Posted on 07/08/2006 4:37:07 PM PDT by garbageseeker
LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America.
"I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.
Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations — have helped him view immigrants as people rather than statistics.
"It's hard to demonize people if you know them," he said.
But Clinton also argued that the nation's government is controlled by Republican ideological hard-liners who want to use immigration to divide Americans and distract them from issues such as the war in Iraq and the health care crisis.
Instead of equal opportunity, they support a "financial elite" because they favor "concentrated wealth and power," Clinton said.
"They believe in a government that is secret, unaccountable and that maximizes its own power," he said. "They really believe the world works better if they run it and we keep our mouths shut."
Clinton supported an immigration reform measure passed by the Senate that would provide a way for many of the estimated 12 million foreigners living in the country illegally to become citizens. A House-approved bill would make illegal immigrants felons and build 700 miles of border walls. House and Senate negotiators so far have not been able to work out a compromise.
Bush has said he wants to enforce the borders so fewer people sneak across but also provide a way for those already in the United States to become legal. He has praised Hispanic immigrants as hardworking and family oriented. Clinton used similar language in his own speech.
The message played well with La Raza, which opposes the House bill and whose current president, Janet Murguia, was an assistant in the Clinton White House.
Before Clinton's speech, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa noted a string of rallies over the immigration issue, including one in March that sent 500,000 people into the streets of Los Angeles and garnered international attention.
"You literally reshaped the political landscape of our nation ... we can still see a movement blooming before our very eyes," he said.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been looking for ways to court Hispanics, whose fast-growing population gives them the potential to become an enormous voting force. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was scheduled to address the convention on Tuesday
That right there should be enough evidence that Bush's Amnesty plan is a really bad idea. Any time Bubba likes something - it can't be good.
Why president Bush, why?
The only way Bush could be more sure he's wrong on this is if Gore or Carter chime in in agreement.
Good question.
"The only way Bush could be more sure he's wrong on this is if Gore or Carter chime in in agreement."
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Jimmy Carter already did.
"Any time Bubba likes something - it can't be good."
I don't know . . . he liked having a good time in the Oval Office.
This cinches it!!! Bush has been neutralized and his vitals sucked out of him and replaced by a 'bot...
lol.
I think I'm gonna be sick.
I think that both president has sold themselves out to La Raza
Well put.
BTW, the mere fact that Clinton is speaking to an anti-American radical left group like La Raza reinforces some things we've known about Bubba for years.
Please neutralize the thread. It is a duplicate
I just came into our Dallas apartment and there was a couple of hispanics out there and I said hello: they smiled and said nothing...had I said Ollah...they would have replied....we manage apartments in the Dallas area...so I am biased...but these folks work.....they pay their bills....and are making the DFW area better.... For those of you who live in another part of the country....take a Mexican home before a Los Negroes....you will be safer.....=s=
That was my first reaction to the thread; first Teddy now Bubba. He has to feel like someone who ran out of gas in the middle of Harlem on Saturday night.
Just do not do it on me
Wonder if even this will cause some to stop and think a little differently about the current situation? When our President is more in step with Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton it should be a huge wakeup.
I think so
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