[h/t Heather

Newt Gingrich spilled the beans Sunday on This Week about something we already knew. I've suspected for awhile that immigration reform is an area Republicans have softened on because they want to pimp Marco Rubio as their great Hispanic Hope for 2016. Newt, in his blunt and mean-spirited way, confirmed that suspicion.

Here's Newt spelling it out for anyone who doesn't already have a clue:

KARL: Will a Rubio immigration plan pass the House? GINGRICH: No, but I think a Rubio -- and -- the House Republicans and House Democrats have been meeting on immigration. I mean I think there will be a House immigration bill that has a very substantial support that Boehner and Cantor and others will be supporting. And I think that negotiated with a Senate immigration bill that has to have bipartisan support could actually get to the president's desk. But an Obama plan led and driven by Obama in this atmosphere with the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility I think is very hard to imagine that bill -- that his bill is going to pass the House.

Shorter Newt: Republicans hate the president and would never, ever, ever do anything that he wanted. They will, however, do what Marco Rubio wants.

This is so irritating on so many levels, but it's especially irritating because Jonathan Karl set it up for Gingrich way back at the beginning of this segment when he feigned shock that the White House would dare to work on a plan without Marco Rubio.

KARL: Now, this hit with a thud as far as Marco Rubio is concerned. He said late last night in a statement, quote, "this legislation is half baked and seriously flawed. It would actually make our immigration problems worse. If actually proposed, the president's bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come." Let's be honest. There is no passing an immigration bill without Marco Rubio. How could the White House be working on a draft without Republican input?

You know what? Screw Marco Rubio and the whole hateful pot of Republicans. Since when is it some kind of a sin for a president to draft his own framework and keep it as Plan B? Truthfully, the point of the draft and the leak was to send a signal to the group working on immigration reform that the president also expects to see certain pieces put together inside of it. But where does a Sunday show host get off making a pronouncement like that?

Just so things are clear here, Marco Rubio won because the people in Florida chose to be oblivious to certain facts about Marco Rubio, including a small issue he had with regard to misappropriating party funds for his own personal use. In some circles that might be called corruption, but because everyone was so enamored of the young teabagger senatorial candidate, they overlooked it. I'm fairly certain it won't be as easily overlooked when it comes to a presidential run, however.

In the meantime, my message to Jonathan Karl is to quit making pronouncements about what the White House should and should not do. Instead he should listen to Newt Gingrich, who is right about one thing: Republicans hate Barack Obama so much they're willing to screw this country over rather than behave like adults and get something done.

As for who "goads the hostility?" All I can say is that I didn't see Democrats at town hall meetings with t-shirts calling for bloodshed to "water the tree of liberty." The King Goader of all time is Newt Gingrich. He's the number one reason our politics is so nasty.

He set the trend with Clinton and taught the rest of them how to take it to a level never, ever seen before in our politics.