Posted on 03/20/2008 2:31:58 PM PDT by radar101
Arizona Sen. John McCain, who blamed illegal immigration Monday for Republican losses in major congressional races, has rejected Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s invitation to discuss the issue.
“Sen. McCain truly appreciates your invitation and the valuable opportunity it represents,” Jo Black, a scheduling official in the presumptive Republican nominee’s presidential campaign, wrote in a letter to Barletta’s congressional campaign Wednesday.
The letter cited “tremendous demands” on McCain’s time and a “large volume of similar requests.”
Efforts to reach McCain’s campaign were unsuccessful.
Last week, Barletta invited McCain and the Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to come and discuss his signature issue.
Representatives for the Democrats didn’t jump at the chance Wednesday to hook up their candidates with Barletta either.
“We only set our schedule a few days in advance, but we will keep you updated about upcoming stops,” was all Sean Smith, Obama’s Pennsylvania spokesman, would say.
“We want to have Sen. Clinton go to every part of the state and meet with and talk to voters about her agenda for Pennsylvania,” said Mark Nevins, Clinton’s chief spokesman in Pennsylvania.
He had not seen the invitation, he said, and could not comment further.
“I think the candidates are purposely avoiding Hazleton,” Barletta said. “How could they possibly be in the Commonwealth for six weeks and not come to Hazleton when Hazleton has been at the forefront of this national problem?”
Barletta has received nationwide attention for trying to regulate employment and renting to illegal immigrants. U.S. District Judge James Munley struck down the city’s legislation last year as unconstitutional, but the matter is under appeal.
The mayor denied the invitations were a publicity stunt for his congressional campaign. Barletta is the unopposed Republican candidate in the April 22 primary election for the seat held by Democratic Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski of Nanticoke.
“The campaign is on the back burner to what the issue is,” said Barletta, who announced the invitations and McCain’s rejection on campaign stationery.
Ed Mitchell, the spokesman for Kanjorski’s campaign, called the invites “a very useful public relations ploy.”
In a National Public Radio interview Monday, McCain said the issue cost Republicans in two recent, high-profile Republican congressional losses — Sen. Rick Santorum’s last year and Jim Oberweis’ bid for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat earlier this month in suburban Chicago.
Last July, Obama praised Munley’s ruling as “a victory for all Americans” and called Hazleton’s laws “anti-immigrant,” “unconstitutional and unworkable.”
bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
But he says he gets “it” ..
hmmmm.
What do you expect. McQueeg says immigration is a losing issue and meeting with a man who won on immigration would McQueeg look like an idiot......well more of an idiot.
Apparently he doesn't "appreciate" the opportunity. He's turning it down. More political speak from a non-conservative.
The RNC truly deserves to be disbanded at this point.
What a nightmare future for America any one of the three will bring as president.
and so begins the next betrayal...
Because there's a remote possibility he may have a complete change in philosophical outlook, repudiate his career's work, and have a 1 in 50 chance of accidentally doing something conservative?
Soros will keep the RNC afloat as long as it serves his purposes.
In fairness to McCain (although I’m as dubious of his “gets it now” promises as anyone), he has Texas in the proverbial bag(*), so why bother doing anything much there but to fund-raise? I can see him skipping *controversial* events there, anyway.
(* — or, to put it differently: If McCain doesn’t win Texas, he’s obviously going to lose by a landslide anyway.)
I’m going to steal that quadruple-M string of adjectives! Hilarious!
Why is Obama taking so much heat over Wright, while Juan Hernandez, who is on the McCain Staff and who thinks it’s OK for illegals to steal US citizens’ SS#s, is not a problem for McCain?
Because there are just enough liberal RINO supporters here on FR who refer to outrage over that as "Conservative derangement syndrome."
I think those liberal RINO supporters would feel more at home over at DU than here.
I hate to say this but immigration is a losing issue for the GOP. Look what happened to JD Hayworth in AZ in 2006. According to Bob Novak:
“Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, a stalwart of the famous Republican class of ‘94, did not seem seriously endangered until word came back to Washington election morning that he looked like a loser. Representing a district that is not as Republican as it used to be, Hayworth had become an enforcement-only immigration hard-liner. It did not help him at the polls.”
Global Warming, and immigration. This guy is a know nothing asswipe....
Novak has an extremely selective memory. Hayworth went down because of Abramoff primarily, and secondarily because the RNC was outright hostile to its own party candidates who weren’t pro-illegal.
Technically, it's only a triple... but by all means, feel free...
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