Posted on 06/04/2007 9:57:01 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
Senator John McCain, facing increasing anger from fellow Republicans over his support of the immigration bill in Congress, is ramping up his counterattack against a main rival in the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, by accusing him of “pandering for votes” in opposing the measure.
Mr. Romney, in speeches and in early campaign commercials, has portrayed the proposal as being soft on illegal immigration — a sensitive red-meat issue for the Republican base — and condemned it as offering “amnesty” to illegal immigrants.
In fighting back, Mr. McCain is challenging Mr. Romney and other opponents of the Senate’s immigration plan to offer counterproposals explaining what they would do with the nation’s illegal immigrants, which he estimates could number 12 million. And his campaign has taken to pointing out what it calls Mr. Romney’s shifting stances on immigration, and his lack of specificity on any workable alternative.
Mr. McCain’s speech is to be delivered today in Florida, where a large number of Cuban-American Republicans have a different perspective on the immigration issue. While he does not mention Mr. Romney by name in the speech, McCain advisers say Mr. Romney is the target of the criticism.
“I would hope that any candidate for president would not suggest doing nothing,” Mr. McCain plans to say. “And I would hope they wouldn’t play politics for their own interests if the cost of their ambition was to make this problem even harder to solve. To want the office so badly that you would intentionally make our country’s problems worse might prove you can read a poll or take a cheap shot, but it hardly demonstrates presidential leadership.”
“Pandering for votes on this issue, while offering no solution to the problem, amounts to doing nothing,” Mr. McCain plans to say. “And doing nothing is silent amnesty.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s time for McCain to pull the eject handle...again.
He's going to have to get past the "Mormons are a cult" thing, too. Judging from what I've seen here at FR, that's going to be quite difficult. I expect the coming Mountain Meadows Massacre movie to complicate things for him, in this regard. I've seen LDS Freepers have to be extremely patient on those threads, surely their patience will be tested even more thoroughly in the coming month.
It will be interesting to see how he performs in the Tuesday debate. McCain's attacks may generate a bit of sympathy.
I suspect he’s recently realized that, and being McCain, he will now attempt to smear any GOP candidate that does have a chance....because he’s now in the same position Bob ‘Its My Turn, Damnit!’ Dole found himself in in 1996.
Firing Rummy the day after just made the ‘base’ even angrier...
I think McCain is toast, and my President has lost his freakin mind.
Great post!
Sounds like you know a thing or two about political strategy.
‘Sounds like you know a thing or two about political strategy.’
A bit....
I think Mccain is a... I’m not allowed to use language like that on Free Republic. I would never,never vote for this man. I would stay home first or vote 3rd party. Also, I am not convinced the immigration bill will pass; the house is getting very cold feet and even some Senators are reconsidering the cost of supporting this bill in terms of their political futures.
Okay, I'll wait for you to condemn Romney now:
Hey — it’s my Romney buddy. I was wondering when you would show up.
Word has it that Romney is going to kick McCain’s behind in the Republican debates, tomorrow night, over this.
I’m looking forward to it.
I finally learned how to create my own graphics and post them online so....I thought this was an opportune moment to try my new skill out. ;-)
Your’s is a great list but I’ll still choose the Civil War for the number of casualties lost. We will lose more in the next Islamo attack right here in the US brought to us by illegals.
From his standpoint that would be foolish. Romney is the one surging (along with Thompson), while Hunter is going nowhere.
“His condemnations will only help Romney and Hunter could use the help more.”
You are right about this helping Romney, but I doubt that he sees it that way, as it is not his intent to help anyone.
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