Immigration Reform News 2013: Rubio Pitches Senate Bill in Media Blitz This Weekend

Now that the Senate is finally ready to unveil its bipartisan immigration bill next week, Marco Rubio has finally chosen a side.

The Cuban-American Republican senator from Florida has been on of the architects of the reform bill from its inception, and he is a member of the "Gang of Eight" that has been crafting the bill for months.

Rubio has long supported immigration reform, even when it was an unpopular topic in his party as recently as the 2012 presidential election.

But in the last few weeks, Rubio's support for the compromise bill seemed to wane, and urged caution on several occasions, asking his fellow legislators not to rush to pass the bill.

That ran contrary to what many of his former allies wanted, as most analysts and lawmakers believe the longer it takes to bring the bill up for a vote, the less likely it is to pass.

Political realists and cynics said Rubio's apparent change of heart was a calculated maneuver, designed to make him more palatable as a possible 2016 presidential candidate to the conservative base of the Republican Party, which is still uncomfortable with comprehensive immigration reform that could offer a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country.

For all his Tea Party cred, as well as his social and fiscal conservatism, Rubio is still often seen as a moderate Republican, especially because of his support for immigration reform. And that doesn't play well in starkly red states. If Rubio wants to make it past the Republican primaries in a few years, he needs to be able to prove he's a "severe conservative."

But he also can't afford to alienate moderates, independents or Latinos, all of whom favor reform. In fact, support for reform is so strong right now that even a few negative words from one of its architects won't derail it. So Rubio was able to polish his conservative credentials by speaking out against reform, while doing nothing to practically hinder it.

Now that he's paid his dues, Rubio is back on the wagon and planning a media blitz this weekend, reaching out to conservative radio and talk shows, as well as Spanish-language media.

It's full steam ahead for next week.