Posted on 04/23/2006 5:27:56 AM PDT by nj26
When President Bush arrives in Irvine on Monday morning to pitch his immigration reform plan, one of his party's best-known local standard-bearers will be maintaining a respectful — and politically careful — distance.
Dana Rohrabacher, the nine-term Republican congressman from Huntington Beach, generally supports the president, but disagrees with his immigration policies. So Rohrabacher plans to sit out Bush's speech to the Orange County Business Council.
"I don't want to be behind him looking glum and not applauding," Rohrabacher said. "So as not to be rude to the president — which I think is inexcusable — I think I'll just be staying away."
Rohrabacher's remarks reflect deep unhappiness within the GOP toward Bush's immigration stance, particularly in Republican Orange County, which is famous as a caldron of border-crackdown sentiment and where many Republicans criticize his guest-worker plan as amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Bush's decision to speak here might prove an embarrassing miscalculation, said John J. Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College who used to live in Orange County and worked for the national GOP.
"I'm not sure they had their O.C. antennae up," he said of White House schedulers. "They don't realize how complicated this issue is. It's possible this is a Daniel-in-the-lions'-den moment, but that's not really characteristic of this administration."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Well, pray for some wisdom for yourself - and a few clues as well.
I'm not a party over principle person, so they are wasting their time on me.
The diehards know we are the difference, that is why they are so upset. Maybe they should put their party back on the conservative path to regain our support.
Naw, they would rather try to shame and browbeat.
Indeed. They're willing to swallow any tripe, as long as it has a GOP Keeping-The-House Seal of Approval.
If I pee in your ear, and tell you it's actually raining? would you believe me? On Amnesty GWB is peeing in our ear.
You are wrong. It is the party voted in that has the responsibility to maintain power by how they govern. It is they who work for us, not the other way around. Your way of thinking is the same as the liberal who blames America for 911. No, the American people are not to blame. Our leaders are.
That's the real story. A third party. I am a staunch conservative but I am not a staunch Republican, especially as they move further and further to the left.
I still like Dubya as a person. I think he's a decent fellow who means well but I do not think he's a hard-core conservative. I think he's a Christian, which means that his beliefs are conservative only insofar as the conservative stance aligns with his Christian sensibilities.
Unfortunately for us, his brand of Christianity is the sort that likes to give money away. Our money. To Palestinians, to Africans with AIDS, to Mexico, to the health care system, to the education system... all that bleeding heart generosity (which would be fine if he were giving away the Bush family fortune and not tax-payer money) is antithetical to conservativism and if there's a viable third-party candidate anytime soon, be it a Libertarian who isn't addled with conspiracy theories or another Ross Perot type... I'd prefer that person over Bush.
My brother married a lady from Taiwan in 1999. They have bought and sold two homes, had two children, have gone to every "inquisition" with the authorities, proved the children are theirs with birth certificates, and still they question the children, the birth certificates, the deed's, everything they do. With the constant threat to send her back to Taiwan, without her children or husband.
That is one of things that I tell people, that illegals are the driving force behind the current wave of identity theft in our country. This article proves it.
Impeach Bush? For what high crime and/or misdemeanor? Is that you Howard Dean?
Then why aren't they working with the Senate to get a bill passed instead of complaining?
This is what's absolutely Twilight Zone about our immigration policy. When it comes to legitimate immigration - the INS turns into Nazi Dobermans, with ridiculous waits, inquisitions, hoop jumping and draconian requirements. But when it comes to the illegals of all nationalities piling in from one area only - the Mexican border - the administration turns into herding sheepdogs. "Hey! This way to the border! Water stations over there...free schools and hospitals over yonder, welfare office thataway, and oodles of jobs anywhere north! Keep a'comin!"
We have two conservative Supreme Court Justices, that is why I voted for Bush. We will see the positive effect of this for decades, and libs are crazy over it. Would you rather have Al Gore?, John Kerry?, what would their Supreme Court picks be?
I agree with what you say. You must realise however, most of us in FR already know how we will vote. We are NOT the swing voters. It scares me to see the popularity of the GOP in FR during these times and I will not stick my head in the sand nor will I blame Freepers for being unhappy that the president we help get re-elected and his party are selling out the USA.
The problem is this. If there is so much dissent here within FR... just what do you think the average American voter who only sees a maximum of 30 minutes of news a day, only reads only the headlines on the front pages of newspapers and is not involved in political blogs. This is the swing voter and this swing voter does NOT support amnesty and this swing voter knows who is in power at the moment and this swing voter does NOT pledge his allegiance to any particular party.
When you see the unhappiness within the base you can blame the base all you want, but also multiply this unhappiness many times more outside of FR with the average American voter.
Then add the libs into all of this and just how encourage they are becoming over the 2006 election as they see the GOP and Bush fail their base.
I'm a realist
Hope it scares the bejesus out of the Republicans and they realize that in order to recapture the base in 2008 they have to run conservatives who really are conservative.
The message will be clearest if, rather than abstain from voting, we all vote for third party conservatives like Constitution party, a very conservative Independent, or Libertarian.
Lots of generalizations there in that post. How sad for you to think that way.
#12 and #19 are pretty much the same, aren't they?
9/11 was never repeated because of the few people in the US Goverment who are fighting the war on terror. Bush has nothing to do with it.
In fact he is doing everything he can to make it possible for an attack.
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