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Posted on 10/16/2007 10:05:13 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
The former Mexican president is touting his new memoirs in a cross-country trip
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox doesn't get many breaks these days.
He was slapped around on The O'Reilly Factor, had a new statue of his likeness yanked down by an angry mob in Veracruz, and along the way promoted his memoirs, which were published in English.
Fox, whose U.S. tour is taking him from New York to California and points in between, stopped off in Houston on Monday, where he signed autographs, posed for photographs and spoke of his plans to follow the leads of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush by staying active and visible.
Top of the order for Fox is continuing his fight to get the U.S. Congress to approve temporary work permits for millions of Mexicans and a path to permanent residency for those who want to remain in the United States. Seeing such an agreement through was the chief foreign policy goal of his administration, which ended last December.
The challenge now, he said, is that racism and fear are shaping the debate.
"You get the xenophobes trying to influence the debate and take it to their side," he said in English during a meeting with the Houston Chronicle's editorial board. "Fear, very unfortunately, is guiding the debate and the decision-making process on immigration.
"Immigrants are not terrorists, but still many people are dealing with the issue through fear."
The immigration issue has come up repeatedly during his 15-day tour of the U.S. as he appeared on Fox Network's The O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Larry King Live, Comedy Central's The Daily Show and other programs.
With Bill O'Reilly, he said, he felt bushwhacked.
"O'Reilly doesn't give you the opportunity to express yourself, and Lou Dobbs, mucho menos (much less,)" he said.
Fox invited the conservative commentator to visit Mexico, where he offered to serve as Dobbs' personal tour guide.
Fox issued this challenge to Dobbs: "Come to Mexico and I'll take you around so that you will see what is going on in Mexico, so your debate will become more balanced and moderate."
Fox explained that Mexico "is an impressive, dynamic country with dynamic regions. People are working hard, and there are good people everywhere."
CNN, which airs Lou Dobbs Tonight, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rob Allyn, the political consultant who co-wrote Fox's memoirs, Revolution of Hope, and is traveling with him, said Dobbs turned down an offer for the former president to appear on his show to debate immigration.
During an address to about 400 people gathered for a World Affairs Council of Houston luncheon at The Westin Oaks hotel, Fox repeatedly pounded the drum for the United States to overhaul its immigration laws and to stop building a so-called border wall.
"The real threat to this nation is isolating yourselves," he said, adding that from China to Germany, history shows walls have never worked.
Still, not everyone agrees with Fox these days.
In Veracruz on Saturday, about 100 people toppled a bronze statue of the former president. The crowd included several members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which Fox defeated in 2000 to end more than 70 years of the party's rule.
In Houston Monday night, six demonstrators from U.S. Border Watch, a Spring-based group calling for the immediate removal of undocumented immigrants from the United States, stood in the rain outside the Wortham Theater Center, where Fox was to speak.
"Texas is Not A Mexican Colony," read a poster held up by the group's president, Curtis Collier. "No Border, No America."
Fox is also the object of criticism in Mexico.
"Of course he has a right to speak, that's not the issue," said Alfonso Zarate, a Mexico City political analyst. "The issue is that he should act with the responsibility of a former president. Mexicans expect their former presidents to act with more discretion."
During the PRI's reign, former presidents were expected to be seen rarely and heard from even less. Those who broke the rule were spanked, sometimes harshly.
Fox, though, seemed to handle the heat with ease.
"It's like Don Quixote to Sancho," he said in Houston. "The dogs are barking. We're moving ahead."
As is often the case when Fox travels, he was sought by Mexican immigrants who waved him down, posed for photos with the ex-president and asked him for autographs.
"A photo? Let's do it," Fox told five Mexican workers who wanted to pose with him.
Ana Sepulveda, a 51-year-old waitress who said she moved to Houston from Mexico 30 years ago, beamed as the workers snapped photos of Fox with their cellular phones. "He is the greatest," she said of Fox.
Chronicle reporters James Pinkerton in Houston and Dudley Althaus in Mexico City contributed to this report.
dane.schiller@chron.com
For the former predient of a corrupt, inept, and possibly failing state this boy has some cojones. I would be embarrassed as a Mexican to think that with all of the natural resources that country is blessed with, there is such a lower standard of living. And I would be embarrassed to think that my fellow citizens feel it necessary to flee their homeland because of all of the above.
I support immigration - legal immigration. I do not believe that makes me a xenophobe. But you know, if you have a vapid intellectual argument why not just start calling people names.
In an aside if the guys here like hot white chicks then google up the pictures of the latest Ms Mexico. A bit ironic when this failed doofus uses the race card.
The gay blade?
Just maybe, just maybe if you would reform your laws Mr. Fox to grant property right you could convinces your fellow countryman to stay in Mexico.
“Immigrants are not terrorists, but still many people are dealing with the issue through fear.”
This much is true Senor Fox......because Migrants are people who have been vetted before entry into this country.
Illegals? Who knows what or who the hell they are?
Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house.
If referring to Bush as a "winshield cowboy" the sole reserve of Laura Bush? And if it is such common [information], then it wouldn't be plagiarism, since it had become common usage.
Sort of how Reagan was able to co-opt the term "Star Wars" for his missile shield defense system.
Coca-Cola, and called Mexico primitive was uncalled for.
windshield
Did they ask him about his statue?
How can I be afraid of a Xeno?
I don’t even know what one is! ;^)
The point was that the MSM was pretending to the public that Fox just made this up on his own, and was somehow giving away some great revelation.
When the President has never pretended to be a horseman, and has NAMED HIMSELF a windshield cowboy.
How can I be afraid of a Xeno? I don’t even know what one is! ;^)
Maybe Xenalyte can tell us?
She doesn’t scare me.
She excites me! ;^)
Gosh, and I thought O’Really softballed him.
susie
The more this jerk hangs around here pushing his crap, the more xenophobic we become.
You can always go back, hon.
Not only that, but "Your elites want us to do it. We're just their tools, and you're going to have to accept that, because you have no choice."
Mexicans are basically Aztecs and Mayans. There is no upside in dealing with such primativos. Mexico has oil and that is all they are useful for
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