Posted on 11/28/2006 10:20:17 AM PST by Dane
U.S. Sen. Biden focuses on Mexico during talk
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wants to get tough with Mexico, a country he called an “erstwhile democracy” with a “corrupt system” that can be blamed for illegal immigration and drug problems in the U.S.
Biden, D-Del., was in Columbia on Monday in his first post-election trip to this first-in-the-South presidential primary state as he continues to line up support for his presidential bid.
During a question-and-answer session before a group of more than 230 Columbia Rotary Club members, Biden was asked about immigration problems.
Biden, who favors tightening the U.S.-Mexico border with fences, said immigration is driven by money in low-wage Mexico.
“Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the greatest disparity of wealth,” Biden said. “It is one of the wealthiest countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in Mexico, there is the one percent of the population at the top, a very small middle class, and the rest is abject poverty.”
• Romney taps Columbia’s Tompkins as adviser
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will use Columbia political strategist Warren Tompkins as senior Southeast adviser for his Commonwealth PAC.
Republican Romney and other 2008 presidential hopefuls are lining up people to guide their primary efforts.
Tompkins is one of the state’s top political advisers. However, statewide primaries this year left Tompkins’ shop with no contenders in the Nov. 7 election.
In June, House Majority Leader Rick Quinn came in third in the GOP treasurer’s primary. Tompkins’ client in that race, Sen. Greg Ryberg, came in second. Both decided not to run in the primary against Thomas Ravenel, who went on to beat Democratic Treasurer Grady Patterson on Nov. 7.
Arizona Sen. John McCain already is working closely with Quinn’s father, Richard Quinn, who frequently has advised candidates running against Tompkins’ clients.
• Summit to address disaster responses
Local, state and federal officials will discuss disaster responses Thursday at a regional emergency preparedness summit at Gaillard Auditorium in Charleston.
Security at the Port of Charleston, one of the busiest on the East Coast, will be a key subject of discussion.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley will receive an award for his city’s emergency preparedness plans. Others scheduled to appear at the summit include: Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia and current chairman of the National Council of Readiness and Preparedness, and John Simkovich, regional public health director for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Summit participants will put together a set of “best practices,” which will be compiled and released at a national meeting in February in Washington, D.C.
Contributing: Senior staff writer Wayne Washington and The Associated Press
BTW, does anybody think if Obragore had won(instead of Calderon) the recent Mexican Presidential election that Biden would be on this political pandering route.
But some on FR will soak up the palgarizer Biden's words and scream "hallejulah".
Joe Biden is saying what the GOP should've said all along (besides Tom Tancredo). Where's Bush on this issue?
Please if Obrador(Obragore) had won the Mexican presidential election, Biden would have been silent.
Biden is mad that Calderon won.
That is why I think the democrat party should be nicknamed the "used car salesmen" party.
Sorry to say, but if it is a Democrat who closes the border to illegal immigration then he'll have my support at least for that. I don't really care who closes the barn door at this point so long as it gets closed.
Get back to me when hillary authorzies a wall.(that will be a very long time, IMO).
For a fact, Dane. Never mind used, I wouldn't buy a brand new model they were selling, even if it was 100% guaranteed to perform perfectly for the rest of my life.
Too many lawyers among them who can find a loop hole a titanium wall.
Even when that democrats previous record proves otherwise.
I can understand why there are so many used car lots in the US. Lots od "suckers" to buy their junk.
Myself, I've wondered why there aren't stiff criminal and civil penalties for anyone who hires illegals? If you put an end to the demand for illegals you'll also dry up the supply.
Because it is called demagogury.
Take a look at the video in reply #3, biden would make Elmer Gantry blush.
"...they would make Jesus illegal..."
El nino Hay-seuss??
"Myself, I've wondered why there aren't stiff criminal and civil penalties for anyone who hires illegals? If you put an end to the demand for illegals you'll also dry up the supply."
Because the last time around, Congress and the President (Reagan) wanted it both ways.
They wanted to be able to say they did something big about immigration.
And they wanted essentially the status quo for business, illegal immigrants. IOW no big changes.
Enforcement is a joke.
the Syracuse law school plagarizer voted yes in May on the same "guest worker" (i.e. amnesty) immigration bill you support...yes he is a phony on this issue because he...like you...excuses the executive branch's continued refusal to enforce existing immigration law and he...like you...supports a new law that will create a large pool of unskilled Latin American "guest workers" in America combined with an expansion of current legal immigration limits
What sane argument can be made for expanding the number of immigrants that enter this country every year...now 41 years after Ted Kennedy et al gave us the 1965 Immigration Act??
She won't have to authorize anything, she will run on both sides of the issue and point her accusing finger to President Bush for doing NOTHING, cause she can and will do it "better and smarter". I call it the liberal 'good Samartian act'.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/110686b.htm
"The act I am signing today is the product of one of the longest and most difficult legislative undertakings of recent memory. It has truly been a bipartisan effort, with this administration and the allies of immigration reform in the Congress, of both parties, working together to accomplish these critically important reforms. Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people: American citizenship."
Ronald Reagan, 1986
Mebbe future presidents could incorporate the above final paragraph into their own amnesty speeches. Make it a macro.
Believe me. I am from Delaware. If Biden said something right, it was by accident. It is saying allot, but Joe Biden is the biggest horses ass in the senate (no offense to horses.)
You're right, it is. And it will continue to be until one or more of our cities is reduced to ash.
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