[Dane]

What is wrong with trying to capture the hispanic vote. The vast majority are hard working, religious, and family oriented.

[familyofman]

"What is wrong with trying to capture the hispanic vote. The vast majority are hard working, religious, and family oriented."

There's also about 8 - 12 million of them that are criminals. Criminals, that's right illegally entering this country is a criminal offense. Let's knock off the nicey-nice words & call them what they are - criminals. If any candidate from any party thinks I will vote for someone that endorses/encourages illegal behavior - they are dead wrong.
Hispanic/latino, whatever should be preceeded by criminal - face the facts & call them what they are.

[Spiff]

What is wrong with trying to capture the hispanic vote. The vast majority are hard working, religious, and family oriented.

For one, it is an appeasement that is really an insult. Its like trying to capture the "black vote" by giving amnesty to carjackers and crack dealers. I haven't met a single "hispanic" who would be more likely to vote for Bush if he pushed through an amnesty.

[Varda]

There's nothing wrong with trying to get votes. The problem is on what basis? Bush seems to believe that this pandering will garner votes not on the basis of the common good but on the basis that legal "hispanics"want to support breaking the law. Do we really want to encourage the idea that it's OK for a designated group to break the law?

It's an American principle that the law applys to everyone regardless of ethnicity. Immigrants are elevated to equality when the law views them as such. It's not good for the country to let any group become a permanent "other" never perceived as just American. We've had a lot of that in our history and most of it was the result of racism.

Fortunately for Republicans, Democrats aren't much better but they are getting better advice,
"New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) offered some pretty good advice to his own party. Referring to Hispanic voter’s “independent streak,” the Chairman of the 2004 Democrat Convention warned his party against taking Hispanic voters for granted and urged them to “move beyond issues like immigration and [instead] stress economic concerns, including job creation and entrepreneurship.”
It sounds like Richardson actually knows something about Hispanic voters, who make up 43% of the state he governs. The question is whether his party will pay him any heed." ( Raul Damas, director of operations at Opiniones Latinas)

Economic concerns, job creation and entrepreneurship are things that have no ethnic boundaries, they aren't divisive and they don't promote contempt for the law.

[taxed2death]

Dane, I can't believe your post #52 & #53. You've slipped a cog or two. You used to make some pretty good arguments on other threads, although I rarely agreed with most of them. When it comes to the problem of illegals, you've dropped the ball.