Posted on 09/14/2007 9:24:44 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Outgoing White House press secretary Tony Snow said today that the Bush administration had underestimated the ferocity of opposition to White House-backed immigration legislation.
"I freely admit that we underestimated the (public) skepticism," Snow said over breakfast with a group of reporters on his final day on the job.
Snow said that the White House was not prepared for the anger of foes of illegal immigration, who believed that government at all levels had failed to secure the nation's borders. While the public backlash is aimed "not merely (at) the Bush administration," he conceded that the White House "made some miscalculations, as well."
The president's chief spokesman, who has waged a very public battle with cancer during his two years in the high-profile job, said that though a compromise immigration bill came close to passage, the process now "requires a much longer debate."
"We should have gotten it through last time," he said. "This is an issue that will be with us -- it will not go away."
After the 2007 debacle, he said, the government must demonstrate that the federal government can secure the border "in a competent way" before legislation that would allow American companies to hire more immigrants and permit the legalization of illegal workers can gain traction on Capitol Hill.
But Snow argued strongly for a flow of immigrant workers. "We have this big, booming economy," he said, "and we don't have enough workers."
Calling America "a nation of immigrants," he said Congress and the president needed to come up with a plan to deal with the about 12 million people who are illegally in the country today. "A lot of these people really are pursuing the traditional path to the American dream," he said.
To win political support for comprehensive legislation, Snow said the government needed to re-establish "the credibility of the rule of law" by protecting the border and requiring illegal immigrants to pay substantial penalties -- "not just a wrist slap, but something significant" -- before taking their place "at the back of the line" to citizenship. While awaiting legal status, they should not be permitted to collect welfare and should be required to maintain continuous employment and crime-free lives.
Despite the passionate opposition to illegal immigration on the Republican right and populist left, Snow said that both political parties should be sensitive to the feelings of Hispanic voters.
"No political party is going to be able to survive (without the) fastest-growing voting bloc in America," he said.
Asked what he thought of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates' repeated attacks on President Bush's immigration record, Snow uncharacteristically demurred.
"Ask me that question in a week -- or even tomorrow," he said. "As the president's press secretary, I'm not going to step into that one."
They are the fastest growing segment of the population because they are crossing the border by the thousands every day and most are here illegally. Illegal aliens are not supposed to vote at all. Instead of worrying about how illegals will vote, we need to stop them from voting in the first place. As for the legal Hispanic vote, we'll just have to compete for hearts and minds in the arena of ideas as we do the rest of the population. Pandering will not work and the attempts at pandering are killing our nation.
I agree with that, and would add that we might also fix our present welfare system that allows able-bodied people to not take jobs they consider "beneath them."
Problem is, teachers unions and welfare pigs are powerful voting blocs. Illegals are soon to become another one.
“Snow said that both political parties should be sensitive to the feelings of Hispanic voters.”
Hooey. Voters should be sensitive to what’s in the best interest of the country. And that’s enforcing the rule of law, not pandering to a specific group based on race.
With all this new cheap labor I expect Mexico will be holding that distinction from now on.
No other Presidential Candidate has been clearer:
NO AMNESTY/PATH TO CITIZENSHIP
NO NORTH AMERICAN UNION
EFFECTIVELY SECURED BORDERS IN 6 MONTHS
PARDON FOR BORDER PATROL AGENTS RAMOS AND COMPEAN
Support DUNCAN HUNTER, ‘08
Look a little deeper into what he is saying here and understand his statement is coming from the President and the President’s Cabinet.
Connect the dots:
1. We don’t have enough workers.
2. Aging population.
3. Social Security/Medicare to go bankrupt without raising taxes OR INCREASING THE WAGE BASE.
Number 2 above is linked to the following two facts:
1. 45 million abortions since Roe vs. Wade.
2. 25 million more missing Americans that would have been born to some of those that were aborted.
And then connect all the above with the following:
1. 20 million (not 12) illegals in America and tens of millions more to come if borders are not secure and a President is not elected to reverse the tide of illegal entry.
Dow anyone see a vacuum here? I do.
Is this God’s wrath for killing the unborn? You bet it is.
Poor Tony Snow lost all credibility and respect when he took on the job of Bush’s sock puppet.
Capitalists used to be known for promoting increased productivity. Unfortunately, too many are in for the quick buck. If the Deep South had reacted to the invention of the cotton gin by encouraging a mechanical cotton-picker rather than exploiting the excess labor in the upper South, unpleasant things would have been avoided.
And thank God it was!
The current illegal immigration free-for-all is the best thing to happen to the quick buck artists since Sept 22, 1862.
There’s a reason why Hispanics are the fasting growing group of people in the U.S. and, hint-hint, it deals with illegal immigration and anchor babies.
If that line by Tony Snow doesn't open up the eyes of conservatives and Republicans, then nothing in this world will. To Bush, this whole thing has always been about VOTES, and not about America's future. It is right there, in black and white, Bush was thinking only of VOTES.
There's a very shallow man sitting in the White House, a man who for some reason has held up the hopes of many good Americans, (myself included for a few years). Yes, he does some things that seem to be right, like bringing the war to Islam; but he does far too much else that certainly does not seem to be for the good of America for my liking. May God bring good, faithful, honest and wise leaders to America, we so badly need them.
For that, I hold equal contempt for the whole lot of them. The more that vacate sooner, the better for America.
It passed the Senate but failed in the House in 2006.
==The White House remained clueless, apparently.
It failed in the Senate the late spring of 2007.
==The White House remained clueless, apparently.
It failed again in the Senate, even at GW made a special trip to Capitol Hill to twist arms, in the summer of 2007.
==And they are still clueless in the White House, because they are still trying to push through some of the provisions on the backs of other legislation.
“No political party is going to be able to survive (without the) fastest-growing voting bloc in America,” he said.
If we’d been enforcing our immigration laws, it would never have become the “fastest-growing voting bloc in America.” If we’d start enforcing our laws, the demographers would have to recalculate their growth projections.
The Rove/Bush pandering to Hispanics strategy is about the dumbest political strategy devised in recent memory. Reagan got 40% of the Hispanic vote, and in spite of all their braying, Bush/Rove did not improve on that, but rather set in motion a stupid, intra-party fight that demoralized the base and probably lost some Hispanic support, at least temporarily. They should have appealed to Hispanics and all voters with basic conservative principles, and could have gradually built on Reagan’s 40%.
But Bush people have learned nothing and just can’t shut-up about this.
Dear Snow Job........
Please explain how it’ll be much better for America when we give amnesty to 12 +/- million illegals pretty much now working for slave labor wages without medical coverage, employment rights, retirement benefits etc etc .
Yeah that will make all the services and products cheaper. Those products and services controlled by criminal employers breaking the law by hiring these criminals, not paying them minimum wage etc etc. Too think that these services and products will be a lot cheaper when you give em amnesty by granting them all instant citizenship is deep as six foot up a bulls butt and you know it .
That increased cost imposed on the employer hispandering to these new < sarcasm> Americans < /sarcasm> will be passed on too the consumer ......
Once again the American with a job who follows the BS rules, pays their bills and goes to work everyday takes one up the ass due you and yours quest for votes and cash to line yer pockets with.
Pure Crap ........People like you trying to spin this cows ear into a silk purse makes me sick.
Doom on you and your handlers ! Turn off all the switchboards in congress ya want when ya’ll reintroduce this crap with a different color ribbon it . Presenting it as new and improved to the sheeple .
I am a lifelong conservative .....If this passes congress, and GW doesn’t veto it ...... then I am taking a stand and letting the GOP go as they are walking away from their base playing games like this.
This immigration issue alone is in my humble opinion the achilles heal of the grand old party.
Just damn....
No, no, no, no, no. What does it take to make these ninnies understand. NO. Go back to where you came from, get in the line, run through the same hoops everyone else has to. Never is it ok, no punishment is "significant" enough to say they can stay.
And while you're at it, use real immigrants from all over the world, not just one country. Geez, will they ever learn?? I can't wait we get a crop of new idiots up there, these incumbent idiots are beyond repair.
He says that as Dianne Feinstein, et al are trying to pass the AgJobs bill and the Dream Act which will give amnesty to millions of illegals. They think we are so stupid that we don't understand what they're up to. I'm twice as angry now, because of their arrogance. How dare they try this again!!
Then why did they write the bill behind closed doors and try to ram it through before anybody got a good look at it? They knew full well the opposition.
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