Posted on 03/17/2008 4:22:32 PM PDT by jdm
Aside the most obvious case -- his own -- John McCain cited two recent examples of GOP candidates taking a hard-line on immigration to no avail (And note the elbow thrown at a certain former colleague who came after McCain in the primary).
My colleague Josh Kraushaar writes up McCain's comments:
On NPRs Morning Edition today, John McCain suggested that strong anti-immigrant rhetoric contributed to two recent, high-profile GOP Congressional losses of former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who badly lost to Sen. Bob Casey in 2006, and Jim Oberweis, who lost the heavily Republican seat of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert this month in a special election.
"I know that there have been some races, like here in Pennsylvania, where Senator Santorum emphasized that issue [immigration] and lost by a large number, McCain said on NPR.
We just had a loss of Denny Hastert's seat out in Illinois. The Republican candidate out there, I am told, had very strong anti-immigrant rhetoric also, so I would hope that many of our Republican candidates would understand the political practicalities of this issue.
McCain campaigned for Oberweis last month, helping the campaign raise about $257,000. Oberweis will be on the ballot again in November, against Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.)
During the campaign, Oberweis proposed his own plan to crack down on illegal immigration, and aired a television ad arguing that politicians in Washington "can't seem to fix" the problem.
McCains advice is going against the strategy of a handful of leading Republican Congressional candidates. Just today, one of the Republicans top Congressional recruits, Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta, invited all three presidential candidates to come to our great city to discuss the issue of illegal immigration in the United States.
Barletta, who is running against Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), has built a national political following over his strident opposition to illegal immigration and the punitive measures that he took as mayor to curb it.
I wonder if it even registers that he is barely acceptable exactly because of his wretched record on immigration.
My congressman won against a pro amnesty RINO and McQueeg pal and he did it with a Minuteman PAC endorsement.
Spending almost a trillion a year supporting illegal immigrants?
Breaking the law by not upholding the immigration laws?
Amnesty supporters should be thrown in jail.
At least we know what his campaign promises are worth. I see no reason to believe anything he says.
McCain is such a clueless dirtbag. Santorum lost due to being from a liberal state combined with massive inner city vote fraud.
Santorum would cruise to a easy victory in any 50/50 state.
I’m sure McCains idea of a true GOP ideal is Arlen Spector since he got reelected in the cesspool formerly known as Pennsylvania.
Arlen can kiss my you know what, along with the RNC, McCain, and anyone else opposed to enforcing immigration laws.
btt
There aren't going to be that many of you creatures left. - Keep it up and seal the deal.
BTW, the check is not in the mail.
See! You just can’t trust this sack of sh.. He’ll lie every time. He’s no better than a Democrat.
I’ve said it before. I will NOT vote for that crazy old coot McCain unless he is looking pretty sick and old and he appoints a REAL conservative as his VP.
No FAKE conservatives like Romney need apply, thank you. And if it’s another RINO like Crist, forget it.
McManiac may not be quite as bad as hillary, but he’s darned close. AND he would pull enough Republicans along in the Senate with pork and perks to guarantee that he could pass more liberal cr*p than hillary could ever get through congress.
It’s a very depressing situation. About all we can do is try to get more conservatives into state and local governments and into congress, and try to hold on for another four years. McCain is a disaster.
By the way, Rick Santorum lost to Casey because of Casey’s father, because Casey ran as a conservative pro lifer (which was, as expected, a lie), and because the base was still mad at him for backing Arlen Specter.
Wow. If that is what McCain truly thinks about Santorum’s loss, I shudder to think of the kind of campaign that McCain will mount later this year. Frankly, I see signs that he’s going to stumble around aimlessly in the same way Bob Dole did in ‘96.
The problem is right here in the above statement...
For McCain and career politicians the victory is in the election, for the rest of us, the victory would be in saving the republic.
AND that he was targeted by a national effort to get him out of office, AND probably 15% of the voters thought they were voting for Bob Casey Sr. in spite of the fact that he's been dead for 6 years.
My Gawd, I'm hating this wretched election year!
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