I wish you'd quit sugar-coatin' it and tell us how you really feel. 
Posted on 08/17/2007 7:34:17 AM PDT by JKrive
The two leading Republican presidential candidates have turned the GOP primary campaign into a nasty, week-long debate about illegal immigration, accusing each other of supporting efforts to give undocumented residents sanctuary from federal immigration laws.
At campaign stops, in radio ads and with increasingly hostile statements by supporters, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are talking about little else as they position themselves on an issue critical to conservatives in their party.
"They are trying to rattle their sabers louder than the other and thump on their chests," said Angela Kelley, the deputy director of the pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum. "Both of these guys are trying to remake themselves."
Romney started the fight, and his criticism reflects his campaign's emerging strategy after the former governor's victory in the Iowa straw poll last Saturday. Romney's advisers would like to narrow the GOP race as much as possible to a two-person contest with Giuliani, and they are seeking to brand Romney as the true conservative in the race, in contrast to Giuliani.
They also hope to seize the initiative with conservatives before former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), expected to enter the race next month, can establish his own bona fides with the party's base.
At the heart of the Romney-Giuliani argument is the role of cities in the immigration crisis. Romney has said that New York, under Giuliani's leadership, became a magnet for illegal immigrants when city officials refused to strictly enforce federal deportation laws. Giuliani in return has accused Romney of looking the other way as cities and towns in Massachusetts declared themselves "sanctuaries" for lawbreakers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
RINO fight! RINO fight!
Except Rudy loses this one in the end - after all, he sued up to the Supremes to keep NYC's sanctuary city policy in defiance of federal law - and then he turned around and defied the courts when they upheld the law.
It’s not immigration, it’s an invasion.
‘At least the top placing GOP candidates are making attempts to appeal to the majority of Americans.’
Haven’t you heard? Mel Martinez at RNC headquarters doesn’t need no stinkin majority of Americans....(eyes rolling)
His attacks on both Romney and Guiliani prove what you say conclusively.
How many times does the GOP have to get blown away by tens of thousands of emails, calls, and letters to the editor before they realize they’ve made a terrible mistake on Amnesty and border security?
It used to be easy to tell Dems from Repubs. Dems would never, EVER, admit an error.
Now? The GOP leadership is acting more and more like liberal Dems in regard to this matter in particular.
So what? Romney was a flip flopper too. Why can’t a born again immigration restrictionist like Rudy claim the same right to “change his mind?” Romney certainly isn’t in a position to criticize anyone. If you want a man who doesn’t “revise” his principles during even years, you need to look to other candidates, such as Ron Paul. In 2008, Romney and Rudy will get nailed by Hilary for their flip flopping, and properly so.
I wish you'd quit sugar-coatin' it and tell us how you really feel.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
“Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.”
The discussion here is about the history of sanctuary city policies. Rudy was clearly one of the worst in the country about fighting for such.
If you want a man who doesn’t “revise” his principles during even years, you need to look to other candidates, such as Ron Paul.
Don't make me laugh. Ron Paul doesn't flip-flop his priniciples, he just violates them and pretends otherwise, by passing along earmarks and then voting against them, instead of being like Tom Coburn and refusing to insert earmarks.
I agree. Uberconservatives here won’t give them credit for anything, but they are clearly speaking to the issue. Fred has too. The fact that the POTENTIAL NOMINEES ARE ALL DISCUSSING WHAT TO DO ABOUT ILLEGALS IS A BIG PLUS.
1. Allow the illegal immigrants that are here already to stay and WORK, provided they register into a national data base that then PROHIBITS them from EVER voting in America, unless and until they return to their country and go through legal channels for legal immigration status and eventual path to citizenship. If they don’t go back to their country, and just want to work, ok, but NO VOTING. This offsets the Democratic Party mass registration plans.
2. Any illegal immigrants jailed for breaking the law should be deported immediately, and the President should set aside (NOW) emergency funds to pay local governments for the deportation.
3. Any illegal gang members - same as above — gone. (I like Ike’s Operation Wetback procedure in 1958 that put them on ships destined for Vera Cruz).
4. All employed illegal immigrants, once registered into the data base, then must have required private health care coverage that includes a family doctor (to lighten the loads in hospital emergency rooms where illegals use the emergency rooms for doctor visits).
5. BUILD THE FENCE — starting now, with enough funds (multiple outsourced contracts east-to-west, west-to-east, and center-outwards) to complete by 2009.
6. Require ENGLISH for all illegals and their children.
7. Uninsured illegal motorists — deportation.
“Neither one of these clowns holds a candle to TANCREDO when it comes to the immigration/invasion issue!”
That is true! But, Tancredo wil not be the nominee one of these likely will. I am glad to see them being put on record and hope they do it an a way that leaves them both on the hook should they win in ‘08.
I do get a kick out of those on FR that obviously dislike Ron Paul because of his postion on the Iraq War...but pretend that they don't like him because he's not fiscally conservative enough. Fact is, Citizens Against Government Waste, the leading non-partisan pork and earmark watchdog group, rates every House and Senate member every year as to their votes for wasteful programs and pork-barrel spending.
In 2006, Ron Paul scored 95% (exactly the same as Coburn) and higher than every other candidate other than McCain who also scored 95%
They have been stealing Tancredo’s speeches...
Funny that everyone whines about Tancredo’s poll numbers...yet the Media Darling candidates are trying to Out-Tancredo each other.
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