Republicans Not Buying Bush Amnesty

During a speech last month to Georgia law enforcement officials, President Bush opined that opponents of the stalled immigration reform bill “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” If they only understood the bill’s provisions, he implied, they would see the light. But, alas, they hadn’t “read the bill” and could only “speculate” about its complex provisions. He warned them to stop trying “to frighten people.”

These unscripted remarks unleashed a torrent of criticism from the president’s political base. Conservative talk-show hosts, pundits, bloggers and grassroots activists seized on the criticism as an opportunity to educate Americans on the bill’s many flaws. Constituent mail and phone calls poured in. Ultimately, a hardy band of conservatives forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pull the bill after two weeks of angry debate.

Last week, the president ventured to Capitol Hill to dine with Republican senators in a high-profile attempt to revive the bill. But he converted no one. With congressional leaders scheduled to consider other legislation guaranteed to further annoy and divide the president’s supporters (e.g., reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act and approving the sovereignty-stripping Law of the Sea Treaty), the question arises as to whether the president’s immigration dilemma -- having to thread the needle between openly hostile conservatives and the usual assortment of Bush-haters on the Left -- will be the norm for his remaining 18 months in office.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, the president’s overall approval rating fell six points between April and June (from 35% to 29%). But the drop was most intense among Republicans (from 77% to 65%), including conservative Republicans (from 86% to 74%), and Independents (from 34% to 22%).

Another poll, conducted by Gallup after Bush’s Georgia speech, found a similar drop in his standing among GOP loyalists, where his positive rating hit a near-record low of 70% (alarms sound whenever a politician scores below 80% with his core supporters). According to Gallup, the only other time Bush’s GOP approval rating was so low was about a year ago when -- you guessed it -- the Senate was angrily debating comprehensive immigration reform. Hmmm.

“It was the debate over immigration,” pollster Scott Rasmussen confirmed last week, “that cost the president support among his base and pushed his approval ratings to new lows.”

Political operatives are well aware that the disenchantment over immigration has settled primarily on Bush and those lawmakers who have led the charge in the Senate. Sen. Reid’s approval rating sunk 7 points in a month, to a microscopic 19%. John McCain (R-Ariz.) fell in many presidential polls. Yet the national GOP emerged unscathed, and may even have benefited, from the turmoil.

A month ago, Rasmussen reports, Democrats enjoyed a 14-point advantage (47% to 33%) as the party best able to handle immigration. Following the Senate debate, however, the Democrats’ advantage shrunk to only five points (40% to 35%). “Immigration,” he concludes, “is now tied with taxes as the GOP’s strongest issue” and is “the only issue on which unaffiliated voters trust Republicans more than Democrats.”

What explains the intensity so many Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents bring to this issue? My guess is that this is yet another manifestation of the ideological divide that separates Red from Blue America. Because Republicans are more reflexively pro-American than their Democratic colleagues, they place a much higher value on U.S. citizenship and therefore are more likely to vigorously oppose policies they perceive as granting citizenship too freely, especially to lawbreakers.

For example, polls demonstrate that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they are “very patriotic” and more likely to see America as a place where “most people living in other countries would like to live.” Also, by a 2-to-1 margin, Republicans believe “we should be willing to fight for our country … right or wrong.” A majority of Democrats disagree. Finally, Republicans attach more importance to the rule of law than Democrats do. Republicans are much more likely to want to penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and banks that offer them credit cards.

The disenchantment with Bush can be summed up in an L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, which asked Republican primary voters whether they want the next Republican nominee for president to continue Bush’s policies or move the country in a new direction.

"Bush opined that opponents of the...bill 'don’t want to do what’s right for America'...and...only 'speculate' about its complex provisions.”

In other words: "Trust me."

You'd have to be nuts to trust this man!

He's trying to foist on the American people a 108-or-so page "bill" that apparently nobody knows what's in--including himself. How many versions of it has Bush read?

He has refused to enforce U.S. immigration law in violation of his Oath of Office to do so. Who will believe him when he says he's really going to enforce the law this time?

He has allowed--apparently encouraged(!)--the illegal immigration problem to become a national crisis. Now he claims that the American people must accept the unacceptable--and the unknown(!) inasmuch as nobody seems to know what's in this "bill"--because of his arrogant negligence.

Even now he refuses to enforce U.S. law.

He refuses to close the Border.

He refuses to halt further illegal immigration.

And he says that the American people--who overwhelmingly oppose his "bill"--do not want to do what's right for America?

Those who think he should be kicked out of office have a point.

You can say this for Bush: He has united Americans across the cultural divide! Against him!

Note tagline.

>>>>OK, he ‘spoke’, what has he ‘done’?

# $14 Million for Law Enforcement Agencies and Service Providers To Help Trafficking Victims: The Bush Administration today announced Department of Justice funding to support and implement local efforts to identify, rescue, and restore victims of trafficking. The Justice Department will make available $14 million to law enforcement agencies and service providers, and as many as 25 communities across the country will be eligible to receive this funding. This money will support anti-trafficking efforts to identify, rescue and restore victims of trafficking in communities across the country. The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) will administer the new grant program.

# $4.5 Million for Organizations To Help Trafficking Victims: Today, the Justice Department awarded $4.5 million to nine local organizations that provide shelter where victims of trafficking can find refuge in the interval between rescue and the determination of eligibility for public assistance and other benefits. The grant program provides comprehensive services for victims of trafficking by building on existing community resources, to strengthen the collaboration and cooperation among existing agencies and organizations that serve trafficking victims; to provide training to criminal justice personnel, social service providers and the public of the rights and needs of trafficking victims; and to support the ability of trafficking victims to cooperate with law enforcement and prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is administering this grant program. Grant recipients include:

Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, CA: $500,696

Safe Horizon: $500,000
(For work in the five boroughs of NYC)

New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance: $500,000
(For work in the state of NY, minus NYC’s five boroughs)

International Institute of Boston, MA: $500, 000

International Rescue Committee, NY: $499,999
(For work in the state of WA)

World Relief Corporation, Baltimore, MD $499,998
(For work in Al, FL, KY, MD, MS, NC, LA, TN, TX, SC, OK)

U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $413,298
(For work in MD, DE, PA and NJ)

U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $372,237
(For work in OR)

Refugee Women’s Network, Inc.: $311,708
(For work in GA)

# Cooperation to Combat Trafficking: To ensure the smooth and timely delivery of benefits and services to trafficking victims as well as comprehensive investigations and prosecutions, the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security are working together to share information and provide benefits to victims most in need. In addition, the charter for the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center went into effect July 2004 and brings together representatives from law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomacy to combat alien smuggling, trafficking in persons, and terrorist travel networks.

# Comprehensive Anti-Trafficking State Laws: While many states have laws that address various aspects of the crime of trafficking in persons, comprehensive anti-trafficking statutes are needed to deter and punish the wide range of coercive tactics used by traffickers. To meet this need, the Justice Department has drafted a model anti-trafficking statute for states. Texas, Washington, Minnesota, Missouri, and Florida already have comprehensive state trafficking laws.

# Increased Investigations and Prosecutions of Human Traffickers: The Bush Administration has greatly increased human trafficking prosecutions. From FY 2001-2003, the Justice Department initiated prosecutions of 110 persons, nearly a three-fold increase compared to the previous three years. Of those, 78 involved allegations of sex trafficking. From FY 2001 to now, the Department obtained convictions and guilty pleas from 107 individuals. From FY 2001-2003, the Department opened 210 new investigations, more than double the number opened in the previous three years. At present, the Department has 168 open investigations into possible human trafficking crimes, more than twice as many as were open in January 2001.

# Anti-Trafficking Training for Law Enforcement and Organizations that Help Victims: The Department of Justice provides anti-trafficking training to federal, state and local prosecutors, as well as law enforcement agents and officers, to non-governmental organizations and to officials of foreign governments. The training program will be made available to trafficking response teams attending the conference to enhance their efforts. The Justice Department is also developing a model curriculum for the victim-centered approach to identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and investigating and prosecuting their traffickers and abusers.

# Anti-Trafficking Task Forces: To combat trafficking, the Bush Administration has convened anti-trafficking task force coalitions in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Tampa and will create a dozen additional task forces this year. These task forces bring together federal, state, local, and non-governmental sectors to combat trafficking and provide comprehensive assistance to victims. Additionally, public service announcements have been issued in Spanish, Russian, Polish, Chinese, and Korean to inform victims of their rights.

Interesting email that I just received and worth sharing with Freepers:

This came to me from someone else. Goodness, it’s gotten to where I wish I could have come up with one like this, but it would probably cost me my Army pension?!

President George Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

I am absolutely disgusted with your support of S. 1348, a bill which would legalize millions of lawbreakers and hurt
millions of Americans who find it difficult to find work. This is not the legacy your want.

What is the matter with you? Why are you more supportive of Mexicans than you are of Americans? Why do you hold your countrymen in such contempt? You are a fraud. You certainly are no Conservative. I no longer believe you area patriot and I sincerely doubt you are even a Christian.

You are a corporatist poseur as a Conservative. You cynically kiss up to social conservatives, get their support and then push your corporatist agenda. You make Bill Clinton look like “Honest Abe”. You are Carl Rove’s Frankenstein Monster in the White House.

I have been a conservative since 1964 when I supported Goldwater so I know what a conservative is and you certainly are not one. I used to be a Republican, until you came along. Now I am a registered Independent.

I worked in downtown Los Angeles on May 1, 2005 and I saw these criminal invader’s signs and flags. They flew the Mexican Flag and signs that implied that we Americans were the illegal aliens and that this was Mexico, not the U.S.A. Your buddies in the Mexican Government teach them that from the time they are children. We have a foreign army in this country that believes that this country should return the territories it gained in the 1840s to Mexico. That army is bigger than the armed forces of the United States during the Second World War. You will be responsible for the next Civil War some day. You live in a sheltered environment, like limousine liberals such as that disgusting alcoholic cretin and satyr Ted Kennedy. You have no idea of the damage you are doing to this beloved nation. The United States is the greatest thing that God ever let sit at his foot stool. Why are you selling it on an international garage sale?

We are being invaded! You support this invasion! Why? Why do you hold the American people is such contempt? What is the matter with you? Are you stupid..or as crooked as a pretzel?

You are the worst President in my living memories and I go all the way back to Harry Truman. You are the first President in my living memories to be dedicated to the destruction of the American way of life. The others who diminished it were just fools, you seem to be dedicated to it. I cannot explain you to myself without references to abnormal psychology or conspiracy theories. I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories, but you lend credence to some of them. I hope you live to be a hundred years old so you can live with your historical legacy.

I look forward to visiting your Presidential Library some day. It will be the largest collection of Cliff Notes on the Planet Earth! Clinton’s will be the largest collection of Hustler magazines!

It has been reported that some of your staff had a discussion of Lincoln’s famous quote “You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” One of your underlings allegedly said “Well two out of three ain’t bad”. Well George, you had your two out of three a long, long time ago. If you think that the American people still believe you then you really are a dunce!

A very disappointed,

Mr. Addison Bond

P.S. Please take that American Flag off of your lapel (the one that was probably made in Red China) and replace it with a platinum dollar sign with diamond studs.

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