Posted on 04/26/2006 5:20:12 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
President Bush generally favors plans to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship without leaving the country, but does not want to be more publicly supportive because of opposition among conservative House Republicans, according to senators who attended a recent White House meeting.
Several officials familiar with the meeting also said Democrats protested radio commercials that blamed them for Republican-written legislation that passed the House and would make illegal immigrants vulnerable to felony charges.
Bush said he was unfamiliar with the ads, which were financed by the Republican National Committee, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
At another point, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other members of his party pressed the president about their concern that any Senate-passed bill would be made unpalatable in final talks with the House.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, had been "intractable" in negotiations on other high-profile bills in the past. Bush did not directly respond to the remark, officials said.
The Republican and Democratic officials who described the conversation did so Wednesday on condition of anonymity, saying they had not been authorized to disclose details.
Bush convened the session to give momentum to the drive for election-year immigration legislation, a contentious issue that has triggered large street demonstrations and produced divisions in both political parties. Senators of both parties emerged from the session praising the president's involvement and said the timetable was achievable.
"Yes, he thinks people should be given a path to citizenship," said Sen. Mel Martinez., R-Fla., a leading supporter of immigration legislation in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
: )
Whose hearts are not in what's best for America and Americans.
Bush is being quite dishonest not to openly say he wants amnesty/citizenship for the Illegals. People expect integrity in their President.
And guess which group you fall into?
Hint: it isn't the majority group.
Well said, nic, very well said.
All loyal American conservatives understand this.
The "pretend conservatives" do not.
Factual addendum. Thanks, czar.
We can all be assured that whatever the communists support is extremely bad for our nation. I'm buying a lawnmower tomorrow in counter-protest. It seems very fitting.
BTTT
Fitting, indeed.
My wife has just finished her May 1 shopping list and it's about a foot long. She calls it her "counter-protest list".
Is there a possibility I'm being played here?
Heh, heh...love is a bill never fully paid (but don't you dare miss an installment!)
Step 1 to pursuade them to assimilate is for us to make them legal. As long as they're isolated within the Hispanic community, afraid to come out least they be arrested and sent back to mexico, then they will never assimilate.
Beyond that, learning English is necessary, and good progress has been made in Arizona and somewhat in Californa to force the leftists in schools to do English immersion at young ages. But without a legal status, that will never be enough.
I know second and third generation Hispanic folks who are completely assimilated. They still can speak spanish at will, but it is not necessarily their first language. The third generation has gone to college and is a professional and likes to take trips to New York to watch Broadway plays. Assimilation *can* work, but not if we keep wasting our time on the failed shut door policy.
It's called a history book. Assimilation works, when it's tried. We've stopped trying, and instead repeat the mantra endlessly "no amnesty - no amnesty".
As if trying harder at the failed policy of the last few decades will finally work. Yeah, right.
HELL NO!
Demographics rules. They're going to take over, whether you and your compadres like it or not, simply by birth rate.
You have two choices. 1) make them "Americans" in reality by training them in our culture, language, and history. 2) keep doing what we're doing now, and demographics will guarantee our grandkids will see "Mexico North".
The Reagan betrayal after the amnesty of the 1980's proves there is no political power in this country willing to do what it takes to close the door for real. Therefore option 1 is the only one that makes sense.
Majorities have often been dead wrong. Slavery comes to mind.
Insults are not pursuasive.
So would you agree that we should get rid of bilingual education and bilingual everything else in order to facilitate the true assimilation of the immigrants?
The Reagan betrayal after the amnesty of the 1980's proves there is no political power in this country willing to do what it takes to close the door for real. Therefore option 1 is the only one that makes sense.
Assimilation is great; but the problem we are facing is an apparent refusal by the invading hordes to integrate into our culture. They don't want to be Americans----they want to be Mexicans living in America, receiving American benefits while they wave their Mexican flags and speak in a foreign tongue. If they were immigrating in much lower numbers, assimilation might be possible, but not with the millions flooding into the states that we have now. The fact that their protests are organized by communist organizations doesn't make me any more sympathetic to their "cause".
Evidently, you are one of the few Arizonans with a pro-illegal alien bias.
From that, and the fact that you seem to favor use of the race card, one might wonder whether your particular interest here is economic and/or ethnic.
Interesting that you would use slavery as an example. Do you suppose the types of people that owned slaves would support or oppose the unrestricted influx of cheap labor to they wouldn't have to pay a living wage to Americans?
Nor is weak pro-illegal alien spin.
Keep trying though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.