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Re-typed verbatim from the 2004 Republican Party Platform (pages 80 and 81): Supporting Humane and Legal Immigration The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration system to ensure that it is legal, safe, orderly and humane. It also supports measures to ensure that the immigration system is structured to address the needs of national security. America is a stronger and better nation because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants, and the Republican Party honors them. A growing economy requires a growing number of workers, and President Bush has proposed a new temporary worker program that applies when no...

NEW YORK - All is not sunshine at the Republican convention. Tom Tancredo isn't smiling much. Tancredo is a conservative congressman from the Denver suburbs who has made immigration his signature issue. The open-bor- ders policy of President Bush drives him crazy. Tancredo held a press conference to express his displeasure - in a kosher New York restaurant staffed by foreign accents from around the globe. Outside on Broadway, the international hordes went about their business. Also note that Tancredo's fellow panelists were New Yorkers who swim easily in the sea of diversity. They didn't reflect any white-bread fears of...

But Took a Dive For the Democrat's Liberal One The Republican platform manages to make it into the headline of Adam Nagourney's lead story Tuesday ("Giuliani Lauds Bush's Leadership on Terror--G.O.P. Opposes Abortion and Gay Unions"). Yet Nagourney's story devotes precisely one sentence to the platform. The Times also devotes a full front-page story to the conservative nature of the Republican platform, Robin Toner and David Kirkpatrick's "Social Conservatives Wield Influence on Platform." While the Republican platform is making headlines, by contrast, a Nexis search indicates the Times didn't devote a single story during the Democratic convention in Boston to...

Phyllis Schlafly, 80 years old and still going strong, is celebrating another triumph over the culture of death. "We had a total victory," she proclaimed after Republicans adopted a pro-life platform at the national convention. The founder of Eagle Forum, Schlafly has attended every GOP presidential convention since 1952, including 11 times as a delegate or alternate. This year she's a delegate from Missouri. "After Rep. Roy Blunt, the third-ranking GOP House member, finished speaking to the Missouri delegation Tuesday, Schlafly was the first person he sought out. Blunt had read her latest book - 'The Supremacists: The Tyranny of...

Even as Michael Bloomberg heralded New York's diversity Monday, President George W. Bush's controversial plan to put in place a temporary worker program is getting no major billing at the Republican National Convention. 'snip'"It seems very clear to us that the White House got the message. There just does not seem to be very much of an appetite there to pursue this," said John Kelley, a spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-partisan think tank on immigration issues. "Is any single speaker going to mention the "I" word? I don't think so.'snip'Outside Madison Square Garden, Rep. Tom Tancredo...

August 29, 2004 A Platform for Immigrants olitical parties generally like to get through the business of adopting their campaign platforms without too much fuss. But on the eve of their convention, President Bush and his loyal followers had to deal with undercurrents of unhappiness from conservatives about the issue of immigration reform. Anybody who has watched the Republicans wrestling with this explosive issue this year knew it would be difficult to please both the Republican moderates who realize that the system is "broken" - as Mr. Bush put it in January - and ideologues like Representative Tom Tancredo of...

NEW YORK (AFP) - US Republicans adopted a party platform backing President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s pre-emptive assault on terrorism and declaring that no international organisation could replace US leadership. The 93-page platform, approved on the opening day of the party's national convention here, also had harsh words for China, North Korea (news - web sites) and Iran, but signaled unreserved Republican support for Israel. The document was less of a political program than a tribute to Bush's actions since taking office in January 2001, with some veiled barbs at his Democratic election rival, Senator John Kerry...

Inclusive Document Promoting Bold Leadership NEW YORK - Platform Committee Chairman U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) today hailed approval by the delegates at Madison Square Garden of the Republican Platform. Governor Bill Owens (R-CO) and Congresswoman Melissa Hart (R-PA) served as co-chairs of the committee. The Platform Committee met throughout last week to draft and approve the text of the Republican Platform. It requires approval from the convention delegates. "This platform is the product of a transparent and inclusive process. America needs leadership that focuses on ensuring our safety, defeating terrorism, providing health security, strengthening our economy,...

If there are any deluded souls out there who still believe George W. Bush is a conservative, I invite them to examine the 2004 Republican Party platform on the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants. Bush is for it. That makes him a liberal. Worse, he proclaims that the amnesty is not an amnesty. So he is not only a liberal, but a liar as well.

TROY, Ohio (AP) -- President Bush plans to offer specific policy proposals on Social Security and other issues during his speech at the Republican National Convention, a top adviser said Saturday. Karen Hughes hinted that Bush would disclose a plan for partial privatization of Social Security. "You just heard him talk about an ownership society,'' Hughes told reporters. "He wants to give a chance for younger workers to own a piece of their own retirement.'' Previous Bush administration proposals on Social Security privatization have found little traction in Congress. Critics say privatizing the federal pension program could bring drastic cuts...

Bush team keeps conservative agenda in check By Ralph Z. Hallow THE WASHINGTON TIMES NEW YORK — President Bush's strategists outmaneuvered conservatives at every turn in Republican platform proceedings here, achieving nearly total success in pushing through the planks favored by the president's re-election campaign. "By the time everyone got to New York, the battle was over — the fix was in," (snip) "The committee simply rubber-stamped whatever the administration desired." Conservative activists outside the platform committee got almost none of their language or policy goals into the platform that will be presented to next week's Republican National Convention. (snip)

New York - Rep. Tom Tancredo failed Thursday to add his anti-immigration agenda to the Republican Party's national platform."They threw some bones at us, but we didn't really get what we wanted," said the Colorado congressman, ending his threat to wage a policy fight on the floor of next week's Republican National Convention.Tancredo blasted the party for quashing dissent, complaining that it stacked the platform committee with delegates supportive of President Bush's plan for a new temporary-worker program that would tap current illegal immigrants. Even Thursday, after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist adjourned the committee, Tancredo complained that the party...

NEW YORK – The 2004 Republican Platform Committee finished its work this afternoon. It wasn't a pretty picture. You have to give the Bush political operation credit: they badly outflanked the party conservatives. By the time delegates gathered here in New York for the platform committee work, the game was already over. The Bush operation made certain that the committee, selected by state parties, was packed with loyalists. Any chance of a conservative uprising over the platform was DOA. The most controversial plank in the draft platform was on immigration, specifically President Bush's proposal for a guest worker program for...

President Bush waves to reporters as he arrives at the White House on Thursday in Washington. The Republican Party's draft reiterates Bush's commitment that under any final-status agreement, Palestinian refugees will not be resettled in Israel. (AP) WASHINGTON - The Republican Party's draft platform on Israel reiterates President George Bush's commitment that under any final-status agreement with the Palestinians, Palestinian refugees will not be resettled in Israel and Israel will not be compelled to return to the 1949 armistice lines. The draft was published Thursday in advance of the party's convention, which opens in New York on Monday. The platform,...

<p> August 26, 2004, 9:05 a.m. By Mark Krikorian Before the draft Republican platform was released yesterday, the immigration plank was being billed as an independent effort, not directed by the White House. The selection of Pennsylvania's Rep. Melissa Hart to head the subcommittee that would address immigration was spun last week as a concession to pro-control conservatives, despite her mediocre voting record on immigration. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the platform committee co-chairman, denied that the White House was writing the platform immigration plank, telling the Washington Times that "I have talked to Karl [Rove] about the...

NEW YORK – The 2004 Republican Platform Committee finished its work this afternoon. It wasn't a pretty picture. You have to give the Bush political operation credit: they badly outflanked the party conservatives. By the time delegates gathered here in New York for the platform committee work, the game was already over. The Bush operation made certain that the committee, selected by state parties, was packed with loyalists. Any chance of a conservative uprising over the platform was DOA. The most controversial plank in the draft platform was on immigration, specifically President Bush's proposal for a guest worker program for...

NEW YORK (Aug. 26) - In a few words meant to speak volumes, Republicans have extended a welcome to party members who disagree with elements of their platform, a strongly conservative statement of beliefs that includes an endorsement of constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage. Party leaders working with platform delegates on both sides of the abortion issue settled on a declaration Wednesday night that Republicans "respect and accept" that party members can have deeply held differences. This was a step up from merely recognizing the existence of dissenters, as the initial version of the 2004 platform stated. But...

NEW YORK -- At 5 p.m. Tuesday night, the 2004 Republican platform committee met for the first time at the Jacob Javits Center. At exactly 7 p.m., the committee's members got their first glimpse of the 90-page document to be approved by subcommittees Wednesday. They were bused back to their hotels to study what is much more substantive than the pablum platform adopted by Democrats in Boston but does not resemble the robust Republican platform process of recent years. This platform is less a forward-looking declaration of party principle than a backward-looking review of President Bush's four years, more so...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Despite attempts by activists to change the GOP platform to support abortion and embryonic stem cell research, the initial version of the document supports President Bush's pro-life positions on the subjects. A draft of the platform, shown to delegates last night in advance of hearings today, retains the longtime stance in favor of a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would afford legal protection for unborn children throughout pregnancy. The platform language also contains a plank supporting President Bush's August 2001 policy prohibiting taxpayer funding of any new embryonic stem cell research and...

<p>Conservatives yesterday fumed over what they see as twin betrayals in recent days -- the Republican National Convention platform's endorsement of amnesty for illegal aliens and Vice President Dick Cheney's fence-straddling on homosexual "marriage."</p> <p>"It's a fairly solid document," American Values President Gary Bauer said of the platform, the nonbinding quadrennial statement of party principles. "But I'm concerned overall that simmering discontent on issues like immigration and the vice president's confusing remarks on same-sex marriage will cause us to be surprised on Election Day about where our voters went," he said.</p>