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Sen. Marco Rubio Touts Upcoming Immigration Bill

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Here's a bit of Washington language: getting on all five of the Sunday morning TV political talk shows is known as the full Ginsburg, named for William H. Ginsburg, Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, who was the first to achieve this feat back in 1998.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, many more have gone on to reach that mark: Among them, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton. Then comes yesterday: Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio topped them all. He appeared not only on all five English political shows, but on two political shows on the Spanish-language networks, as well.

INSKEEP: Think of it as the full Rubio. This Tea Party-backed conservative, who's widely seen as a presidential hopeful, has become the go-to guy in the Gang of Eight. That's the bipartisan group of senators who are unveiling legislation this week with a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. NPR's David Welna reports on the day when the DVR was working overtime.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: In his string of TV appearances, Marco Rubio revealed few details about what's actually in the immigration proposal he's been working on. Instead, as was the case on CBS's "Face the Nation," Rubio's sales pitch was mainly for the overall bill.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FACE THE NATION")

WELNA: Still, most of the questions Rubio got were about just one aspect of the bill: the path to citizenship it offers those now in the country unlawfully. Rubio's response on NBC's "Meet the Press" was that those people could legally leave the country now and apply for a green card in 10 years.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")

WELNA: And that's why the path to citizenship, Rubio said, is not amnesty. But fellow Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, told ABC's "This Week" he was not convinced.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THIS WEEK")

WELNA: The bill would actually give legal status to most undocumented immigrants six months after becoming law. Convincing skeptics that's a good thing will likely take far more than hitting the Sunday talk show circuit. David Welna, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

David Welna is NPR's national security correspondent.