Rubio's two-faced immigration politics earn him enemies on both sides

Sen. Marco Rubio slapped immigration advocates Tuesday with yet another reminder that he's entirely turned his back on them. Even though Rubio has been skipping Senate votes left and right, he did manage to show up and vote in favor of the odious bill to strip so-called "sanctuary cities" of federal funding (it failed, thanks to Democrats).

Rubio, a GOP presidential contender who has been showing glimmers of 2016 promise after Scott Walker's exit, also has some serious challenges, including anemic fundraising, going AWOL in early voting states, and totally alienating the GOP wing nuts and the immigration community alike, reports Seung Min Kim:

Immigration advocates who were Rubio’s allies just two years ago are now threatening electoral retribution if he becomes the Republican nominee next year. To them, Rubio’s pro-reform role in the 2013 immigration battle and his Latino heritage won’t be enough to make up for his distancing himself from his chief legislative initiative. [...]

“He’s saying to donors and to Latinos that I’m still for a path to citizenship, I’m still for immigration reform. But I’ve learned the hard way” regarding a comprehensive bill, [America's Voice Frank] Sharry said. “It’s very clever. It sounds reasonable. But for people who actually know what it takes to pass legislation, especially immigration reform legislation, it’s so hollow. It has all the substance of Cheetos.”

Meanwhile, the hardliners despise him too.

“At this point, there’s very little he’s backed off” of, said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Rubio’s chief GOP nemeses on immigration. “On a series of issues, I don’t think he’s ever backed off of the fundamentals of the bill.”

This is what you get for playing two-faced politics with people's lives—a record that haunts you in the primary and then again in the general, if you're even lucky enough to make it there.