Posted on 04/26/2006 5:20:12 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
President Bush generally favors plans to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship without leaving the country, but does not want to be more publicly supportive because of opposition among conservative House Republicans, according to senators who attended a recent White House meeting.
Several officials familiar with the meeting also said Democrats protested radio commercials that blamed them for Republican-written legislation that passed the House and would make illegal immigrants vulnerable to felony charges.
Bush said he was unfamiliar with the ads, which were financed by the Republican National Committee, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
At another point, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other members of his party pressed the president about their concern that any Senate-passed bill would be made unpalatable in final talks with the House.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, had been "intractable" in negotiations on other high-profile bills in the past. Bush did not directly respond to the remark, officials said.
The Republican and Democratic officials who described the conversation did so Wednesday on condition of anonymity, saying they had not been authorized to disclose details.
Bush convened the session to give momentum to the drive for election-year immigration legislation, a contentious issue that has triggered large street demonstrations and produced divisions in both political parties. Senators of both parties emerged from the session praising the president's involvement and said the timetable was achievable.
"Yes, he thinks people should be given a path to citizenship," said Sen. Mel Martinez., R-Fla., a leading supporter of immigration legislation in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I am very grouchy...but strangely I feel a little better now.
You:Oh...We have secured our borders after 9/11?
Me:We haven't made any arrests at the border since 9/11?
You gave me a rhetorical question. I responded with a rhetorical question.
My above statement still stands. If you wish to respond to it without asking a rhetorical question that doesn't logically follow from my statement -- I'm all ears.
Else the statement stands without you addressing it.
Can't keep track. We're prob'ly sexist, racist, xenophobic, hateful bubbas or something.
Wrong...Jim clearly states this forum IS NOT affiliated with ANY party.
A couple of weeks ago he posted a vanity saying that his purpose was to elect "Republicans" and defeat "Democrats". Maybe he meant that in a non-party way.
That is his personal belief...not his stated mission of the forum. Two different things.
Immediately after 9/11 was the perfect time to secure the borders, as part of the WOT. It was a missed opportunity.
The President and the Republicans are fortunate there have been no terrorist attacks due to the porous borders. If something does occur on his watch (I am not forgetting the human ramifications) due to the porous borders, it will severely hurt him and the Republican Party.
And it is going to hurt the Republican Party in November if nothing is done to secure the borders by then. That is crystal clear.
Kind of difficult separate the ideas of the man from the site...but convenient I guess.
Agreed; no crystal balls needed.
"Wow, that is one of the most intelligent posts I've ever seen on Free Republic. I stand in awe of your finely honed logic"
[Something that will never be said about your posts]
That's your first post to me, the implication being I'm an idiot. Howlin and you started the cracks, without reference to immigration, and I am swift on the retribution. You have yet to respond to a single thing I've said on immigration.
ROFLMAO.
Well, I was wondering when the first Bushbot would show up and start maligning conservatives. Sounds like the half dozen of them or so on here are getting a little slower policing threads for anti-Bush sentiment with every bad decision el Presidente makes.
True Conservative: someone who can.
Real Conservative: someone who can think up twenty by noon and thinks a "true conservative" is a Bushbot.
Obviously you have nothing to contribute except cheap personal attacks.
Just conveying what is written:
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