Posted on 05/20/2007 1:26:50 AM PDT by Zakeet
With the immigration * compromise * in the Senate, President Bush and the Senators have detonated the slow-motion trigger on a Republican debacle in 2008. Let's count the ways:
1) The typical (median) American worker has seen his income stagnate under George W. Bush. Immigration is not the only reason for this wage stagnation, but it is certainly one of the reasons. With this immigration bill, the GOP is telling hard-pressed workers: Go look to somebody else to help you.
2) As complicated as this immigration deal is, it rests on a simple compromise: The Democrats get the amnesty they want - in exchange for the Republicans getting the guest-worker program they want. By identifying the guestworker program as the GOP's highest immigration priority, the deal also identifies the GOP as a party that in the crunch puts employers' interests first.
3) Even before the deal, Democrats entered the 2008 cycle unified and energized; Republicans, divided and demoralized. The president and the senators have now managed to divide and demoralize their party even further.
4) The deal scrambles the 2008 race, in ways deeply unhelpful to the party. The deal has wounded all three of the GOP front-runners: McCain because he is deeply implicated in it; Giuliani because he has tacitly endorsed it; Romney because it has added one more flip-flop to his already too lengthy list of reversals. The deal helps the two undeclared Republicans, Gingrich and Thompson - both of whom, alas, are much less electable on a national ticket than the three declared front-runners.
5) The White House/RNC defense of the deal only enrages Republican voters. When Tony Snow delivers a speech to the Council on National Priorities arguing that George W. Bush has been tougher on illegal immigration than any president ever .. well, he invites jeers and derision. Of the 35 million foreign-born people in the United States, some 8 million have arrived since 2001. Of the 12 million estimated illegals in the United States, some 4 million have arrived since 2001.
6) As we have seen in both the Harriet Miers fight and the Dubai ports deal, this White House's first instinct when faced with dissent in the ranks is to insult and abuse its strongest supporters. "Sexist"; "elitist"; "registered bigots" were some of the terms cast during the previous fights. Brace yourselves for much, much worse. This is no way to win friends and influence people. And triggering an internecine party conflict on the eve of a difficult and dangerous election is no way to re-elect a damaged incumbent party.
7) And unfortunately the White House's second instinct when confronted with dissent is to revert to incompetent spin. Unlike the Clinton administration, which lied with a fluency and bravado that will impress PR hacks for decades to come, the Bush administration stumbles, flusters, and eventually disheartens even its staunchest supporters. Or, as my friend Bill Walsh puts it, they cannot even tell the truth convincingly.
8) The deal will worsen Republican prospects among Hispanic voters. Over the years, the Republicans have done not too badly with Hispanics, typically winning about 35%-40% of the Hispanic vote as compared to under 10% of the black vote.
Republicans have done so well because until now, the highly diverse Hispanic population has not voted as an ethnic bloc. Now we ourselves are forcing that to change. It's as if this Republican president and these Republican senators have said, "Hmm. Can we invent an issue that will teach Cuban-American doctors, Honduran day laborers, and Mexican-American army officers to think of themselves as a unified ethnic group? Can we then provoke a fight that all of them (whatever their diverging practical interests) will treat as a symbol of acceptance in American society? And can we then stage-manage this fight to ensure that two-thirds of our party will have no choice but to fall on the wrong side of it?"
Nice work, guys.
This is disheartening in the extreme.
Call/email/write/fax and say NO to Amnesty!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008
That starts my Sunday off with a cheery glow.
Good article, unfortunately. This bill will destroy the Republican party. Many of us will leave out of disgust, and the Dem ranks will be filled with all of those illegal aliens. I do not believe Bush is that stupid. I frankly think he does not give a lick about the Republican party or the conservative movement and never did.
Once he leaves office, it will be interesting to see what corporations give the most to his library and pay him untold millions of dollars in speaker fees seats on their boards.
I used to have some respect for Tony Snow, though even when he had a radio show, you could tell he was Bush’s lackey. But as nice as he comes off, when he plays Bush’s mouthpiece and knowingly lies to the American people every day to try to sell this sorry bill, I just assume he’s as worthless as the rest. Too bad - Bush never fooled me, but I thought Snow had a little bit of integrity.
Every single repub Senator that sells us out needs to get primary challengers or even recall demands. I’ve had it.
On second thought - I have a major disagreement with Frum. We all know that Newt is damaged goods, but what makes him think Fred Thompson is unelectable?
The recent wave of Mexican illegals are anti-USA, Marxist agitators. Last summer there were multitudes of them carrying signs that glorified Osama Bin Laden.
They are no different than the Palestinians...
There is a new Scrappleface article you should read if you can find it: Bush will name his new Presidential Library after the man who made the Bush Agenda happen in education, campaign finance reform, and amnesty. The Teddy Kennedy Memorial Bush Library - to be built with legal illegal workers.
BINGO
I personally am for more legal immigration (a position not shared by all Freepers to be sure). I am steadfastly opposed to illegal immigration. It cheapens the value of the US citizenship that all of us hold dear and those that endure the lengthy process of obtaining legal citizenship.
I want a fence across the entire length of our border with Mexico. If that does not work, I then want a fence on the border with Canada. I would stop all legal immigration from all Muslim countries for a period of twenty years. If we can jerk Americans around for 14 years with Prohibition and 40 years with Affirmative Action, we can jerk around illegal immigrants for a 20 year experiment.
Factually fraudulent. The "Middle Class" by any measurement is doing better now then any time in history. This is a knowing lie told by Mr Frum. Another one of the lies the pseudo "Populists" Neo-Marxists pretending to be "Conservatives" scream to try and validate their intellectually bankrupt Class Warfare rhetoric. Frum is pissed because he got fired by the Bush White House. Since then he has been almost as Leftist as Andrew Sullivan. His "analysis" has more to do with sour grapes because he did not get a speech writing job he felt he was entitled to then any honest assessment of the facts.
“It’s only fair, since Teddy’s the architect of the Bush legacy,” said an unnamed White House source. “Sen. Kennedy was the driving force behind the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act, and now this measure to legalize illegal immigration. Historians will remember these as the watersheds of Bush-Kennedy years.” (Scrappleface)
Hint to Romney: never again brag about your collaboration with Teddy on Mass health care, as you did in the first debate. Never.
And the screamers wonder why NO one in DC listens to them on anything? Maybe it has to do with the fact that relying on the current “Conservative” movement for anything is a waste of time. For the last 7 years they have demonstrated the ONLY thing they know how to do is snipe their own. How about ONE time the Always Whining actually grow a spine and find the courage, finally, to attack the Left on something?
This bill will pave the way for a one party country, and socialism will follow. Too bad, Pres. Bush is so narrowminded on this issue, especially since he was part of the last election loss of the house and senate. What we need now is a strong, pricipled leader without pandering, only doing was is right, otherwise God help us all.
When we "Call/email/write/fax and say NO to Amnesty!!" we should also mention this hurts Republicans. Our guys might be tone deaf when it comes to us, but I suspect they care about their own re-election.
bump
Yup, this hits the nail on the head.
See Post No. 8.
You just proved Frum's point re "insult and abuse," as you do on most of these threads.
Oh, come on - it's liberals who use "class warfare" and you know it. Were you a former liberal or something?
You're right -- he did just prove it.
Excellent except it once again falls into the false trap of claiming this has something to do with immigration. It has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with rewarding illegal activity because enforcing the law is distasteful to the powers that be.
No immigrants benefit, only illegals. Say no to Amnesty, say no to rewarding illegal behavior, do NOT let this once again be the nation of line cutters.
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