Corections, regarding Fred Thompson:
1. Despite securing the endorsements of lobbyists...
Fred Thompson is opposed to the Human Life Amendment.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/263508.aspx
Fred Thompson is opposed to the Marriage Amendment.
http://www.latestpolitics.com/blog/2007/09/fred-thompson-proposes-marriage.html
2. Thompson at least at one time held a pro-amnesty position, as did many of the other candidates.
http://www.redstate.com/stories/culture/life_issues/fred_thompsons_record_speaks_for_itself#comment-489629
His current propoosal is weaker than Mike Huckabee’s (send to Mexico and get to the back of the line) plan.
Fred has a 100% pro-life voting record. Actions speak louder than words.
Ellery, do you want to address the lies being perpetuated here?
In 1996 Thompson voted for the toughest illegal immigration enforcement bill that arose during his tenure in the Senate.
The amendment that Numbers USA mistakenly characterized as amnesty was the Mack Amendment, passed in 1997 as a clarification to the tough 1996 bill.
The reason for the Mack amendment: the Reagan administration, and then later the Bush administration in a class action suit (American Baptist Churches et al. v. Thornburgh) made agreements with illigal immigrants who fled our wars against communism in central and south America; these agreements laid out the conditions under which these particular illegal immigrants could apply to have their deportations suspended.
The 1996 law rightfully toughened the criteria by which illegal aliens could have their deportations suspended. The Mack amendment simply clarified that the particular illegal aliens who were subject to the class action agreements made by Reagan and HW Bush, and whose deportation cases were already in the pipeline when the new law was enacted in 1996, would have their deportation cases heard under the old rules.
In other words, the amendment did not automatically grant them citizenship or allow them to stay - all it did was cancel out a retroactive change in the agreements for those whose cases were already under consideration. Any illegal immigrants, even from these classes, whose cases were not already in the pipeline at the time of the 1996 immigration bill enactment would have to submit to the new, tougher rules.
Here is the link to the vote - 99 senators agreed to it, including Sessions and Thompson:
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Switching gears, you mentioned the huge surplus that existed in Arkansas at the end of Huckabee's term. Respectfully, I am surprised when Huck's supporters tout this as a plus. The 'toon also had big surpluses at the end of his term, for the same reason that Huck did: because they were taxing us too heavily and taking much more than they could justify.
It's all very well that as Huckabee was leaving office he "recommended" that the money be returned to the taxpayers. But he didn't accrue that money over his last year in office -- if he were serious about returning that money, he would and should have done something about it as soon as it became clear that the government had raised taxes far too much.