Can Sen. Marco Rubio recover with tea party? 'Absolutely,' leader says

Tampa Bay Times ^ | 07/24/2013 | Alex Leary

[GIdget2004]

"He started off his remarks saying a lot of you don't agree with my position on immigration but I did what I thought was right for the country," Niger Innis, chief strategist of TheTeaParty.net, told the Tampa Bay Times. "He only spent about 30 seconds on it. He knows most people in the room disagree with him but it was respectful. No eggs were thrown at him.

"He spent much more time — a good 10 minutes — talking about Obamacare and the moral and practical and economic responsibility that tea party members and conservatives have to derail Obamacare."

Rubio in his brief immigration remarks mentioned how he does not plan on pressing the House on immigration. "He's given his pound of flesh to those who want comprehensive immigration reform," Innis said. "We disagree with him but it was courageous. But he's said his part. I think he's done. I think he realized he has to remind those in the tea party that on 95 percent of the issues, he is right in line with them. His record is sterling except for one major blemish."

[Timber Rattler]

Niger Innis, chief strategist of TheTeaParty.net

What? Who? You gotta be kidding me!

[man_in_tx]

Not all may be as quick to forgive as Mr Innis, is my thought?

[DoughtyOne]

"He started off his remarks saying a lot of you don't agree with my position on immigration but I did what I thought was right for the country," Niger Innis, chief strategist of TheTeaParty.net, told the Tampa Bay Times.

No problem. My turn to do what's best for my country is coming up.

Rubio won't be party of the plan.

[Nachum]

Sure he can recover with the Tea Party. He will just never be fully trusted ever again.

[DoughtyOne]

"He started off his remarks saying a lot of you don't agree with my position on immigration but I did what I thought was right for the country," Niger Innis, chief strategist of TheTeaParty.net, told the Tampa Bay Times.

No problem. My turn to do what's best for my country is coming up.

Rubio won't be party of the plan.

[Sirius Lee]

We have a leader? Since when? I didn’t vote for him. If I were to vote for anybody to lead the Tea Party it would be Sarah.

[LongWayHome]

Get lost Rubio.

[eekitsagreek]

He will not be able to recover. No way will I ever vote for this idiot if he runs for President.

[cblue55]

Tell ya what. If Rubio successfully facilitates the repeal of Obama care, I might consider supporting him.

[Defiant]

Who the hell cares about any other issue?? If you let in tens of millions of illegals, it’s game over for ALL issues conservatives care about, the budget, Obamacare, taxes, defense. Dems, and marxists will control the entire government as far as the eye can see. There will be no constitution. No bill of rights. Just drones in the sky, and NSA watching all that we say and do, and bunch of old people cowering in the corner talking about how they used to be free.

[Jane Long]

I disagree with Mr Innis...Marco jumped the shark to the point of no return. If Mr Innis feels this way, then I have serious concerns with TheTeaParty.net.

Here's more of what Mr Innis said, from the linked article...

He said it would be unwise for tea party members to discard Rubio.

"Why would we want to alienate this rising star?" Innis said. "I'm not encouraging people to look past immigration, but — no pun intended — to have a comprehensive look at his record."

Mmmmmm...no thanks.

[alstewartfan]

To me, Rubio’s capitulation on the rule of law was NOT courageous, but smarmy and cowardly. He met with Shumer and Durbin instead of his supporters. He is a fraud, IMO.
If you listened to his interviews with talk show hosts, he spoke in talking points, and did not answer doubts directly. Despite saying that there would not be a rushed bill, and that there would be many hearings before any vote was taken, he voted for a 1200 page monstrosity that no one read.
I despise the guy. He is a traitor. Bob

[Don Corleone]

NFW!

[RegulatorCountry]

Chief Strategist Niger Innis. Why does this sound so ... well, so not tea party?

They're going to start prattling about optics and reaching across the aisle any second now, sounds like.

[Boogieman]

Niger Innis isn’t the “leader” of the Tea Party, he’s head of the Congress of Racial Equality, last I checked. Not a bad guy, but he doesn’t speak for the rest of us.

[ought-six]

In a word? No.

[max americana]

He’s not the leader but the “strategist” for the TP.net or whatever cocakamamie TP clone he came up with. Next thing we’ll know, we’ll have a chief entertainment division of the Tea Party and the lib media will be drooling..

[TomGuy]

I think he's done [pushing immigration].

WRONG!

He is like Schumer/McCain/Graham on the subject. He tried to push it as state House speaker. He tried to push it as US Senator.

Like the scorpion and the frog -- it is his nature.

He may lay low for a while and wait for a different forum, but, like the liberals and progressives, he will continue to push the issue -- either in public or behind the scenes.

Compassionate Conservative GW Bush pushed it 3 times during his administration and even came out a few weeks ago pushing the new Senate bill.

Rubio lied and lied and allowed commercials to use his name. Commercials that misrepresented the Senate bill contents and claimed that conservatives favored the bill.

No, Rubio is not done with immigration. Not by a long shot. It is his nature.

[eekitsagreek]

Watch for Rubio to pander to conservatives to make up for amnesty. How long before we see a massive “Hispanics Against Gay Marriage” rally?