Posted on 05/22/2006 7:06:35 AM PDT by wcdukenfield
05/21 07:44 PM According to today's Washington Post:
Hispanic voters, many of whom responded favorably to President Bush's campaign appeals emphasizing patriotism, family and religious values in Spanish-language media in 2004, are turning away from the administration on immigration and a host of other issues, according to a new survey.
At the same time, separate polls show that conservative white Republicans are the voting group most hostile to the administration's support for policies that would move toward the legalization of many undocumented immigrants.
More here .
For all the talk about Karl Rove's brilliance, it was a blunder of monumental proportions to force a confrontation on illegal immigration now—a relative few months before the midterm elections—in a way that enrages both the conservative base and a liberal constituency against Republicans. The president has endangered scores of Republicans, some of whom are excellent public servants. And depending on how this turns out legislatively, he may have done lasting damage to the Republican party.
But Rove and Bush are not alone. John McCain has spent a decade undermining the GOP and thumbing his nose at the conservative base. The McCain-Feingold bill had as one of its primary purposes the weakening of the party structure, which was never of much use to McCain especially after the party rejected his presidential run in 2000. On issue after issue, McCain has led the so-called Senate moderates to undermine and ambush the Senate's thin Republican majority and even thinner conservative plurality, positioning himself as some kind of independent and progressive. He uses the media to draw attention to himself, and the media use him to highlight his anti-conservatism. And here he is again, pushing the most radical transformation of our society in recent history.
The Senate Republicans have never figured out how to put McCain in box. And so their ranks are splintering even more. We now get lectures from the likes of Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham, who in past Senate's would have been rightly seen as light-weights. Arlen Specter humiliated himself among his conservative colleagues to persuade them to support his ascendancy to head of the Judiciary Committee. He uses that post to trash the president's commander-in-chief powers. In 2004, Lincoln Chafee announced that he wouldn't be voting for the president, and he votes repeatedly with the Democrat minority. If Rove and Bush hadn't supported Specter in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, conservative Pat Toomey may well be filling the seat. Today, Bush's RNC is backing Chafee in the Republican primary in Rhode Island against Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, a conservative. And there are others.
So now the Republican president and the Republican Senate are cobbling together an illegal-immigration bill that will badly damage both the Republican party and the country. The bill would make permanent so-called temporary guest-workers as they wouldn't have to return home (so much for going to the back of some imagined line); it would expand greatly the number of legal aliens invited to come to our country by tens of millions (apparently there's no end to the number of jobs Americans won't do); it would legalize virtually all of the 11 million illegal aliens currently in our country (the number is probably much greater); it would apply Davis-Bacon union wage requirements on jobs performed by so-called temporary workers (so much for cheap labor and cheap lettuce); it would confer Social Security benefits on immigrants for the period of time they were working using stolen or fake Social Security numbers (but it's not amnesty, they tell us); and it wouldn't recognize English as the nation's official language (so much for promised assimilation). And, of course, the same federal politicians and bureaucracy that won't and/or can't enforce the current law assure us that they'll manage and enforce a far more complicated, multi-tier, multi-level system involving far more people.
Meanwhile, we're supposed to accept all of this and more in exchange for what is essentially a sound-bite about using a few thousand National Guardsmen on the border—who are not going to be doing border enforcement. A 370-mile fence will supposedly be built, leaving about 85% of the southern border without a physical fence. But there will be sensors and gliders that will presumably get an accurate count of the number of illegal aliens crossing our border since there won't be enough physical barriers to stop them or border agents to apprehend them.
And the primary culprit in all of this—the Mexican government—will continue to insist that America isn't doing enough and America is not a friendly neighbor. It will continue to send its lawyers into our courtrooms to challenge any effort to stem the mass exportation of Mexico's poor to our country. And why not? Let Americans pay for the public services Mexico refuses to confer on its own people. And the illegal aliens in the U.S. send billions of dollars back to Mexico, which helps prop-up its socialist economy. Besides, so much of the United States really belongs to Mexico, doesn't it? But for American imperialism under the presidency of James Polk, we'd all be speaking Spanish now. The Mexican government is playing a nasty game with its people, and our government is complicit. There’s nothing compassionate or humane about our government’s timidity in dealing with Mexico’s ruling class.
So, what motivates Rove and Bush? It can't be politics, can it? Surely they don't honestly believe that securing 40% of the votes of a growing ethnic minority is a path to continued majority status? And surely they're aware that despite Ronald Reagan granting amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal aliens, that wasn't enough to ensure the political allegiance of a majority of Hispanic voters. In recent decades, Republicans have had a difficult time figuring out how to convince minorities to support them. Apparently Rove and Bush, not to mention McCain, et al, have decided the best approach is to parrot liberals. Therefore, they support making that which is illegal legal, pretend to care about border security, and are spreading around benefits and entitlements.
Yes, we’re a nation of immigrants, like every other nation. But our government has never acted so irresponsibly. In the past, our country decided what kind of immigrants it needed and wanted. Today, illegal immigrants and foreign nations bring pressure on our politicians because they know it will respond favorably to their demands. America’s political class has never been so frivolous about U.S. citizenship and sovereignty, and so contemptible of the will of the American people. This is why the Republican majority will likely pay a severe price in November, even though conservatives like Jeff Sessions and Jim Sensenbrenner, among many others, are fighting the good fight and trying to save the day, while liberals get a free ride.
"Levin is a smart guy, but I'm not sure just how clearly he's reading the political climate in the U.S. on this issue. I'm starting to wonder if all this controversy about illegal immigration is based on some mistaken notions about what exactly the electorate wants to see done in Washington. "
It is about taxes and accountability. We, the citizens and taxpayers in this country, are paying thousands of dollars every year to the Federal Government. In return, the the politicians are giving our tax dollars to people here illegally and use fraud to draw the tax-dollars we forced to pay under penalty of imprisonment from the IRS, and are doing this in order to gain votes so they can stay in power and CONTINUE to give my money to people who are breaking the law.
Apparantly he thinks his plan address security. And besides, if it reaches his desk, he signs it, no matter what the issue.
Many estimates go as high as 20 million, and are documented at the above link. Others estimate "only" 10 or 12 million. Only?
At the low consensus number of 10 million it is as if the ENTIRE POPULATIONS of these stateswere illegal non-citizens.
Idaho
Maine
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Rhode Island
Montana
Delaware
South Dakota
North Dakota
Alaska
Vermont
Wyoming
To get to my preffered 20 million number add in:
Utah
Nevada
New Mexico
West Virginia
Nebraska
I would say that the fact that there may be as many people here, totally outside the laws of the country, as live in 17 states is a HUGE problem.
It has nothing to do with Michelle Malkin, sorry.
At this point that might be preffered.
ping
He doesn't have to depend upon polls or ratings to make decisions.
Other than an unclear position (to me at least) on the Port issue, Rush has never been carrying anything for this President.
I think it has a lot more to do with how he rode Clinton for eight years.... (I still remember his opening every day as he gave a countdown to how many days longer before we'd be freed from Clinton).... and pure, unadulterated, jealousy.
Do you really believe what you just posted???
Please tell me you are joking....
The Rove man has a certain undeniable talent for turning slam-dunks into near-disasters. Of course, one wouldn't expect him to do this on a shoestring.
We in the GOP spent hundreds of millions on some of the worst tripe to ever hit the airwaves, thanks to Karl Rove, Idiot Savant Extraordinaire. We've certainly have grown impatient waiting for the Savant to emerge.
But I am not worried. Karl has assured me on innumerable occasions that victory is perpetually ours because, "The Hispanics are the Republicans of the Future."
We all need to pray that the House measure "wins"...or that at least the House members won't capitulate to the Senate..
The Senate bill is a BAD bill, I agree, but, if President Bush had said he wants a bill by say, the first of 2007....there would have been HOWLS by the same people...saying he didn't want to tackle something difficult before the election.
BTW...I agree with Sen. Sessions, that this legislation is right up there in importance as the Social Security legislation, and Medicare....and I don't care WHO is POTUS, it needs time and a LOT of honest debate before any laws are written..
What happened when REAGAN MADE AMNESTY precedent does NOT need to be repeated now.
No...President Bush campaigned the same way in 2004, after 9/11...and he won.
Yes, and I voted for him.. was there any other choice?
It sounds like a stalemate between the House and Senate. It actually looks like the BEST outcome is gridlock for now. In the process, a healthy debate ensues, so it's not a wash. And the fact that an election coincides with all this is great. Why shouldn't people go on the record? If the House blocks amnesty, and the stalemate kills any chance of a bill, and then the GOP does better than expectations in the election, that will be a good thing for us. The one lookin' bad will be the lame duck prez and the amnesty crowd.
Kerry....the way a lot of people have been talking about President Bush around here lately...
I don't think that even Kerry would have been treated as badly.
One of the best, most succinct arguments on the issue I've read. Thanks.
Like I said, there was no other choice.
I saw Paul Gigot on Fox News about 2 months ago predicting there wouldn't be a bill by the Nov. elections..and then said that it would be the BEST thing that there would NOT.
I agreed then...and I agree more now, especially having watched the socialist, lib group's financed protests..AND the lousy bill that the Senate is debating right now.
Reduced to calling our side Nazis now, eh? That's typically the last refuge of scoundrels in modern politics.
That's how I see it. The plus side is the debate is helpful, I think. This is our butt-ugly system in action. We're definitely counting on the people's House to save us, because the Senate won't, and neither will the president.
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