Posted on 06/26/2013 12:12:14 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Rubio calls Tea Party attacks on immigration 'a real trial for me' By Ramsey Cox - 06/26/13 02:06 PM ET
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday defended his decision to work on bipartisan immigration reform and said "it has been a real trial" hearing Tea Party charges that he has turned his back on conservatives.
“I have received numerous emails and calls from conservatives and Tea Party activists,” Rubio said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “Their opinions and concerns really matter to me because they stood with me during my election.”
Rubio said Tea Party activists aren’t “anti-immigrant” — they just don’t trust the federal government to enforce immigration laws that have gone unenforced over the last 30 years.
“It’s because the government has failed them so many times before,” Rubio said.
Rubio enjoyed strong support from Tea Party activists when he won his Senate seat in 2010 and has been touted as a potential 2016 GOP presidential nominee.
But some conservative Republicans have said his bipartisan work on immigration reform could hurt his chances of winning the nomination.
Rubio was a central player in the Gang of Eight negotiations that produced the immigration reform legislation, and led the early effort to sell the bill to conservatives.
Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has said he wouldn't rule out a primary challenge to Rubio if he runs for reelection in the Senate.
"To hear the worry, anxiety and growing anger in the voices of so many people who helped me get elected to the Senate, who I agree with on virtually every other issue, has been a real trial for me,” Rubio said.
Rubio has repeatedly said he’s not working on the legislation to increase his political stock and got involved in immigration reform talks for the right reasons.
“I got involved in this issue for one simple reason: I ran for office to try to fix things that are wrong with this country,” Rubio said. “And that’s what this is about for me.”
Rubio said he didn’t want to leave immigration reform simply to Democrats because he knew the issue of border security wouldn’t have been strong enough.
Earlier Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) applauded Gang of Eight members, but noted their work might not be appreciated by all of their constituents.
“This is really America at its best. Each one of those eight senators don’t know, just as I don’t know, whether this work will help them or hurt them in their political careers,” Reid said. “But we have a broken immigration system, and they have come up with a solution to fix it.”
The Senate is expected to pass the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act later this week.
The bipartisan group of eight senators, known as the Gang of Eight, introduced S. 744, which would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country, toughen border security, create a guest-worker program and boost high-skilled immigration.
Rubio, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) comprise the Gang of Eight.
American citizens have immigration reforms way at the bottom of the list as to what they care about. I guess the citizens of other countries are more important than us.
What’s Rubio’s wife like? Anybody know?
Louis Foxwell wrote:
“The UU Assn will tar and feather you for having truck with EV Christians.”
truck???? Ford? Chevy? Toyota?
“truck with EV Christians”???
What is EV??? The girl’s name from “V for Vendetta”??
I checked the dictionary, and there is no known abbreviation for ‘evangelical’, if that is what you mean?
Or is that East Virginia? East Valley? East Vermont?
Extravehicular?
Now, tarring and feathering (somebody else), reader’s choice here, is a different idea.
Poor soul! Go join another Gang of 8, You stink.
Send West this: http://www.examiner.com/article/marco-rubio-what-was-he-thinking
Rubes, best to learn how things are done in this country. First lesson....the houses of Congress are not ‘gangs’ We make our laws and rules in an open forum, in daylight and not behind closed doors, secret pass codes or handshakes. Second lesson. It is not wise to say one thing in Spanish and the exact opposite in English. We English speakers do understand Spanish — we are aware. Perhaps it’s time you hopped on your bus before you more than likely are thrown under it. Audios Thanks for showing your hand. It’s been a real eye opener.
UU: is that Unitarian Universalist? Unsophisticated Underling? Unsubstantiated Urkle?
Splain urself.
Louis Foxwell wrote:
“UU: is that Unitarian Universalist? Unsophisticated Underling? Unsubstantiated Urkle?
Splain urself.”
Well, what yo’ t’ink d’at is, da foist one’s right. What d’at is, is da’ Unitarian Universalist choich.
Now, to da’ nex’ two, d’em is kinda cute.
Hence my tar and feather comment. I graduated from Crane at Tufts. Was in the last class on campus. Spent a few yrs as a UU minister. How does such a one as you negotiate the troubled waters of extreme progressivism and rabid conservatism?
The problem is his dishonesty, not the disagreement imho
Louis Foxwell writes:
“Hence my tar and feather comment. I graduated from Crane at Tufts. Was in the last class on campus. Spent a few yrs as a UU minister. How does such a one as you negotiate the troubled waters of extreme progressivism and rabid conservatism?”
I was in elementary, then high school, respectively, school, when both Kennedy’s and King were shot.
I was raised as a GI brat, till my last 2 years of high school, living on base, and attending school on base. There were kids from all sorts of mixes, naturally, as GI’s had been all over the world.
I grew up under the real threat of Communism, which today folks try to make it nice nice and call it progressivism. I have interviewed and shared bread with many a Soviet Ukrainian religious refugee, so that solidifierd what I had known from a child.
I served 10 years in the military, and three of those were in SouthEast Asia, fighting the spread of Communism. I am a “Cold War Veteran”, witness to how quickly the Iranians hubba-dubba’d once President Reagan was sworn in.
I was taught, what can be done, for the good of the country. Not, what kin I git from da govmint.
Progressivism, is just re-packaged sugar-coated Communism. Why else does the last surviving Premier of Soviet Russia have it so good in San Francisco?
I remember what America Stood for, why people lost their lives to get here, and where it is, today.
And to mix it all into your answer, I’m a Nativist, as well.
It’s all black and white, literally.
“Rubio has committed political suicide, period.”
Agree. He may get the GOP nomination but he won’t get the conservative vote. If Rubio should be the GOP nominee one of two things will happen; conservatives will stay home or the Tea Party will split from the Republican Party and run its own candidate. Yes, either act will ensure a Democrat win but it seems that a bit of churn may be inevitable.....
I would like to thank RINio for outing himself early.
Well, Marco, if you want to fix what’s wrong in this country, how about getting the Executive Branch to enforce the laws which are already on the books? If they had done that, we wouldn’t have so many illegals to begin with.
Do your positions reflect any move toward conservative thought in the UU assn?
Louis Foxwell wrote:
“Do your positions reflect any move toward conservative thought in the UU assn?”
Within the U.U. Church? No. Even of those who are Pagan, there exists a commercial caricature of the U.U., as if it were The Borg, called “UU of 8”, and sells as thus:
http://www.cafepress.com/timeriftnetwork/489397
My views are my own, as they should be of any American, association or not, otherwise they are just sheeple.
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