Posted on 12/20/2002 6:19:45 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Commentary: Lott Throws In The Towel Gary Bauer President, American Values
After days of endless apologizing, Trent Lott has thrown in the towel and resigned as Senate Majority Leader. Late last night he began making phone calls to GOP colleagues to let them know his decision.
Also over night the White House began a more concerted push to replace Lott with Senator Bill Frist, who will now emerge as the "frontrunner."
Frist is a savvy media personality, but he angered many conservatives by interfering in Republican primaries around the country, virtually always in favor of the moderate candidate over the conservative. And he was a staunch supporter of former Surgeon General Satcher, who was pro-abortion. I hope a more reliable conservative-- either Nickles or Santorum-- will throw their hat in the ring.
Now comes the hard part. This mess doesn't end with Lott's resignation. The GOP needs to find its backbone. One example: There are reports that the Administration is now afraid to go into court against the University of Michigan's offensive racial quota system that selects students from certain minority groups regardless of grades while rejecting white students with much higher grades.
For 30 years the Republicans have opposed these quasi-quota schemes. Are we now going to throw in the towel because of the smear campaign against Republicans of the last two weeks?
Some insiders are suggesting there will be reluctance at the White House to nominate conservative judges. Such reports better be inaccurate or the conservative base of the party will be gone.
Let me bring up again one easy way for the White House to signal that it knows how to play hardball and help Americans of all races. Many Washington D.C. schools are abysmal and the children, mostly black, trapped in them are ill served. The White House should send a school voucher program to Capitol Hill on the first day of the new Congress just for the District of Columbia. Ted Kennedy will scream. Hillary Clinton will pull her hair out. Daschle will reach for the Maalox. And they will line up and vote "no" against those black families and in favor of the teacher unions.
Last year Bush dropped his voucher plan because Kennedy refused to let it out of Committee, but there should be no cave in this time.
Bush wants stamps for illegal aliens
"That's a link from one of Bill's spam posts.
Of course, his headline is a lie...but when did that ever stop him?"
Louie, Louie. You guys are funny, really. Pathetic. But funny. Just what part of Illegal Aliens(noncitizens) do you not understand? Your boy Bush wanted to give my tax money to illegal aliens!! Keep trying though. Hooyah!
House GOP Blocks Food Stamps Plan
Associated Press
By PHILIP BRASHER
AP Farm Writer
SOURCE
WASHINGTON - President Bush's election-year proposal to restore food stamps to noncitizens has run into opposition from House Republicans who would rather use the money to benefit farmers.
The White House plan is popular with groups that represent Hispanics, a voting bloc the White House has targeted.
But a House-Senate conference committee that is negotiating a farm bill set aside the food stamp issue after House GOP members balked Wednesday at Bush's proposal. They want to restrict the number of immigrants who could qualify and limit how long they could get benefits.
"We ought to target those people who are most in need of assistance," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
Legal immigrants were cut off of food stamps when Congress overhauled the welfare system in 1996.
Bush's proposal, which was included in a farm bill passed by the Senate in February, would restore benefits to an estimated 363,000 people at a cost of $2.1 billion over the next 10 years.
The proposal "would give a lot of hope to legal immigrants," said Rep. Eva Clayton, D-N.C.
But House Republicans want to take most of that money and shift it into agricultural research and subsidy programs for farmers and landowners.
The GOP negotiators said immigrants should be required to prove they have worked in the country for at least five years and should not receive food stamps for more than two years.
The Republicans also would deny benefits to any immigrants who have ever been in the country illegally for more than a year. Federal and state officials say that restriction would be very difficult to enforce.
"It's hard to see why they (Republicans) are digging in their heels," said Ellen Vollinger, a spokeswoman for the Food Research and Action Center, an advocacy group.
Farm workers, whose jobs are seasonal, would be among the biggest beneficiaries of the White House plan, experts say.
House members of the conference committee voted 8-6 along party lines to support the GOP proposal over the White House plan.
The GOP move also was significant in that it would break an agreement that leaders of the conference committee reached in March on overall spending levels for various sections of the farm bill.
That agreement earmarked $6.4 billion in new spending for nutrition programs over the next 10 years. Overall, the legislation would increase spending for agriculture and nutrition programs by $73.5 billion over the decade.
The negotiators are trying to merge a farm bill that passed the House last fall with the rival version approved by the Senate.
So far, the lawmakers have mostly been staking out negotiating positions on a long list of issues that range from the president's food stamp plan to new rules for farm subsidies.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he did not expect the conference committee to make much progress before next week.
The bills are H.R. 2646 and S. 1731.
"The Republicans also would deny benefits to any immigrants who have ever been in the country illegally for more than a year. Federal and state officials say that restriction would be very difficult to enforce."
So, if it's under a year, it's ok. LOL!
Of course I haven't. Consider the source.
I'm from North Carolina; we're LOADED with white trash here, so I try NEVER to judge anybody because of where/how/to whom they were born.
I try to stay OFF those threads; one reason is that I don't know enough to add anything, and the other reason is because there seems to be a lot of what I would call "unreligious" things being said on them.
Sometimes I'm thankful I'm not in some of those good old American religions, so I'd never bash anybody's faith.
If TLB was a hysterical blonde in a 1940s movie, James Cagney would slap him.
TERRORIST THINGS TO DO - U.S. MILITARY INFILTRATION:
Join U.S. Marines, fight war against Iraqi Muslims
Quit service, have uneventful slug life for eleven years in Seattle
Give up quest to be first Black Muslim Grunge Band
Join Islamist Mosque in Seattle tied to Al Qaeda
Hope mama didn't give Marine uni to Salvation Army
Inspired by God's will, Ali offered to throw in a holy "jihad" against the infidels waging Visicalc.
Microsoft security walked him out, but Paul Allen wants his business plan.
Non-citizens equate to illegal aliens?
Since when Bill?
Non-citizens Bill, are people who are here legally, awaiting the period of time between arrival, legal residence, and citizenship.
Or do you think people just get here, and are swon in?
An illegal alien is an illegal alien Bill.
Let me ask you something...when your brand of "real conservatives" take over, are you getting Joe Goebel's old gig?
Bush want to restore benefits to legal immigrants, and the House Republicans want to give benefits to illegals after a year, and wait five to give benefits to legal immigrants.
Clean up the House Bill, Bush is on the right track, his proposal would give benefits ONLY to legal immigrants.
The way you spin and dodge...Muhammad Ali would be proud.
LOL Luis. I revealed to the total amazement of my six siblings last August that there is a website bulletin board I frequent where I am considered a status quo, middle of the road milquetoast sellout.
One of my sisters asked "Who runs that site, Heinrich Himmler?"
You've got to be kidding. Standing up to the Demonrat liberal race baiters and exposing their hypocrisy and lying accusations has NEVER stopped them from parroting the same phoney accusations before.
Trent Lott however fell right into their trap and gave them the ammo they needed with statements that could easily be interpreted as racist. It would have been foolish for the GOP to waste political capital defending him.
You're only fooling yourself with these distorted and dishonest characterizations of Bush's positions and public statements.
Bush didn't denounce "Christian leaders" and "embrace Islam"...but rather he denounced the anti-Islamic statements of so-called Christian leaders like Robertson and Falwell,
... which were divisive, inflamatory.
And they were counter productive to the President's attempts to encourage a peaceful coexistance of peoples of various religions...in a country which gaurantees religious freedom to all.
Something you don't seem to comprehend.
Bush has been subject to far worse. Who can forget the leftist race-baiting ad showing the pickup truck dragging death of James Byrd which blamed Bush for supposedly not supporting Hate crimes legislation.
But it didn't work.
But the Lott gambit was a probe. If they hadn't found something useful from Lott, they would have picked someone else. The possibilities are limitless, because they are now capitalizing on the conditioned guilt reflexes that have been instilled in many educated Americans, and know that certain probes will always evoke a conditioned response. No person, cooly reflective, would see any issue at all in a flight of fancy, about an event 54+ years ago, at a birthday party, honoring a Centenarian. No this was a probe, to see how the Republicans would respond to an off the wall attack, and they hit a raw nerve, when all of the inside the beltway types went defensive.
Oh please. You are over-analyzing all this. You sound like the reverse version of the "vast right wing conspiracy". The Demonrat liberals are not nearly as sophisticated as you suggest here.
They saw an opportunity in Lott's foolish statements and they jumped on it. They didn't have to "probe" anything.
Lott embarrassed himself and the Republican party, and didn't belong in a position of leadership. Period.
Clean up the House Bill, Bush is on the right track, his proposal would give benefits ONLY to legal immigrants."
You and the Bushbot socialist worshippers are continuing the facilitation of running the country over the cliff. Let me tell you something, buddy. I would be burning your butt and everyone else's if your buddy Bush was pushing food stamps for American born citizens. It's unconstitutional, and socialism in true form. This is your buddy Bush pushing this socialism. Don't try to shift the blame. If you want to split hairs over illegal aliens vs. non-citizens vs. undocumented vs. whatever be my guest. I would care less. Listen to yourself: "Bush is on the right track, his proposal would give benefits ONLY to legal immigrants." The right track for who, Karl Marx? You're not only foolish, you're pushing evil. You're a pimp for socialism. I'll let you guess who the political whore is. Socialism is destroying this country. Bush, you, and the rest of your buddies are pushing it. Bush, you and the rest of your buddies have so bastardized and rendered useless the term conservative, who would want to use it? It's meaningless.
I got news for you Louie Louie, the following mission statement ain't your buddy Bush. Go through every one of them nimrod. Bush is trashing all of them. And I'll bet you something else. Most of the folks posting here, haven't even read Free Republic's mission statement. The mission statement and Bush are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Hooyah!
FREE REPUBLIC: What is our mission? Free Republic is dedicated to reversing the trend of unconstitutional government expansion and is advocating a complete restoration of our constitutional republic. Listed below are some of the issues we feel strongly about.
Basically, we believe that the Founders designed our system of government in the form of a constitutionally limited republic, with maximum freedom intended for the people and minimum government control or interference into our personal lives and business affairs.
The united states of America was intended to be a federation of sovereign states, each with its own constitution and state government. Governments at all levels -- federal, state and local -- were to be controlled by the people. Our Constitution explicitly restricts the power of our federal government; and our Bill of Rights guarantees that NO government may infringe upon our God given unalienable rights. This is to ensure that the real power remains close to home, with the states, the local governments and always in the hands of the people.
We the People have granted our federal government limited powers to oversee certain things, such as national defense, interstate commerce, the postal service, the coining of money, and the operation of a court system. Most other powers now in the hands of the federal government were illegally usurped from the states and from the people.
Somehow, over the years, our guiding principles of law, as set forth in the Constitution, have been eroded to the point that the federal government now has total control -- leaving the states impotent and the people as captive servants to the federal government. This must be reversed if we are to survive as a free Republic and a free people.
We at Free Republic are determined to return the Constitution to its rightful place as the Supreme Law of the land as the Founders intended.
It is not necessary for everyone to hold the same views to be members of Free Republic, however, many of us do share many of the following as common beliefs and goals:
Repeal of the war and emergency powers acts and the various states of national emergencies will allow the abolishing of all unconstitutional federal law, agencies and departments. This will return us to a Federalist system of government and return many responsibilities to the States and personal rights to the citizens.
A return to a strictly Constitutional form of federal government will automatically repeal and abolish all unconstitutional federal involvement in states issues such as: crime, health, education, welfare and the environment. The Tenth Amendment will again be in effect, which will bar all federal attempts at legislating social issues. This will also require that social programs such as Social Security, welfare and Medicare be repealed. So too, will most federal subsidies.
Merry Christmas
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