McCain Is Booed by Labor Activists

JSOnline via AP ^ | April 4, 2006 | Ron Fournier

[samcgwire]

He is an entertaining candidate, in a watching-an-accident kind of way.

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!

[EagleMamaMT]

"McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.

"I'll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends.""


How DARE he tell American men they can't work as hard as a bunch of illegal aliens!!! This infuriates me! Maybe HE couldn't handle hard labor, but he's just an elite senator - not good for much but photo-ops and cocktail parties.

Construction workers work out in all elements - extreme heat, extreme cold, even bone-chilling rain, and he has the nerve to tell them they "can't do it". And all of the American construction workers I know do it for a whole lot less than his offered $50.00 per hour. My husband is a crane operator with 30 years of experience and doesn't even make $50.00 per hour! Hell, I hoed enough cantaloup and watermelon fields in the blazing Oklahoma sun when I was a kid and I managed to do it just fine - and believe me I wasn't making $50.00 per hour! They should have pelted him with rotten tomatoes. "Can't do it" my angry a**!

If this doesn't tell us what the political elite think of the American people, nothing will.

[Echo Talon]

72% of the public opposes the Republican Party's immigration party. They're not budging.

So who are they supporting the democrats amnesty party?

[Pragmatic Warrior]

Those 17,000 undocumented (illegal) immigrants currently serving in the U.S, Military are earning their citizenship the hard way.

I rarely hear anything about them. That is so sad.

[samcgwire]

Last nail if confirmed, IMO.

[Dane]

How many illegals are on medicaid?

How many native born Americans are also.

[BenLurkin]

Great soundbites if anyone had a recorder going.

[TalonDJ]

there are 17,000 undocumented(illegal) aliens serving in our Armed Forces.

The act of signing up changes that status. Yeah they might have come illegally, but if they have a US DOD ID card they are sure as heck 'documented'.

[JillValentine]

With his profile rising, a growing number of Democrats are accusing McCain of flip-flopping on issues to court conservative GOP primary voters.

McCain courting members of his own party? That'd be a first.

[NapkinUser]

"How many native born Americans are also."

Too many. But that doesn't mean I like the numbers to be even more inflated with third world illegals.

[Spiff]

"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.

Leave the Senate?! Please do.

"OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."

The courtesy of depressing their wages? The course of raising their taxes to pay for freebies for illegal aliens? The courtesy of allowing the invaders to steal their jobs? The courtesy of enabling this invasion that annually costs Americans more lives than 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Iraq War put together? The courtesy to tell them to shut up and bend over and take it? I don't know how much more of John McCain's courtesy this country can stand!

[bill1952]

"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern.

Sweet Mary Joesph, please say that to us!

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."

Excuse me?? Is any other American insulted by this remark? WTF he is thinking is becoming as clear as mud.

[andyk]

How many illegals are on medicaid?

They don't need Medicaid; they just go to the emergency room.

[Caveman Lawyer]

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona. Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer. "I'll take it!" one man shouted. McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."

McCain's got a weird brain, but the AP is also a miserable excuse for a news agency. Without the article interpolating what McCain meant by "You can't do it," wouldn't it be more reasonable to read McCain's reply to mean "You can't pick lettuce for $50/hour"? I'm not a fan of McCain's and disagree with him on immigration, but this could just be a case of lousy journalism (or, as other posters have suggested, a stab in McCain's back).

[Dane]

Construction workers work out in all elements - extreme heat, extreme cold, even bone-chilling rain, and he has the nerve to tell them they "can't do it"

Ask these 7,500 GM union workers.

AS General Motors tries to reduce its payroll by 30,000 jobs, the New York Times has pointed out that GM still pays as many as 7,500 workers to do nothing. This is part of a Jobs Bank experiment gone mad. In 1984, the United Auto Workers and management created the Jobs Bank as a way of keeping workers on the payroll while the company automated its production. "The argument went that if the auto companies had a pool of idled workers, they would be less likely to outsource labor overseas," wrote Jeremy Peters of the New York Times. What was supposed to be a billion-dollar program was supposed to end in 1990. A generation later, it continues. It costs GM about $9.4 million a week to pay the salaries of people in the Jobs Bank, and that does not include their health care and pension benefits. Now the bank threatens to undermine the buyouts of up to $140,000 each that GM is offering its workers. Peters visited Oklahoma City, where 2,300 employees remain on the payroll a month after GM shut down their plant. They receive full pay and benefits even though there is nothing for them to do except sit around and chat, play games, or watch TV. Garland Pruitt, 53, with 27 years of seniority, told Peters: "Why would I walk out the door with $2,000 less per month and have to go find a job when I can sit in the bank, get my 30 years and retire? It's really to my advantage to ride the bank out as long as it goes."

[samcgwire]

I know an OBLer when one posts to me.

[stevio]

I agree with all that too. McCain is such a loaded canon, he would be the icing on the cake if he exploded over some issue when someone disagreed with him.

[tkathy]

The immigration issue may be a golden opportunity for the reps to get some unions on their side.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt