Is the “Tea Party darling” a darling no more?
Marco Rubio: Tea Party darling. Or is he?
Wednesday night at the St. Lucie County Lincoln Day Dinner – an annual fundraising event for the Republican Party – Rubio faced the fury of some in the Tea Party, as they ripped him for helping to spearhead immigration reform.
Without them Rubio might not be here: a US senator at the front of the national immigration reform debate.
But as he spoke inside – to St. Lucie County Republicans – around two dozen protesters outside spoke too.
“He was the Tea Party darling. Until he went to DC and played us,” said Christine Timmon, a Tea Party supporter.
“We put him into office and this is not what he promised us,” said another.
The bill that Rubio helped write calls for a pathway to citizenship for law-abiding and taxpaying illegals.
It also increases border security and gives permanent residency to children of illegal aliens.
“What about the twenty, to twenty-two million American workers who can’t find a full-time job?” said David Caulkett of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement.
But Rubio says that leaving things the way they are is defacto amnesty anyway, and argues that not shoring up borders will lead to twice as big a problem in ten years.
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