Immigration reform: Is Marco Rubio alienating his conservative fans?

Sen. Marco Rubio, the Tea Party favorite from Florida, has become the face of comprehensive immigration reform, embarking on a frenetic media tour in recent days to sell a bipartisan plan to skeptical conservatives. Rubio has gone into the dragon's lair of right-wing radio three times in the past week — meeting with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin — and emerged largely unscathed, fueling hopes that Congress could pass a plan that would offer a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers living in the United States.

Those hopes are shared not only by many Democrats, Latinos, and pro-reform groups, but Republican leaders who are eager to make their party more appealing to one of the country's fastest-growing demographics. However, there have recently been signs of discontent among some conservative stalwarts, a reminder of just how passionately members of the GOP base oppose offering "amnesty" to those who entered the country illegally. And if the base revolts against the bipartisan plan, no politician stands to lose more than Rubio, whose neck is so stuck out on the issue that it may be impossible for him to backtrack.

The editorial board of National Review, for example, came out strongly against the plan, and criticized Rubio in particular.

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National Review's editor, Rich Lowry, also panned the plan in a Politico op-ed titled "Marco Rubio's bad deal":

Erick Erickson, the influential editor of Red State, had this to say, in a blog post called "I don't like Marco Rubio's plan":

Ann Coulter at Townhall says:

And so on — the criticism from the right is just beginning. Which means Rubio, an early frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination, will have a difficult time navigating the debate without dinging up his knight-in-shining-armor image. It's worth remembering that John McCain's 2008 nomination was nearly scuttled over his so-called support for amnesty, a lesson that his successor, Mitt Romney, took to heart so deeply that he advocated a policy of self-deportation.

"This is going to be tough for Republicans and the recidivist elements in our party," Alex Castellanos, a GOP strategist, recently told The Washington Post. "It will be all fine until there is a GOP primary, say for president, and one candidate breaks out as the anti-immigration candidate and appeals to GOP fears and not hopes."