Immigration 2008

Peter Canellos of the Boston Globe offers an article with the title "Fear of foreigners roils Iowa/Angry rural voters voicing far-fetched theories". It attempts to downplay the impacts of illegal immigration and basically calls those who oppose illegal immigration hicks. The device used is to contrast the supposed "far-fetched" comments of some with the more reasonable (to the Boston Globe) comments of a local restaurant owner who supports "low-wage workers". Some of the "far-fetched" comments actually have a grain of truth.

The WashTimes takes a look at Fred Thompson's record on immigration votes and says:

Those include a 1995 vote against limiting services other than emergency care and public education to illegal aliens — he was one of just six senators to oppose that proposal — and a 1996 vote against creating an employer verification system to help businesses filter out illegal aliens who apply for jobs.

Imagine what would happen if an amnesty supporter were forced to endure an hour-long, nationally-televised interview just about immigration matters where they were asked a series of tough questions about amnesty and forced to defend what they support.

As long as the questions were tough enough, and they were asked follow-up after follow-up, their lies and misleading statements would be revealed. That would almost certainly result in them losing a great deal of credibility and it would almost certainly have a significant impact on their political careers.

And, that would go a long way towards ending any chance of amnesty, as all the other supporters realize that their arguments could similarly be exposed and they would lose credibility as well.

The Hagel-Martinez amnesty scam has long since been thrown into the dustbin of history, but Sen. Sam Brownback has now - in a desperate attempt to rewrite history - renounced his support for the bill:

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback said yesterday he no longer supports the immigration overhaul bill that he helped pass in the Senate.

"I would not vote for the same bill," Mr. Brownback told reporters yesterday morning, saying that after the bill passed the Senate he had a chance to study its effects and decided it led to too much immigration.

The New York Post offers the idiotically-titled "PRO-IMMIG MIKE STICKS IT TO THE STICKS":

MAYOR Bloomberg has come out swing ing against a fellow mayor trying to impose one of the most restrictive bans against illegal aliens in the nation...

..."I testified before Congress and New York's a city of 8.3 million people. The guy who testified after me [Mayor Lou Barletta] came from Hazleton, Pa., which is 30,000 people, and according to him, there has never been a crime committed in Hazleton, Pa., that wasn't committed by an undocumented," said Bloomberg.

From the New York Times June 7, 1996 article "Giuliani Criticizes G.O.P. And Dole on Immigration" we read (part also here):

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani criticized Senator Bob Dole today for supporting Republican-sponsored legislation that would restrict Government aid to immigrants and called those restrictions "a terrible, terrible mistake."

Mr. Giuliani cited measures in the legislation that would restrict public benefits to legal immigrants, allow states to bar illegal immigrant children from public schools and force local authorities and hospitals to report undocumented aliens who report a crime or seek emergency medical aid...

On Monday, the Texas House and Senate approved House Resolution 853, lavishing praise on Bill Richardson and honoring him for his "brilliant career" (link). During his acceptance speech, he said this:

"The [border] wall should be torn down... It's bad policy. It was done to get election votes... And the next president should not build it. I wouldn't build it."

First, despite what both he and W. Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman say, it's not a "wall", it's a fence.

The most important thing to know about Mitt Romney - and as far as I'm concerned, the only thing necessary to almost completely delegitimize his candidacy - is that at least three of his advisors and workers are linked to Jeb Bush. That's all I need to know: if he were his own man he would have selected people not linked to the Bush family; as it is, there's no chance that he won't just be some variant of a Bush puppet.

At first glance, it might appear that Romney's immigration position is tougher than people like McCain and Giuliani, but then you look again and you realize it's all over the map and there's also the issue that because reporters don't ask him tough questions no one can be absolutely sure what exactly he supports.