Posted on 05/16/2006 7:44:15 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Mark Steyn reacts to the President's immigration speech.
05-15steyn.mp3
HH: Joined now by Mark Steyn, Steynonline.com, columnist to the world. Mark, your reaction to the President's speech, and the Majority Leader's comments?
MS: Well, I think the President has, in fact, actually not damaged himself, but I wouldn't say he's done anything that is going to reassure people who take this issue seriously. I think the overall tone, that sort of moderate tone, will appeal to people who are uncommitted on this issue. But I think it aggravates those of us who were hoping for a bit more daddy party talk, rather than the kind of mommified, family values don't stop at the Rio Grande type stuff.
HH: And the Majority Leader's commentary?
MS: Well, I think, you know, I think as far as Senator Frist is concerned, that there isn't...unfortunately, as we saw with Dick Durbin's response, that the likelihood is the Democrats are going to play politics with the whole question of National Guard deployments on the border. And that this is going to become their way of attacking the Republican Party on this issue, making that the big centerpiece of it. And in fairness, that's invited by bringing up that issue. But I don't think this situation is going to resolve itself, either from what the President said tonight, or what Senator Frist said.
HH: Mark Steyn, my proposition is I was actually okay with the speech, thought it was a fine effort. And then Julie Myers came on my program, and just staggered me, because she clearly doesn't believe in the fence, doesn't care about it, says tunnels defeat it. In other words, all the optics are not being supported by the administration spokespeople. I don't know what it is elsewhere, but...
MS: Well, you know something, I know something about that, because as it always comes down to it, I've actually experienced...this isn't just a spectator sport with me. I've been through U.S. immigration as a participant. And what everybody tells you is that Congress and the President can announce things as often as they want, and Congress can pass laws on it as much as they want. They can pass particular programs. A couple of years back, they determined there was a need for a particular type of business category, and Congress passed a law for it. And it just sat on the desk of the relative immigration agency. The reality of U.S. immigration is that basically, you've got a lot of different...every single border guard and border post is operating a free-lance immigration policy. The border post at Pittsburgh-New Hampshire is unmanned two-thirds of the day. The border post on the Manitoba-Minnesota border is on the honor system. It's open 24 hours a day. You pull up there and there's a video phone and there's a sign saying please check in on the video phone. And 60% of the time, the video phone doesn't work. So you have to ask yourself are these people, the ones who regardless of what the President and Congress says, seriously going to enforce anything he requires anyway?
HH: You know, earlier tonight, Mark Steyn, I spoke with Jonathan Alter, Newsweek columnist, about his new book, The Defining Moment, a very good book, actually, about FDR. And when it came time to create the Civilian Conservation Corps, nobody wanted to do it. Labor didn't want to do it, the military didn't want to do it. FDR had to sit there and pound on the table to get it done. He had to force feed it through. If this President wants what he wants done, he's got to wrestle all of these people.
MS: Well, yes, I think he has. And you know, I think this is where...if I fault the President, I think this goes back to those early days after September 11th. It's shocking to me that after illegal immigrants used...the illegal immigration system was used by the 9/11 hijackers to get their picture I.D. with which they boarded the planes. It's shocking to me that this is still an issue that's being framed in essentially these horrible euphemisms, that bear no reality to anything. Incidentally, by the way, I disagree with the guest worker program. No civilized society should have a guest worker program. That's what countries like Saudi Arabia have, and that's what Germany has with the Turks, and it hasn't worked out well for them. If there are jobs that people need doing in this country that they can't find Americans for, then those people should be admitted on the same basis as any other legal immigrant. What is happening on this issue, I think this is where the President actually framed it in the wrong terms. It's not an immigration thing. I'm an immigrant. There are 200 countries in the world. A lot of them come and send citizens who want to come and live legally in the United States. And some of them send people who want to come and live here illegally. And those illegal people live in towns here and there, and they don't pay taxes, but they spend their money in the local economy. The Mexican business, you've got millions of people sending vast amounts of money in the form of remittances back to Mexico. Mexico is basically annexed a whole chunk of the U.S. economy. It's a sovereignty issue. It's not an immigration issue.
HH: Mark Steyn, I'm in studio with Truth Laid Bear's Bear, and he is covering over at Truthlaidbear.com online reaction, which is overwhelmingly negative. Now this might just be wish fulfillment, but it might also be tipping public opinion. Do you think it's the former or the latter?
MS: Well, I don't think that the President can realistically fall much lower. I mean, he's somewhere between the Janjaweed and the Ebola Virus right now...
HH: (laughing)
MS: ...and I don't think...I don't think he's actually going to be...I remember once being on a TV show in Britain that had an audience so low it couldn't statistically be measured.
HH: I've been on a number of those shows. I've hosted some.
MS: The President is approaching that low, and I don't necessarily think that will particularly impact the fate of the Republican Party in November. I could quite see it possible, you know, a scenario where the President has 5% approval ratings, and yet somehow, the Republicans still manage to hold the House and Senate. But I do think, again, I do think it seriously gets to the credibility, not just of the administration, but of the United States. When you enforce the border, Vicente Fox calls up the White House and bawls them out for basically enforcing their jurisdiction, and he's told by the White House, oh, don't worry. We're just going through the motions, it's just for a couple of weeks. Tell your guys to lie low for a couple of weeks, and then they can sneak across, same as usual. I mean, that's pathetic to do that to the leader of a third world, basket case economy. How are Russia and China meant to think of the hyperpower in that situation?
HH: Oh, and I also think...you did not hear this Julie Myers interview, and I'm just still abadabadabada about this thing. She comes on and immediately walks the dog backwards. I mean, it's not even ten minutes since the President went off the air, and she's saying well, you know, the fence really doesn't work, and you can tunnel under fences, and stuff like that. And so, they're getting worked by the President of Mexico, getting worked by the people below them. And what does Bush do next? Because I actually think that you can't lead this way. You can't...
MS: Well, you know what I find very interesting about this, and again, as I said, I'm like poor old Christopher Hitchens. Whenever you have subjects of Her Britannic Majesty on the show, Hugh, we've all experienced this thing as a hard end. You know, the President says he wants to do this thing in an atmosphere of respect. The reality is, a lot of us who go through the legal system aren't treated very respectfully. You know, they're quite capable of cracking down on individuals if for one reason or another, they just decide the individual didn't fill in the RU-12 within the 30 days or whatever, and they decide to tie him up in bureaucratic hell for some minor infraction. They're quite capable of doing that if they want to. And yet, at the same time, their basic modus operandi is to let Congress pass whatever laws it wants, and then just put them in the bottom of the filing cabinet and life goes on as usual.
HH: 30 seconds, Mark Steyn. Did the President help himself? Did he advance immigration reform in solution and border control tonight?
MS: No, I don't think he helped himself, and I don't believe he seriously tackled what is a sustained assault by Mexico on U.S. sovereignty.
HH: Mark Steyn, I look forward to talking to you again on Thursday.
End of interview.
http://www.radioblogger.com/images/05-15steyn.mp3
Jorge struck out.
When it's all said and done, that speech will go down in history with Whip Inflation Now.....
Listening to John Batchelor tonight and he's trying to make a desire for border security a racism issue, and Lawrence Kudlow, whom I usually agree with, is just ga-ga over allowing sixty million more immigrants over the next twenty years. Why they'll fund Social Security for the baby boomers! Has the world gone insane? It's a simple question of whether we have a nation or a public park. So which is it? And it's my tax dollars - and everyone else in the middle class - that will go to support this massive bureaucracy and entitlement empire.
It's gonna be a public park with dog crap all over the place. We've been sold down the river by the republican party. I am finished with them, unless there is someone whose number one issue is illegal immegration, against it that is.
LOL! How true - that was a whimp speech if I ever heard one. Wish I still had my Ford WIN! button...
Hugh "Harriet Miers should be on the Supreme Court" Hewitt loved the speech. Until Julie Miers spoke.
I didn't know Jorge was batting.
But I believe you meant President Bush struck out.
"There is nothing but silence from the dimocRATS."
I think the MSM edits out due to embarassment. The ones that get through, like Harry Reid, sound insane. Criticizing Bush for non-enforcement years past, while being his biggest supporters on Amnesty-Worker Programs-Increase Immigration levels to a zillion.
You know what would scare them? If Sen. Obama made a public break from them on Enforcement First or something similar. It would make his career! Also if the unions publicly announce a parley with Republican leaders to fight the Dems on this issue.
El Presidente Jorge Abusto el segundo.
LOL. Steyn rocks.
"When it's all said and done, that speech will go down in history with Whip Inflation Now....."
OK, that's darn good. I think I can trump you -
Carter's "Malaise" speech.
Some historian might tell us in the 19th century some president made a speech exciting duels and mayhem, but I'll stick with Carter's for now..
If Bush starts hanging out in the Rose Garden ...
I'm beginning to believe Vicente Fox has some verrrrry compromising 8x10 glossies of Bush. LOL
It wasn't a step in any direction. It was an attempt to snooker the nation. Why must border enforcement be tied to amnesty? There is no reason for that at all. Border enforcement first-----then talk about amnesty.
Without question. However with the dumbing down in the socialist school system many find it acceptable this day. Remember, the commie left would today throw out JFK. Me thinks RUSH is wrong when he says the country is headed toward conservatism. Any acceptance from the right by this speech tells it all.
Totally incorrect.
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