A campaign about “nothing”: It seems the chances that Marco Rubio’s ‘secure the border first’ position isn’t fake aren’t as bad as I thought. They’re worse. As previously noted, on the stump Rubio says that “nothing” will happen, in his scheme, until the border is “secure”. It sounds like nothing means nothing — no “temporary” or “provisional” or “probationary” legalization, no work permits, etc. for the current illegal population. But wait …. Ed Martin’s excellent compendium of Rubio immigration deception notes that Rubio has used the “nothing” phrase before–when defending the Gang of 8 amnesty bill to Rush Limbaugh:

The seminal moment of [Rubio’s] media tour occurred early, on Rush Limbaugh’s show. He declared: “if there is not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else will happen unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place, I won’t support it.” [E.A.]

Hmm. The Gang of 8 bill did feature–prominently– a near immediate “provisional” mass legalization (including work permits) before enforcement mechanisms were in place, and Rubio supported the bill. So we have a reaonably good idea what “nothing,” in Rubio’s hands, means. It means the Gang of 8.  It may rule out a permanent resolution of the path to citizenship question until the border is “secure” (whatever that word means). But it doesn’t rule out Gang-of-8-style insta-legalization on some theoretically impermanent basis. And that’s all it would take for the La Raza & Co to start its inevitable campaign to knock out the new enforcement mechanisms. since everyone would know “provisional” amnesty will not in practice be overturned.

Turns out “nothing” doesn’t mean “nothing.” It’s just one of the words Rubio uses to con the GOP base.