Posted on 05/31/2007 11:46:52 PM PDT by Baladas
President Bush sounded like he hoped to sever ties with the remaining 30 percent who like him when he went after critics in his party this week over opposition to his latest immigration plan.
"If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill's an amnesty bill," Bush said during a stop in Glynco, Ga. "That's empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens."
It was his harshest public backhand yet to the conservative bloggers, commentators, politicians and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, all gassing about how the bill amounts to amnesty.
"People shouldn't fear our capacity to uphold our motto, E Pluribus Unum," Bush told McClatchy Newspapers.
The compromise Senate bill is drawing fire from Republicans and Democrats. Critics on the left don't like the high fees and penalties for illegal immigrations, or the shift away from reuniting families and toward valuing education and skills in deciding who gets in. Conservative critics are calling it amnesty because it includes provisions for those in the U.S. illegally to eventually become citizens.
Points to Texas' diversity For Bush, the fight over immigration reform is a personal one — unlike Social Security or education reform, which were mostly political.
"I feel passionate about the issue. It's something I have felt strongly about ever since I was the governor of Texas," he said.
"Texas is a very diverse state, Houston is a very diverse city, and through that diversity, if you're open-minded, you get a great sense of how it invigorates the society," said Bush, a Houston resident in the 1960s and '70s.
Growing up in Texas, Bush said, "you recognize the decency and hard work and humanity of Hispanics. And the truth of the matter is a lot of this immigration debate is driven as a result of Latinos being in our country."
Or to be more specific, an unhappiness about Latinos being in the country. Bush, for the first time, is putting opponents on notice that he's going to call them out on their xenophobia if he needs to. In last year's failed effort at passing immigration reform, he never went that far.
"A lot of us in Texas were very aware of the immigration issue way before the rest of the country," Bush told McClatchy. Bush is working to keep the bill intact and moving forward.
His brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, joined former Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman in co-authoring an op-ed in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, calling on Republicans to support the bill.
In addition to arguing the merits, the two noted the political damage to the Republican Party after California in 1994 passed Proposition 187, a measure denying many public services to illegal immigrants.
"The GOP won the governor's mansion in the short term, but alienated the fastest-growing constituency in the state," they said.
With Congress out of town on recess, Bush had the microphone largely to himself on immigration. But he may not be getting traction because of the war in Iraq. The unpopular, long-running conflict has eroded public trust in the president and makes it harder for him to pass a domestic agenda. It also makes it easier for members of Congress to oppose him.
Amnesty! Amnesty! Amnesty!
Then he should take the defeat of the immigration bill personally.
I wish my dear President would take a good long look in the mirror on this one.....
The 1986 Amnesty bill was supposed to close and regulate the borders...haaa... what a joke and the incompetent Feds reneged on that provision. Now this shAMNESTY bill will now fix the borders finally? We are not fooled or impressed with the empty promises from DC.
We're all bigots now.....
No culture is monolithic
CALL! CALL! CALL! CALL! AND KEEP CALLING TILL THE LINES FRY!
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti illegal immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them. This is a bipartisan issue not a Conservative or Liberal issue BUT AN AMERICAN issue.
And we expect the Amnesty illegals to obey any new laws ?
Or our authorities to enforce any new ones on the books ?
In the meantime , We the People must endure the FLOOD of these damn illegal scofflaws and our own authorities that let it happen...
George Bush is doing to the Republican Party,
what Jimmy Carter did to the Democrats.
NO AMNESTY.
Of course most Mexicans want to live in the U.S.
Most of the world's poor would love to live here.
Do we let them ALL move here?
That would be the "humane" thing to do. After all, Mexicans are only the tip of worldwide poverty.
These millions of trespassers don't want to become Americans at all. They just want to cling to their own culture and language while making money by taking away the jobs of Americans and legal aliens.
They want welfare and free health care and free public education and Social Security benefits.
It’s not xenophobia. My wife is a naturalized citizen and I’ve spent many years overseas.
It’s recognizing the rule of law. If our laws aren’t going to be recognized and abided by, our system breaks down and our nation collapses. What we have here is the President of the United States saying some laws are ok to break . . . . The cat’s out of the bag - this was his agenda all along.
Millions for de Fence. Not one cent for amnesty.
“No culture is monolithic.” Exactly.
Our president is a genuinely stupid man.
ping
So no amnesty huh? Can you share with us your plan to get this Congress to approve the laws and funding to do what we all want? (please don`t say just follow existing law, that`s a dead pony)
Then it’s perfectly o.k. not to pay taxes. Period.
I will continue to support the President on the War on Terror. However, I will not support him in other areas, anymore.
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