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Fred Barnes: A Bridge Too Far for Conservatives ( The perils of working with Ted Kennedy)
The Weekly Standard ^ | June 4, 2007 | Fred Barnes

Posted on 05/29/2007 6:05:11 PM PDT by RWR8189

Don't listen to Teddy Kennedy. If you belong to the small band of conservative brothers inclined to support immigration reform, the Massachusetts senator is on your side. But what he says is likely to make you anxious, vexed, or even crazed. At times, Kennedy makes the compromise immigration bill sound like the latest loopy liberal legislation to provide welfare to the world.

It's not. Indeed, much of the organized left opposes it. The AFL-CIO is especially upset about the provision to bring foreign workers here temporarily. But when you hear Kennedy on the subject, you have to wonder what they're so worried about.

The temps, Kennedy insisted last week, are "going to get the prevailing wage, they are going to be protected by OSHA, if they get hurt on the job they are going to get workmen's compensation. They are going to get worker protections. If they are working on a construction site, they are going to be covered by Davis-Bacon."

Kennedy contrasted this pampering with the fate of those poor illegal immigrants who work here now. Absent the new program, Kennedy said, they'll continue to be exploited, their rights "trampled on." They'll be injured by "sharp hooks, knives, exhausting assembly line speeds." In Massachusetts, illegal workers are "fired for going to the bathroom, denied overtime pay, docked 15 minutes' pay for every minute they were late . . . fired for talking while on the clock, forced to ration toilet paper."

As Senate floor manager of the immigration bill, Kennedy gets emotionally wound up. He exaggerates. He raises his voice. He berates Democratic and Republican senators alike. He intimidates, or tries to anyway. He is a throwback to an older oratorical style. He is a bellower, a bully, something of a blowhard. He is enormously fun to watch.

But what's important about Kennedy is that he's the ally of pro-immigrant Republicans in the Senate debate on the bipartisan immigration bill. And Kennedy is effective. The Republicans gave up a lot to get Kennedy, particularly in agreeing to "Z" visas that would allow the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States to stay as legal residents and eventually seek citizenship.

Led by conservative Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republicans gained Kennedy's support for three significant provisions. The first is a buildup of border security that must be completed before Z visas can be issued and other reforms implemented. The second is a temporary worker program in which the workers must return to their home country. In this bill, Kyl says, "temporary means temporary." And the third is the end of "chain migration," the practice that has allowed legal immigrants to bring their endless extended families here. If the compromise becomes law, only the immigrant, spouse, and minor children will be allowed in.

Should any of these provisions be stripped from the bill, the compromise will fall apart and immigration reform will die, for the foreseeable future anyway. And Kennedy may be the only person who can stop liberal Democrats from stripping and thus killing the bill. He's succeeded so far, and it now appears the bill will pass the Senate when debate resumes in June. The House, where there's no Kennedy counterpart, is another matter.

Kennedy single-handedly turned back an effort by Democratic senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota to wipe out or limit the temp program. Dorgan initially proposed to strike the program entirely. Kennedy's response was ferocious. He referred to Dorgan as the "senator from North Carolina." He said, contrary to what Dorgan had argued, that illegal immigrants, not legal temps, drive down wages.

"I would like the chicken-pluckers to pay $10 or $15 an hour," he said. Today, when they hire illegal immigrants, "they do not do it." He roared at Dorgan, "Who are you trying to kid? Who is the senator . . . trying to fool?"

Dorgan later proposed to end the program after five years, another compromise-killer. This would alienate the business lobby, which supports the bill largely because of the temp program. Dorgan had the votes to win, 49-48, until Kennedy intervened at the last moment. He persuaded Democrat Daniel Akaka of Hawaii to change his vote, and Dorgan lost, 49-48. And the bill was saved.

Kennedy and Kyl easily rebuffed an amendment by Republican senator David Vitter of Louisiana to prohibit Z visas--still another compromise-destroying amendment. Kennedy also scolded Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama for seeking to bar newly legalized immigrants from qualifying for the earned income tax credit. "This amendment would hurt children," Kennedy shouted. "We need to help children, not hurt them. They should not have to pay for the sins of their parents."

The bipartisan group of 12 senators who negotiated the compromise met daily last week (several times in Kennedy's office) to decide which amendments they would accept and which they would oppose as poison pills like Dorgan's that shatter the compromise and kill the bill.

The four Democratic senators running for president--Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd--were not part of these talks, and it showed. Clinton and Biden, supposedly backers of immigration reform, voted with Dorgan (and the AFL-CIO) to eliminate the temporary workers program and blow up the compromise. Obama and Dodd were absent. All four voted with Dorgan on the five-year limit, also a deal-breaker.

On the touchy issue of whether illegal immigrants should pay back taxes to get Z visas, Kennedy proved to be tolerant. He and Kyl had arranged a tradeoff whereby the collection of back taxes was scratched in exchange for Z visa holders not being credited for Social Security taxes they paid while working here illegally.

But when an amendment by Republican senator John McCain mandating payment of back taxes was introduced, Kennedy let it pass by voice vote. He and Kyl figured it was better not to oppose such a popular measure.

In the Senate, there's one more serious obstacle to passage. That's the plan by liberal Democrats--Obama is one--to restore legal immigration based largely on family ties--chain migration--rather than education, job skills, and other measures of merit. Again, if the liberals succeed, it means immigration reform is dead. Kyl and Republicans will bail out.

After the bipartisan compromise was announced, Senator Lindsey Graham returned to South Carolina, spoke to the state Republican convention, and was booed when he mentioned Kennedy. "Kennedy is in an I-want-to-legislate mode," Graham said. "When you catch him in the I-want-to-legislate mode, you can do some business." True, but Graham was wise not to bring Kennedy with him to emphasize the point.

Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chappaquiddick; corporateblackmail; dui; fredbarnes; immigration; kopechne; leavingscene; manslaughter; obstructjustice; perjury; tedkennedy
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To: sgtbono2002

Well what do you know, ME, a conservative republican (and worked for the National Right to Work Committe, BTW) is on the side of the AFL-CIO on this issue..! Who’d of thunk it!?


21 posted on 05/29/2007 8:25:03 PM PDT by JSDude1 (www.pence08.com.)
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To: potlatch

22 posted on 05/29/2007 10:42:44 PM PDT by devolve ( _Illegal_Aliens_Killed_25_Americans_Today That*s_25/Day_175/Wk_710/Mo_8500/Yr Compare_Iraq_&_911_)
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To: RWR8189
Fred Barnes is a troll.

Recently, Hume's panel was reveling over the wonders of the zamnesty and Barnes ended up saying "When we pass this (zamnesty)...", it was clear he thought of himself as a political operative, not a reporter.

It was sickening. The viewers reacted so strongly that the next day, Brit hosted a segment just on the reader response and made Fred answer the questions. That little worm was squirming and backpedaling as fast as he could.

Barnes is so trollish that he makes Mara Liasson look reasonable and like a pillar of professional journalism. And quite often Morton Kondracke is actually more conservative than Barnes is. Fred Barnes is now competing with Juan Williams for being the most clueless partisan hack on Fox News Channel.

Barnes is also one of the biggest Rudi boosters on FNC.
23 posted on 05/30/2007 4:14:18 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: George W. Bush

HUME: Some further thoughts on the issue of immigration reform now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard; Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio; and Juan Williams senior correspondent of National Public Radio. All are FOX NEWS contributors and one of them into in particular, Mr. Barnes, but considerable comment from our viewers with his remarks last night. Here’s a few samples. Carter and Bonnie Swart from Crescent City, California write: “Today we witnessed Fred Barnes’s outright capitulation of the Democrats and the Mexican lobby.”
Terri of Los Angeles writes: “We are not anti-immigrant, but anti-illegal immigrant.”
And as for the whole panel, Rich Geiger of Pittsford, NY says, “According to tonight’s panel, the only people against this bill are folks that want a mass deportation. That is bogus.”
All right. All right, so...

BARNES: That charge is bogus. I don’t think that’s what we said. Look Brit, I love the attention. On the other hand, there is the—look, I like the feedback and it shows this is a very serious and emotional issue, as it was for the opponents who opposed the Irish, the Italians, the eastern Europeans, the Asians, and now the Mexican immigrants. We’ve always has this, the large group of Americans who thought that we would come, they’d change American and the truth is, they don’t. America is the greatest assimilation machine in the history of the world. Immigrants come here, we change them, they become Americans, it continues. We should be flattered they’re coming...

HUME: Well, what about this...

BARNES: And all we need is legislation to secure the border so they come legally rather than illegally.
HUME: Well, what some people resented was the implication of that they picked up from you that the people who are opposed to this measure are opposed to even legal immigration.
BARNES: I think a lot of them are. There’s that huge strain in the -
in the movement that’s opposed to immigration reform, people who want to shut off all legal immigration...
HUME: You conclude that there are people who favor legal immigration who do not think that there’s sufficient border enforcement and that these provisions are too easy for people who’ve already come here illegally.
BARNES: I do, but I think—I think the strand through most of the feeling is opposition to immigrants.
MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: And they’re left-wing critics, too, who think this is too onerous, I mean who oppose the bill for reasons that it’s too stiff. But look, I do think that in terms of the question of deportation, I think the question is still legitimate—if you do not like this solution for the 12 million people who are here illegally now, what would you prefer?
HUME: Well, one argument that you hear is if you have serious sanctions on employers for hiring illegals, that the jobs that draw them here will dry up and you won’t have to deport them, they either won’t come in the first place or if they’re already here and can’t find work, they’ll go away—Juan.
JUAN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: I think it’s laughable. I mean, the American economy would suffer tremendously. I don’t know who’s going to cut all those lawns, I don’t know who’s going to do all this laundry, I don’t know who’s going to dig all those wells, and pick all that fruit, but if the American economy—you know, one of the arguments coming from the left is this is going to depress wages. There’s a strong union front, you know, SCIU and others, saying no to this bill because of the guest worker program. And then you have employers who say the guest worker program it doesn’t work either because the people have to go home after two years and that’s not workable, it that going to invite more people to become illegal because they don’t go home and they need to have some training. So, to my mind, it would just—it would hurt the American economy. And I think people aren’t being a realistic in their assessment of that.

BARNES: I don’t think they are, but Brit, look at it this way, we had a labor shortage in America, so what happens is, so many of these businessmen have to, if they’re going to continue their businesses, have to hire illegal immigrants. So, is the solution to that, let’s throw all these businessmen in jail? I don’t think that’s the right solution to it. And as Juan said, it would hurt the American economy. Let’s secure the border, let’s let plenty of immigrants in...

HUME: Look, it may not be a good idea, I’m not arguing that, I’m just saying that it is an alternative to deportation. Yeah, well it is and it’s—but it’s not a viable alternative. It’s not a realistic alternative.

LIASSON: And it’s a very, very long term...

HUME: And this thing is in the presidential campaign on the Republican side for sure now. you had—Mitt Romney has taken a strong position, he’s against the bill. John McCain, of course, is one of its ardent advocates. Where does that issue stand, your judgment?

LIASSON: Well, there was wonderful dust up...

HUME: You saw this zinger that went back and forth.

LIASSON: Zinger about he should maybe...

HUME: I think we may have that.

LIASSON: Do you have it? It’s a wonderful...

HUME: Well, we should, we showed it earlier. Well, we’ll show it later when we get into the politics of all this.

LIASSON: But look, this is an issue in the Republican campaign particularly.

HUME: Will it emerge as an issue in your view, in one of the Democrats?

LIASSON: No.

HUME: Why not?

LIASSON: I think there will be Democrats who want to improve it, and this way and that way,

HUME: Are any of the...

LIASSON: ...but no, I think the consensus on the democratic side...

HUME: Among the presidential candidates.

LIASSON: Among the presidential candidates is this is a good first step and it might need to be improved. But no one is out there saying this is amnesty.

HUME: Now, the first measure to—that would have taken a big piece out of the bill was an effort today to remover the guest worker provision. That failed, but there’s now going to be an effort to cut it in half. What about that? Cut the size of it from 4000,000 workers a year to 200,000. What about that? That pass?

WILLIAMS: Well, as a matter of compromise, I’m not sure because it doesn’t make sense. I mean, they need the 400,000. They have reduced it in the negotiation from what they initially thought was closer to a million to this 400, so I don’t know.

LIASSON: But, I think what’s important here is business is a missing component of this coalition, right now. They want a bigger guest worker program and then maybe a different kind and you’re not getting the support business community that you did last year.

BARNES: Look, what you need to do is have 400,000 workers, but if it’s only 200,000, they’ll have to settle for that, but not two years here and then go back. Look have it three years and then renew for three years, but sending these people back is not something that makes sense, business-wise.

HUME: Next up with the panel, the latest views on the ‘08 presidential races. We got a lot on that. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)


24 posted on 05/30/2007 4:25:34 AM PDT by Sybeck1 (Bush on Immigration: Damn the Base, Full Speed Ahead!)
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To: George W. Bush

Dang- I missed the segment when Brit discussed viewer reaction- but mine was one of them:) Here’s what I sent Brit...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1838273/posts

I encourage you to read the thread from FR (above)

Fred Barnes is living on another planet.

It is NOT crazy, bigoted hateful people against this bill. IF FRED or ANYONE on the panel took the time to research, read the posts on The Corner at NRO at the very least....he/they might learn something. This bill is frigthening in it’s scope- I expect this nonsense from Juan- but you need to get some people who pay attention on the panel, Brit. Your show is too good for this political correctness to permeate....

It’s appalling those of us who love our country and welcome ..happily..LEGAL immigration are being trashed this way.

Fred...is out of touch. Seriously.


25 posted on 05/30/2007 4:26:24 AM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet -Fred'08)
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To: Sybeck1

The more Barnes protested the criticism, the more he proved it was accurate.

His rant about opposition to the other nationalities that came to America through our history was simply a charge of racism.

He was saying we’re mostly racists because we oppose this bill.


26 posted on 05/30/2007 4:54:46 AM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: devolve

Bump


27 posted on 05/30/2007 5:31:16 AM PDT by potlatch (MIZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MIKAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_))
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To: SE Mom; Sybeck1

Kudos to Sybeck for finding that transcript of the blowback segment on the following day. However it fails to convey Barnes’ performance though. I think “squirming worm” is the only accurate description.


28 posted on 05/30/2007 5:51:35 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: RWR8189
Kennedy makes the compromise immigration bill sound like the latest loopy liberal legislation to provide welfare to the world.

Because that's what the Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesty bill is.

29 posted on 05/30/2007 5:54:31 AM PDT by SUSSA
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To: RWR8189
NEVER be on the same side as Ted Kennedy....NEVER!!! It will DESTROY your reputation, Sen. KYL!!!

NOT PAYING BACK TAXES IS THE LAST STRAW!!!!!

30 posted on 05/30/2007 5:58:11 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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To: SUSSA
This Bush will be destroyed by the same Dems that destroyed his father. Why Republicans trust ANY of these liberals is beyond me. NO BI-PARTIANSHIP!!
31 posted on 05/30/2007 6:03:35 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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To: RWR8189

Barnes is just as wrong about border security and immigration reform as Kenney in my opinion. IN the rarified air he lives and works in, the lack of border security ‘had no impact on last fall’s elections’.

He couldn’t be more consistently wrong.

That said, he’s right about doing business with Teddy ‘Drown Em!’ Kennedy.


32 posted on 05/30/2007 6:13:19 AM PDT by Badeye (You know its a kook site when they ban the word 'kook')
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To: RWR8189
Kennedy also scolded Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama for seeking to bar newly legalized immigrants from qualifying for the earned income tax credit. "This amendment would hurt children," Kennedy shouted. "We need to help children, not hurt them. They should not have to pay for the sins of their parents."

HEY FATBOY! That's MY money you're giving away to people who are BREAKING THE LAW!!! - AAARGH

33 posted on 05/30/2007 4:33:17 PM PDT by bt_dooftlook (Democrats - the "No Child/Left/Behind" Party)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest

This stooge’s nose keeps browner and browner.
-

Truth bump


34 posted on 05/30/2007 5:10:32 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: George W. Bush

Fred Barnes is now competing with Juan Williams for being the most clueless partisan hack on Fox News Channel.


People like Fred is what’s wrong with the Republican party.


35 posted on 05/30/2007 5:13:26 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: chasio649

This stooge’s nose keeps getting browner and browner.

There, fixed it. :)


36 posted on 05/30/2007 5:15:07 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: Sybeck1

I don’t know who’s going to cut all those lawns, I don’t know who’s going to do all this laundry= Juan Williams

What world do they live in? There definitely are two americas.


37 posted on 05/30/2007 5:15:44 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: Reaganwuzthebest

I didn’t even notice....i saw nose and brown ...all i needed :D


38 posted on 05/30/2007 5:17:12 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: chasio649

Barnes make me sick. Just a few years ago he was saying the exact opposite of what he is today.


39 posted on 05/30/2007 5:22:10 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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