I couldn't understand how Rush could say such a thing either. I thought about it for quite a while and the only thing I could come up with was that Trump was gaining momentum fast at that time but he hadn't yet sealed the deal and the GOPe was desperately looking for an acceptable candidate (you know, one of them) to get everybody rallying behind quickly and it was Marco's turn to be pushed out on the stage to see if his balloon could take off. If Rush had told the truth about Marco right then his balloon would have crashed straight to the floor and the GOPe would have been pretty much out of guys to use against Trump.
I think Rush was just given the message to let Marco have his chance and Rush complied. He didn't have to say Marco was a "full throated conservative," he could have just said nothing - but he's always enjoyed his contacts and relationships with the big boys in the Repub party and I think this time he let that influence his decision. And he chose poorly. Rush lost a lot of listeners over that one sentence. And rightly so, since it was a lie.
I don’t think the GOPe controls Rush to nearly that extent, or we’d be looking at 30 million new Democrat voters...after all, they really, really, wanted to ‘put Amnesty behind them’.
Instead, I blame it on maybe a few factors:
1) Rubio was the only one delivering Reagan-type speeches
2) Rubio, like Rush, is from Florida
3) Rush has a fondness for Cubans...due to their outstanding cigars.
4) And maybe Rush was drugged-up for some reason.
But other than Rubio, and Cruz to a lesser extent, Rush played it pretty even during the Primary season...while the GOPe were KILLING THEMSELVES to try to stop Trump.
You may want to reconsider...he is really kicking butt now.