Posted on 09/04/2006 6:57:46 PM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.
With Congress reconvening Tuesday after an August break, Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects.
“We Republicans believe that we have no choice in the war against terror and the only way to do it is to continue to take them head-on whether it is in Iraq or elsewhere,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the majority leader.
A final decision on what do about immigration policy awaits a meeting this week of senior Republicans. But key lawmakers and aides who set the Congressional agenda say they now believe it would be politically risky to try to advance an immigration measure that would showcase party divisions and need to be completed in the 19 days Congress is scheduled to meet before breaking for the election.
President Bush had made comprehensive changes in immigration laws a priority, even making the issue the subject of a prime-time address, but House Republicans have been determined not to move ahead with any legislation that could be construed as amnesty for anyone who entered the country illegally. They held hearings around the country in recent weeks to contrast their enforcement-only bill with a Senate measure that could lead to citizenship for some.
“I don’t see how you bridge that divide between us and the Senate,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength. "
Ha....good luck with that one. Illegal immigration, IMO, is going to be a key issue. A '"broad overhaul of immigration laws" wasn't needed in the first place, enforcement was. And, while they may be able to put 'amnesty' on the backburner for now, if they think that they can continue to separate securing our border from what they perceive to be "national security issues" and be dismissive of this country's demands for IMMEDIATE border security, I believe they are sadly mistaken.
SECURE THE BORDERS NOW.
I like that idea. I have supported the RNC for years. However, when they call me, I tell them that I will contribute when border protection becomes a priority. Also, I send them the same message on their mail solicitations. I haven't started packing in extra shredded paper in the envelopes like I do for the AARP solicitations.
I am so disgusted with all of our politicians. They are corrupt beyond pale. Democrats and Republicans alike. We need a clean slate. Homeland Security is a joke. Sorry, but I worry more about the fact that every day my way of life is being destroyed over illegals. Can someone please ask them how we can have Homeland Security and an open border at the same time? How we have millions of people here and we don't know who they are?
I haven't received any more "surveys" with appeals for donations from the RNC since I sent them a Jorge Bush "dollar" from FreeRepublic. I think my name was dropped from the mailing list.
Hopefully DRIP will knock out Diane Feinstein for starters.
She is probably the safest among safe after Hilllary. I can't figure out why but that seems to be the case.
I suggest that the New York Slimes be moved to the "Fiction" section.
You and I : )
I'm giving up on the GOP. Not just because of this. I'm done.
Let them get their butts kicked in the next two elections and maybe a true conservative will rise from the ashes after the liberals have destroyed this country.
I am brushing up on my Espanol in preparation for the new Amerikka.
Over and out.
It is only dead until after the election. Then grab the Vaseline.
They are not ALL traitors but we have more than our share.
To quote somebody "never is an awfully long time." However, and more quickly, if the GOP loses the House in November, the new Democrat House majority will happily pass an amnesty bill which will be acceptable to the pro amnesty majority in the Senate and quickly signed by the President.
One of the likely cruel ironies, is that broad frustration with the Republican stance on illegal immigration and the lack of border security is likely to be taken out on the slim Republican majority in the House which has been standing tall against the Senate and the President on this issue.
Check out this article:
The Death of the Moderate Democrat
And the birth of the ‘netroots’ party
BYRON YORK
The scene is one of those Washington cocktail parties so hated by left-wing “netroots” activists — a gathering where politicians and pundits and inside-the-Beltway types meet to gossip, conspire, make deals, and generally sink farther into their morass of inside-the-Beltway corruption. One prominent member of Congress says to a prominent political analyst: “You know, if you think about it, Nancy Pelosi is pretty close to the center of the House Democratic caucus.” It seems hard to believe, given that Pelosi, the Minority Leader, is a true-blue San Francisco liberal with a near-perfect 95 rating from the left-wing Americans for Democratic Action. But the analyst starts thinking, starts envisioning the House Democratic lineup, beginning on the left with the Black Caucus, and then the Hispanic Caucus, and then the white lefties, and then Pelosi. In that cast of characters, the congresswoman from San Francisco seems almost, well, centrist. “That doesn’t mean she’s a moderate,” the analyst says, recalling the conversation at the party. “But the Democratic caucus has gone so far to the left that, hell, she’s in the middle.”
There’s been much talk in Washington recently about the fate of “moderate Democrats.” These days, Nancy Pelosi is a moderate Democrat — if that is defined as standing near the center of the party’s ideological spectrum. But the truly moderate Democrat — the type of centrist that has been so maligned by the left-wing blogosphere — is pretty much a thing of the past. Just look at a few numbers.
Americans for Democratic Action rates House members on a scale from 0 to 100 based on how they have voted on issues important to various liberal constituencies. In 1985, when there were 253 Democrats in the House, 20 were ADA “All-Stars” — that is, they had perfect scores of 100. In 2005, when there were 202 Democrats in the House, there were 65 All-Stars. An astonishing 143 — about 71 percent of the Democratic caucus — had scores of 90 or above.
By way of comparison, in 1985, when there were 182 Republicans in the House, nine had perfect 100 conservative scores as measured by the American Conservative Union. In 2005, when there were 232 Republicans in the House, 38 of them had perfect ACU scores. A total of 126 — about 55 percent of the Republican caucus — had conservative scores of 90 or above.
The numbers are similar in today’s Senate, where 22 of 45 Democrats have received the ADA’s most liberal rating. Forty Democratic senators — about 90 percent of the Democratic caucus — have ADA ratings of 90 or above. By contrast, out of the Senate’s 55 Republicans, only twelve have received the ACU’s highest mark. A total of 34 Republicans — about 62 percent of the Republican caucus — have ACU ratings of 90 or above.
The numbers are by no means scientific, and there are some differences in the ADA and ACU ratings systems. But as rough guides to party positioning, the ratings — especially each side’s ratings of its own team — measure how well lawmakers satisfy the expectations of interest groups on the left and right. These numbers suggest that, while neither the House nor the Senate is a hotbed of centrism, Democrats in recent years have moved farther to the left than Republicans have to the right.
Today, after years of drifting leftward, Democrats face a dilemma. They are the target of an angry, energized netroots movement that considers the mainstream Democratic party too centrist, too accommodating to Republicans, and insufficiently “progressive” for today’s politics. The farther Democrats move to the left, the farther their most passionate constituents prod them along.
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