Posted on 05/13/2002 1:41:59 PM PDT by KantianBurke
Tuesday, April 23, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., renewed his fight with President Bush over immigration laws Monday, mixing his pointed criticisms of the president's policies with lavish praise for Bush's leadership. It wasn't enough, however, to win over the president's aides. Tancredo said he got a second call in four days from the White House, this one complaining about the tone of a letter he sent the president offering "some political advice."
"I want to be polite. I really like the president. I really like him a lot," the Colorado lawmaker said shortly after he was berated by Ken Mehlman, White House director of political affairs.
The president's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, upbraided the two-term conservative Friday over statements he made attacking Bush in a Washington Times interview.
"The president is not on our side," Tancredo told the paper, complaining that Bush supports an "open door" border policy that could lead to another terrorist attack. "Then the blood of the people killed will be on this administration and this Congress."
Tancredo didn't dispute any of the quotations. He was just surprised, he said, that the White House took so much offense at them.
Tancredo, who heads the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, long has been an outspoken critic of Bush's immigration policies. Earlier this year, he came within one vote of blocking House passage of a Bush-supported bill to allow individuals who are in the country illegally to become legal residents.
None of Tancredo's previous comments stirred the White House to action as much as his interview with the Times, a conservative newspaper with a strong following among the president's senior advisers. In a luncheon meeting with the paper's editors and reporters Thursday, Tancredo argued that the president's policies are a threat to national security.
Hoping he could open discussions between the president and members of his caucus over the issues, Tancredo on Monday sent the president a letter restating his "strong opposition" to open borders. It didn't mention the flap over his Times comments.
"I, like most Americans, am immensely thankful that our nation has the great fortune of having you at the helm of the ship of state to guide us through this difficult time in history," Tancredo wrote. "Your courage and determination have been inspirational, and I will do all I can to support your efforts to destroy every vestige of those organizations that pose a threat to our way of life."
That was neither a retreat nor an apology, Tancredo said. "What I hoped was we could have some sort of dialogue on this."
At the very least, Tancredo said, he hoped it would prompt Bush to issue a statement backing the reorganization of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In the letter, Tancredo also noted that Rove had not met with him or the caucus over the issue despite repeated invitations.
Tancredo said he has never been involved in so public a dispute with someone he admires.
"This is not pleasant for me. If the issue didn't demand it, I wouldn't do it. This one happens to be enormously important."
I may have it a little mixed up, but he said he was going to let this all go on a case-by-case basis. It wasn't supposed to involve a really large group of people.
You are correct, you have it mixed up.
What Bush had inserted (at the last minute) into the House version of the Homeland Defense Bill was a mini-Amnesty for at least 200,000 Illegals. The timing coincided with his visit with Vicente Fox in Monterrey, Mexico.
Check out the legislation...
AMNESTY by BUSH
The Truth About Section 245(i)
If they can pass every check we can put on an alien then we cannot keep them out. Although I'm sure that there are very few that could spend their lives getting ready to blow us without tripping an alarm somewhere.
And the fourth wave will be American citizens.
We are already considered terrorists by quite a few. You might actually be able to say that the first wave was Ruby Ridge/Waco, a pre-emptive strike meant to ward off others of the same mind.
You can put a wall around tnis country, and still not prevent terrorists from getting in.
I know. But you could surely cut down on the numbers quite a bit. I'm not really of the mind that stopping illegal immigration will stop terrorism. Murphy says that if it can....I'm of the mind that we should make it as hard as hell to get in. And I'm more of the mind that illegal immigration is a huge tax burden and is worthy of our full attention regardless of the terrorist threat.
Seriously, how is this qualitatively different from the guns/crime debate?
I don't know. I'll try it like this....
GUNS = CRIME?...Could be argued but a definative answer would be hard to come by. ...BUT...
Unrestricted illegal immigration = Terrorists on our turf?..Sure. We've found them here. Proof positive that terrorists can gain access to our country illegally. What is there to debate on that point?
EBUCK
.Funny how they never equate their knee jerk support to the knee jerk support Clintonites perfected.
Actually, it's in a large part do to the outrage against his proposal that Bush's Section 245(i) Amnesty got killed in the Senate and had the net effect of zero that you mention.
You understand that the "zero effect" wasn't what Bush wanted, don't you?
BTW, your first comment "So if Bush hadn't proposed that alien workers be legalized, they would all be in their former country by now?" sort of deliberately and disingenuously misses the point...
The purpose of stopping Bush's Section 245(i) mini-Amnesty wasn't that the Illegals would then leave, it was to uphold the law, our sovereignty, and to prevent more foreigners from being encouraged to become the next wave of Illegals.
Stopping Bush on this was a small battle in the war against Illegals.
Go read the U.N. charter. Take a look at how many countries are occupied by U.N. troops (read = US funded, US staffed, US equiped). I will give Bush credit for unsigning the ICC treaty but the real test will be Ron Pauls resolution.
Bush isn't totally gone. He still swings around to a "real" conservative topic every now and again. But even then it's obvious he's just trying to appease his base by throwing us a bone all the while committing adultery with the liberals.
EBUCK
I am pleased with some of his actions, but displeased with many more.
Please do not give him much credit for the Kyoto Treaty. He did get flack for it, but that was just rhetoric. It was going Nowhere anyway.
When someone has to dig up such inconsequential moves to praise Jorge Bush, you know they're desperate!
A $1.3 trillion tax cut is "inconsequential"?
After Daschole, Gepfart or the Dem socialists claimed it would destroy the country and virtually staked their careers on defeating it?
You're kidding, right?
Opposing the Kyoto treaty.... which would have put such a huge burden on US business and energy production that it would destroy our economy.....is "inconsequential" to you?
Cutting US funding for international abortions and saving the lives of the unborn, and preventing the US taxpayers from having to kill babies is "inconsequential" to you?
You are unreal!
Scrapping the ABM treaty so we are free to develope Missile Defense which could save countless lives?
You call that an "inconsequential" move?
Incredible! The idea that you would brush all these things off as "inconsequential" completely discredits anything else you might claim about conservative values.
The idea that you would go on to complain about Bush not being a conservative is laughable.
I too fail to see how the Bushbot phenomenon is less frightening embryonic Cult of Personality than that of the Clintonistas.
The fact that I voted for Bush in the Primary and the General doesn't mean I turn a blind eye to the similarities.
If we were not so busy patting ourselves on the back because we have a Republican President in office, we would be honest enough to know Rep. Tancredo is telling the truth. Bush should have been paying attention to him long before now. As he should have been paying attention to the American people.
There is just no way immigration and terrorism can be separated.
Other countries around the world are awake to this problem, we seem to be the only one who doesn't 'know' it.
That is the worst part. He's lived it yet he perpetuates it.
EBUCK
In the name of Compassionate Conservatism, I'd like the aforementioned Freepers to charter airplanes to shuttle our lovely Illegals to the North and East for voluntary relocation...
They can put up the flight schedules, or shut up with their race-baiting.
I wonder why he's not for background checks on all people entering this country. There's nothing stopping any criminal from coming into the US to do whatever he pleases --like the Railroad Serial killer or the guy just picked up in Dallas wanted in Mexico for some murders of Juarez women, and all the many drug cartel agents. Why just background checks on US citizens?
So you speak not only for the will of the American people, but also can devine what must be in Bush's heart.
Amazing.
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