Department Of The Obvious

Greg Sargent discovers that Sen. Marco Rubio might not be as honest and forthright about immigration reform as previously thought.

The fate of immigration reform comes down to this simple question: Can Republicans accept a pathway to citizenship that cannot be undermined by border security “triggers” that are deliberately designed for the very purpose of undercutting the prospects for real reform?

GOP Senator John Cornyn has been pushing a new immigration compromise that would dramatically strengthen the border security “triggers” that would have to be met to make a path to citizenship operative. The argument is that this is the only way enough Republicans can be enticed to support reform to enable it to pass the Senate in broad numbers. Senate Democratic aides are rejecting Cornyn’s proposal, arguing that it is deliberately designed to make the pathway to citizenship unattainable — in other words, to undermine the core of reform.

This has put Marco Rubio in a box, and it needs to be acknowledged that Cornyn’s move really does threaten the prospects for reform.

Or it could be, much more likely in fact, that Cornyn is working with him and is really giving Rubio the out he needs.  Now he can say that his own bill no longer meets his security criteria, and gosh, those nasty Dems are the ones who will force the bill to die.

Rubio gets to eat his cake and yours too.

It's almost like that was the plan all along.