Posted on 07/02/2007 1:05:16 PM PDT by hardback
On the morning the immigration bill died — again — the ideological Washington Times exposed a supposed plot on Page One: A photo of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the liberal Democrat from New York, conspiring with a Republican “traitor” from South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, to put something over on the American people.
In reality, they could have been checking a takeout menu. That Thursday morning, however, Schumer and Graham were in agreement that the Senate should keep talking and voting on revising laws on illegal immigration.
To the conservative media, Schumer and Graham symbolized the enemy. Hours later, the senators’ cause was lost. And the new
media — websites, e-mails, conservative talk radio and television — scored their most clearcut victory since the reelection of President George W. Bush in 2004.
This time the new media did it without strings being pulled by Karl Rove, President Bush’s top advisor. Rove deployed these same forces under the mainstream radar in the election. This time Rove, and his president, were on other side, trying to move legislation they hoped would build an Hispanic Republican voting bloc and give Bush a shining legacy.
The dividing line in the aftermath between the new conservative media and the traditional mainstream outlets couldn’t have been sharper. National Public Radio dolefully headlined Friday morning that Congress was under attack for failing to pass the immigration bill.
Right wing radio talk show hosts couldn’t have been happier. Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were exultant. Michael Savage told listeners on 400 stations that the defeat of the bill was the greatest moment of his life.
A CBS poll showed only 13 percent of those surveyed supported the effort that Bush, Schumer, Graham and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., were making.
If the poll is representative, then where were the other 87 percent getting their information, true or false, about the bill?
The pillars of the mainstream press, the New York Times and the Washington Post, covered the debate like a horse race, offering few details. Same for the networks. Cable news continued its obsession with murders and Paris Hilton.
The details were offered up daily by hundreds of cottage websites and conservative radio, talking to the heartland over the heads of insider mainstream reporters here and in Manhattan.
They were fed by analyses published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and facts served up by Republicans like Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. The result jammed the Senate’s switchboards and fax machines. It clearly alarmed Establishment senators who supported the bill.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., mocked the notion that a government that could not process passports for its citizens could investigate and document more than 12 million illegal immigrants, and secure the Southern border.
The “Terrorism Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007,” is what Sessions called it, pointing to holes in border enforcement the bill didn’t plug.
Sessions and the new media were aided by a number of elements: 1) Bush wasted six years of Republican congresses and tried passing it with the help of Democrats who had no interest in giving him a legacy; 2) It was a deeply flawed bill; 3) There had been no hearings on the measure.
The stunning victory scored by new media in this episode raises a big question for the power structure: The lobbyists, the political Establishment and their friends in the mainstream press.
How are they going to manage the message in the presidential election, when more and more people out there are looking elsewhere for details?
They haven't made us peasants yet, but they are trying. 100 million low wage illegals, families naturalized for the naturalized illegals, anchor babies from future illegal immigrants, and the children of all of the above would certainly help them in their program to become our great overlords.
The latest sound bite from Chertoff is that there’s no money to build the fence. The $4.4 billion that was a carrot with the now dead immigration bill,is suddenly gone!
Chertoff, it appears forgets that congress passed the Security Fence Act in 06’ allocating money for over 700 miles of border fence. Chertoff, is on dumb SOB, if he thinks that the American people don’t remember what was said and what was done. Another example of why Bush has no credibility with the American people when it comes to immigration.
I guess Mr. T couldn't bring himself to call the other 87% idiots.
the new media were aided by a number of elements:
2) It was a deeply flawed bill;
3) There had been no hearings on the measure.
Maybe that had something to do with it.
....where’s are the thousands of views and hundreds of replies on the immigration threads? Where’s the fence?
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1858558/posts
I think that specific politicians, specific actions will get the most looks and response now. Need action items. Everybody knows they despise amnesty, so general articles on it don’t get as many comments, since repetitive.
If we KNOW illegals are voting, then why the hell don't we put them in cuffs?
Good catch!
Actually, the reason all those blacks rushed to the Democratic Party is because the vast majority of them lived in the South at the time, and well, back then, voting in a Republican Primary was still a wasted vote. Remained a wasted vote until last decade. It took voters a long time to realize the parties had switched, and it was primarily a generational thing.
My grandfather never voted for a Republican in his life, even after L.B.J. He still viewed the Republican Party as the “party of Lincoln”, even though all evidence suggested otherwise. Then again, he was also born during the Teddy Roosevelt administration. Once again, that was entirely generational.
As it becomes clear that black votes are losing their power in the South because Republican primary winners seem to always win election, you’ll begin to see blacks convert, if just to preserve their vote.
We ran down in the truck and picked them up. For many years I maintained them as a sidewalk in front of my house, and when me and some of my buddies would get together to drink beer on a hot summer's eve, we'd down the bottles and then pee on McNamara's bricks.
Great story. He was awful - - too bad bloggers weren't around in his day...
You sir, and the rest of your compatriots in the lame stream media have sealed your fate by trying to "manage" the debate, trying to "manage" the terms of the debate, and "manage" the outcome of the debate.
We the people have had it with your political correctness, liberalism and unwillingness to admit the failures of your proscriptions.
We no longer need you and your ilk and we can seek news and opinions that reflect a greater truth, and opinions that are unvarnished with political spin.
The Dem party must have an uninformed public to stay in power.
#####
Ron Smith commented this afternoon about a headline in the Sun
“Felons line up at City Hall to register to vote.”
Down in the article comes the actual fact that 7 people were lined up, and one was a relative of a felon. Apparently about 8000 felons are returned to Baltimore streets each year.
No Sh**!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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