Journalists Jon Ward and Andrew Romano
have a piece recounting the shameful episode in 2013 during which Sen. Marco Rubio first championed immigration reform and then helped kill it.
After immigration reform passed the Senate, Rubio could have continued his crusade and worked to ensure that the House passed something as well. Instead, he decided to change the subject. In July, he sponsored legislation to outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy; a few weeks later, he withdrew support for a gay judge whom he had previously supported.
Now, while Rubio criticized Obama from the lectern, Cruz — the tea party’s latest darling — sat a couple of feet to his right, nodding and grinning. At one point, Rubio likened the Affordable Care Act to New Coke — a product that Coca-Cola was forced to recall in 1985 after only a few short months on the shelves.
“It was a disaster,” Rubio said. “Everybody hated it. What did Coca-Cola do when New Coke began to flounder? They did not say, ‘Well, we are just going to continue to make more of it.’ They backed away from it.”
The sad thing is, immigration reform is the closest Rubio has come to a presidential stress test. What did he do? He folded, perhaps finding some sort of wisdom in the lessons of Coca-Cola's turn with New Coke. No words.
The idea of this guy becoming the GOP nominee, which is seeming like less of a long shot after Jeb's masterful week, is scary.