” Rubio said. “In the meantime you still have an ongoing problem. So it’s a serious problem, it needs to be solved. But you want to know the single greatest impediment to this issue, it’s Barack Obama.”

So Rubio has placed himself in a position of calling for urgency while also contributing to the slow down.

In an interview with Florida reporters earlier this year he seemed frustrated by repeated questions why his support had waned and what had changed so much with Obama from the time Rubio began working on the Senate immigration plan to now.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-bu...rategy/2165039