Posted on 06/29/2007 11:27:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond "just build a fence along the border."
"The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer," RNC Chairman and U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said.
"How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the sake of being a country that is just?" he demanded.
Martinez spoke during a gathering of more than 1,000 Hispanic officials from across the country at Disney World, a day after the immigration bill's Senate supporters fell short of the 60 votes needed to limit debate and clear the way for its final passage.
Martinez promised to work with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to try to revive the legislation, a measure the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials supports.
Time for such efforts is tight before the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, Martinez told reporters, but he added, "you can't live from election to election. We have to once in a while act as responsible, elected officials and resolve the nation's problems."
A group of about half a dozen U.S. representatives planned to strategize over the weekend at the conference on how to revive the proposal.
But U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the lone Republican presidential candidate to attend the three-day conference, said such a revival was unlikely.
Hunter stood by his focus on legislation to extend a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and said the government needs to do a better job of asking those here illegally to go home. He did not say how he would convince the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants to leave.
"Let's get the border enforced first before you get to the subsections of enforcement," he said.
Wednesday's immigration vote was 46 to 53, with three-quarters of the Senate's Republicans voting to derail the bill.
But the Republican Party was not to blame for its failure, Martinez said.
President Bush sent two cabinet members to Congress several times a week for months to work out a bipartisan compromise, he noted.
By failing to act, the Senate also tied law enforcement's hands, Martinez said.
The proposed immigration bill would have provided $4.4 billion for border security and workplace visa enforcement.
Martinez came to Florida from Cuba at 15 and spent four years separated from his parents until they were able to flee the communist island. He said he feared more families would be torn apart if the status quo remains.
He also warned local and state officials at the conference that the immigration issue will now land in their laps through local ordinances.
"We're going to have a hodgepodge of local laws. We will have cities that will declare themselves sanctuary cities. And then we will have others that will make it a felony simply to rent to illegal immigrants," he said.
But he blamed those who supported the bill for not explaining well enough to the American people the flaws of the current law and the benefits of the proposed one - and to allow opponents to define the bill as simply amnesty.
You got that right! BUILD A FENCE, of the same quality and security as the DMZ between North and South Korea!
Well not exactly, some actually changed their vote after they saw it was not going to make it. Brownback for one was reported here on FR.
Any suggestion where we start within the party to make those changes?
Do you remember when they asked presidential candidate Bob Dole about his position on something in the GOP platform, he replies, "I never read it?"
Note to Mew: Fred is a Suit.
I have a novel approach:
1. Execute the laws that have already been passed by congress.
2. Enforce the laws that have already been passed by congress.
3. Carry out the laws that have already been passed by congress.
4. Implement the laws that have already been passed by congress.
5. Act upon the laws that have already been passed by congress.
6. Stop calling me a racist.
Does Mel need more? ROFL. What an azzhat.
Yes, but luckily most did not leave the party because of it. The party stayed together and was rewarded with both houses and the Presidency. Now the fact that advantage was squandered is another thing.
Back to your original question; how to change it? Starting another party is unrealistic. However, unless there is a gigantic change of wind or a major error on the dems part we will not be back in control in congress until 2012 so we there is time to get the GOP v5.2 correct.
Given that I stand by the realism that changing it will happen when forces inside the party work to change it. Ross Perot did as good as he could but he didn't do anything but hand the dsms the works. None of us want to see that again.
Norton I agree with practically your entire post. My original post was not to the suggestion of leaving the Rep party or contacting the suits of the party, it was with the tone given record I saw of the poster.
Strange that someone here for 2 weeks is making suggestions about leaving the party or about contacting the upper ranks and saying;
“But I sure as hell do not feel like I’m part of any republican party and if they turn up with another appeaser for a nominee I’ll start looking for a nice dry cave.”
and both posts in that thread suggested nothing that moved us forward to the ultimate goal.
It all just rubbed me wrong. These same types of postings occurred alot when the Dole fiasco happened. Good thing we all didn't just jump ship then.
POST #32 WELL SAID!
Hunter shouldn't have showed up. Is he going to speak at the National Associated of Transgendered Elected Officials too?
Being a conservative means speaking to all Americans not those who chose to create their own little fiefdom for politicians to pander to.
And what about the strategy of setting Republicans (like Hayworth) up for defeat in '06 so that Bush could have "a Congress he could work with"? The irony of donating to the RNC so that the RNC could elect Democrats...
“What he’s really saying...
How will you fix the situation to make illegal aliens lives legal?
He’s been on that bandwagon for a while.”
You are correct in your interpretation.
Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Toll free to the US Senate:
1-800-882-2005. (Spanish number)
1-800-417-7666. (English number)
Courtesy of a pro-amnesty group, no less!!
First Step: Replace Mel
I heard Duncan Hunter being interviewed on the radio last week (I believe by Dennis Prager) and he brought up a very good point: Hunter said that illegals have learned to count on an occasional amnesty bill from Congress, and so they flood into the USA and stay “in the shadows” just waiting for the next one. Hunter said that had this amnesty bill passed, the flood of illegals would have turned into a tsunami. Illegals would have swarmed into the US and sat tight for the next amnesty bill even if they couldn’t scam their way into taking advantage of this one.
Agenda? Not necessarily. Martinez is a Hispanic, big-business oriented moderate from a swing state, and a friend of the Bush family. Those are the sorts of criteria this president uses in appointing to major jobs. One reason hes been such a screwup as president.
* ^ * ^ * ^ *
Yes, agenda. The second part of your statement is correct as well. When King George submitted Mel’s name and he was “elected” (cough, cough) by the RNC, he mentioned that he would be a leader in passing immigration reform (?) legislation.
DING, DING - we’re both right.
Just my .02, but I think it was pretty gutsy to show up and speak to a convention of really P.O.’d Hispanic leaders on the day after the amnesty was defeated. VERY GUTSY. It had to be, because nobody else was willing to do it.
We would have also had a LEGAL swarm as the 12 to 20 million illegals were given legal status and could then sponsor thru chain migration their spouse, children, and one set of parents. We could have added anywhere from 30 to 50 million new LEGAL immigrants who would be united in the US with their family. And on top of that, there would also be the stampede of illegals to get into this country to get amnesty this time around using fraudulent documents during the 2 and 1/2 year window they would have the opportunity to apply for a Z visa, a window that probably would have to be extended given the inability of the bureaucracy to handle such numbers.
The failings of a 2 party system! And the reason the Republican party thinks it can crap on us - so Casey got elected, to bad it wasn’t a third party candidate, but of course they can’t run because the two party's have colluded in stopping that.
I won’t vote for someone because he’s in the GOP and they had better realize that before they go out of business.
I’m in PA and Santorum was only for that stuff in the election advertisements when he was 12 points behind. I about died laughing when I saw those adds - you need to dig deeper. Rick was a Dick!
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