National Review slams Rubio on latest mag cover (Updated)

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then the National Review's May 2013 mag cover says a lot about Sen. Marco Rubio's future relationship with the GOP's conservative base -- at least when it comes to the issue of immigration:

h/t David Graham

Update: As it turns out, NR's cover photo originally included some background characters, including American Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist.  Those figures, however, were photoshopped out.  

So why the photoshopped image?  Buzzfeed asked and NR editor Rich Lowry responded:

"Sorry, Grover. But our extensive market research shows that partially obscured bearded anti-tax activists do very poorly on our covers. In addition to a partial Grover head, we removed a detached arm and a few other random heads from the image to make it more visually clean and to focus on the politicians in the foreground. The table of contents of the issue contains this disclaimer: 'The cover image was altered slightly, to remove people standing in the background.'"

In other Rubio news today, the Shark Tank reports that the Florida Republican recently delivered some "strong warnings" to a group of Republicans in Port St. Lucie, Fla., about future threats of Iran and radical Islam.

"This war against radical Islamic terrorism may last for the rest of our lifetimes and unfortunately, maybe even our children," Rubio said.  "There is still evil in the world, and evil must  be defeated. The United States of America remains the only country on earth with the ability and the willingness to call evil for what it is, confront it, and defeat it."

Watch video of Rubio's remarks after the jump.