Immigration bill puts Marco Rubio in hot water with tea party

Senator quickly loses presidential appeal

Sen. Marco Rubio's popularity has plummeted among tea party activists who say the Florida Republican, who helped ignite their movement with his 2010 Senate bid, has failed to live up to the hype — and made a major wrong turn by joining Sen. John McCain's push to legalize illegal immigrants.

Tea partyers say their beef is not that Mr. Rubio is trying to fix the nation's immigration system, but that the bill he helped write doesn't repair the nation's porous borders, even as it offers special pork to some lawmakers and expands the size of the federal government.