Aw geeez, Not this time Tony.
Posted on 05/26/2006 2:31:43 PM PDT by VU4G10
WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.
"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.
"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."
The "traffic ticket" analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.
"I don't know if Tony meant to trivialize it or not," said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "But it's certainly misleading."
"The penalty for a speeding ticket is a fine," he added. "The penalty for being here illegally is being removed from this country. But the president doesn't want illegal aliens to go home."
Snow emphasized that illegals would have to pay fines, learn English and wait years for a chance at full citizenship. But Adams called that "a slap on the hand" compared to deportation.
"Here's a more apt analogy," he said. "You get stopped for speeding, and you say to the cop: "Hey listen, you're about to give me a $300 ticket. How about we make it 20 bucks and just call it even?"
Snow predicted that House Republicans would eventually drop their opposition to the Senate bill, which passed Thursday. The bill, which includes a guest worker program that would grant legal status to aliens, is headed to a conference committee for possible reconciliation with a House bill aimed at beefing up border security.
Snow suggested the guest worker program could be sold to even ardent opponents like Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
"Chairman Sensenbrenner, who's got some real problems with various aspects, has said publicly that the temporary worker program has merit," Snow said.
"There are areas in which members of the House are going to agree with the president," he added. "I certainly don't want to be speaking for Chairman Sensenbrenner, but the fact is, you know politics."
But Sensenbrenner appeared unmoved.
"What's going on now, in calling it a pathway to citizenship or earned legalization, is not honest because it is amnesty," he said at a news conference.
It was a joke.Give me a break.
Ok.Lets call a truce. I will re-think my comments.
Because the Democrats and Rino's in the senate have the backing of the Rino's in the whitehouse.
I don't carry over thoughts or comments from one thread to another so a truce is a given as should be on FR.
And? What's the downside to this monster?
Shove it...White House.
At least Scott McClelland seemed uncomfortable pumping that lying sunshine up our asses. Tony smiles and with a whiskey tenor voice has moved through life and his job as a quick talking confidence man. We are not biting any more WhITE HOUSE. Better listen up.
Do you think this is payback for taking down the supreme court nominee by true conservatives?
People need to know that Tony is not just spouting the Bush Admin position but that this is, and has been, HIS POSITION.
i thought that everyone knew. Oh well, live and learn.
He obviously is not a conservative.
Tony Snow "obviously is not a conservative." I cannot believe I'd ever read these words on FR.
What's wrong with this picture? Lu-lu-koo-koo-nu-nu?
I fear there are a huge bunch here who are so hotly anti-immigration, if not just out-and-out anti-Hispanic, that they have lost sight of the multiplicity of much larger and far more weighty issues that should actually be propelling the conservative cause, and woe be upon them for their tunnel-visioned ways, for they shall wreak socialistic tax-and-spend DemocRatic liberals upon the land, for all of their single-minded benightedness.
Damn them all to hell.
I like that!
E Tu Tony, E Tu.
Now...we're talkin' - great post!
In Iraq you get 17 warnings before you have to pay a price.
Tony knew this issue was out there when he took the job.
Maybe his radio show was tanking and he needed the work.
I fear there are a huge bunch here who are so hotly anti-immigration, if not just out-and-out anti-Hispanic...
How about this: all the Hispanic has to do is make it into the country, by whatever means, and he's eligible for a green card in a year. How's that for a law? Someone tell me what they think about that.
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