Posted on 08/31/2011 9:39:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
At first glance, Labor Day weekend looks like it could be a lot of fun for Rick Perry and his fans. The odds of a Sarah Palin candidacy continue to shrink to irrelevance as she wrestles with incompetent local Tea Party organizers in Iowa over a long-planned appearance just outside Des Moines. Mitt Romney’s temporary triumph in securing top billing at a Tea Party Express event in New Hampshire, meanwhile, is being spoiled by protests from Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks organization. And Mitt is also looking a bit humiliated by his last-minute decision to change plans and appear at a candidate inquisition in South Carolina organized by Jim DeMint. But Team Perry would be well advised to stay very alert this weekend. The same South Carolina event that is being widely billed as a spectacle of Mitt Romney bending his knee to kiss the ring of Jim DeMint could produce a nasty ambush for Perry on the subject of his immigration record.
It’s well known that Perry’s record and positions on immigration represent the one glaring area where he’s significantly out of step with conservative orthodoxy. He has, after all, consistently supported a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, both positions contemptuously dismissed as code for “amnesty” by many conservative activists. Worse yet, from their point of view, he signed and still defends a state version of the DREAM Act, which provides in-state tuition rates at state universities for illegal immigrants brought to this country as children. He opposes any modification of birthright citizenship. And he kept Texas off the bandwagon of states emulating Arizona’s SB 1070 law. Yes, he’s thundered a bit lately at the feds for their alleged failures in border enforcement. But by any measure, this is his Achilles heel when it comes to conservative ideological litmus tests, even if it is also a potential ace-in-the-hole in a general election, where the ability to avoid a calamitous loss among Hispanic voters could be the key to a GOP victory. Indeed, anti-immigrant demagogue Tom Tancredo published an op-ed on the eve of Perry’s announcement of his candidacy denouncing the governor’s record in terms normally reserved for Barack Obama.
So it’s well worth noting that the co-inquisitor who will be sitting next to Jim DeMint (along with right-wing Princeton professor Robert George) at the Palmetto Freedom Forum event on Labor Day will be none other than Tancredo’s successor as Congress’ preeminent anti-immigration agitator, Representative Steve King of Iowa. King, whose views on the subject are so extreme that he was denied the chairmanship of a House subcommittee on immigration despite being its senior member, can hardly be expected to pass up an opportunity to bash Perry’s record in the forum’s one-on-one questioning format. And he may have an additional motive to highlight Perry’s heresies: His closest friend in Congress, now that Tancredo is gone, is Michele Bachmann. In fact, King has not made an endorsement in the presidential race up until now because he wanted to be able to participate in this weekend’s event.
If Rick Perry does walk into a beatdown by King in Columbia, and doesn’t handle it well, the political consequences could be pretty serious. South Carolina is not a state where Republicans are particularly enamored of undocumented workers or sensitive about the Hispanic vote. If the extremely powerful Jim DeMint is looking for an excuse to support someone else or simply withhold his imprimatur, watching Perry squirm while his buddy King taunts him with a hot poker could provide an excellent excuse. And even more obviously, King is a major powerbroker back home in Iowa, and is likely capable of stopping Perry’s recent momentum in the state.
In other words, it’s not so clear Rick Perry is going to have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. It could turn out to involve a barbecue where the Texan is himself on the grill.
Even if the House had not removed the felony provision, the Senate, including some of our favorite RINOs, would not have passed it unless it had some kind of amnesty. Sometimes no bill is much better than "whatever we can pass."
The party was too split to agree on a common bill.
Well things definitely got worse when Pelosi took over the congress in 2007 and GWB announced that it was an opportunity to pass real immigration reform.
“See you at the signing”
Didn’t know this about him.
If he can’t get immigration right, he can’t get the rest of it right.
Look at what its done to Europe.
Seriously, the GOP is so done.
Obama’s going to win. The idiots on the left will pick a real liberal over a fake one every day.
If you can’t get ‘Immigration is killing the country, taking jobs, sapping medicare, and raising crime rates nationwide’ then what can you get?
Immigration is the ‘kittens, ducks, and bunnies’ slide in the powerpoint deck. China, Russia, and Islam is 1st Grade, and the curricula gets tougher from there.
So what we’ve got here is McBush. It’s Rico Suave.
Won’t somebody please explain it to the simple idiots somewhere in DC or wherever the GOP clubhouse is.
We’re going to lose again.
In 2007 I don’t know how many times GWB supporters on FR chided me that the “triggers” in McCain-Kennedy were “the best we can get,” and I was going to be sorry because the Dems were going to pass amnesty with “no border security” next time.
They were wrong. The “enforcement” in the 2007 bill was a phony promise, and I still can’t believe that “conservatives” were so gullible that they would back a Kennedy amnesty bill that Reid didn’t even give senators time to read.
Some of those supporters of the GWB amnesty are now Palin and Perry supporters, but some current Palin and Perry supporters fought against the 2007 amnesty.
I believe you were the one deciding vote that threw the 2008 election to Obama, and after GWB kept you safe.
Well that's why the RINOs were \gleeful about Pelosi winning, so the 'best they could get" was complete crap. That is when I noticed you dont pass ANY reforms if Dems are in charge.
A Perrybot would say I actively campaigned for Barry. Thanks for cutting me some slack. :-)
We had some fun together on those revive Bush (if only GWB was still president) threads in 2009.
That is what has been happening so far, but I have a funny feeling that things may change.
Here is my view of things: From a leftist point of view, Obama was not very good at his job in his first 4 years, but in his second term he might get his sea legs. With a second term, he has nothing to lose. An incumbent POTUS who wins reelection can win some seats in congress, and those conservative justices on the SCOTUS are not getting younger.
What if Hillary had been elected POTUS in 2008 with the House and 60 senators? My hunch is that she would have been more likely to pass amnesty, crap and trade, etc. in her first term. I am aftraid Obama in a second term might start becoming more "effective."
Nothing is 100% certain. What is the probability of Obama getting a chance to put an Eric Holder clone on the court, or even pusing amnesty through, vs. the probability of Perry or Romney succeeding in pushing amnesty through?
I don't know. I will be worried if Obama or a RINO is elected. I would like Cain or Bachmann to be the nominee, but I don't think either would beat Obama.
Apparently I nailed it...
According to the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who will present candidates with questions at the event, called Perry’s change of plans “a big disappointment to me.”
ABC News reports that the Texas governor still intends to participate in Wednesday’s presidential debate in California.
UPDATE: DeMint tells ABC News of Perry’s last-minute change of plans, “He has to make his own decision, but certainly we are disappointed.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/05/rick-perry-palmetto-freedom-forum_n_949164.html
BUT, the fires were not so bad that...
” Rick Perry misses GOP forum, but speaks to South Carolina voters elsewhere. “
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/05/2392083/rick-perry-misses-gop-forum-but.html#ixzz1X8M8DKZ7
Looks like Gov. Perry just did not want to play hardball and stuck to the softballs.
Here in Texas we have seen all this before with him. It’s not a big deal to us, we are used to it.
It’s gonna be a real disapointment to a lot of people when find out WHY folks say things like “finger in the wind” about him.
The town hall meeting was in the morning, the Palmetto forum was at 3 PM, EST.
I was disappointed, too. But I don’t think he could stay in SC when the fires were expected to build in the afternoon.
See this map for the fires http://bit.ly/pshY9V and for the smoke plumes. Click the smoke application and zoom out to see the fires all over Texas.
It's been going on for days...
Wildfire destroys nearly 500 homes in Texas
Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 | 7:03 p.m.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/sep/04/us-texas-wildfires/
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Texas wild fire 9/04/2011 4pm
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-668394
CNN producer note
robwaltz shot this video yesterday of a wildfire currently raging near Columbus, Texas. 'There was heavy smoke and high winds with lots of fine ash in the air that was getting in my eyes while shooting these videos,' he said. 'The fire has destroyed nearly 1,600 acres in Colorado County in Columbus, Texas. At least two or more homes have been destroyed as of 4pm last night.'
- jmsaba, CNN iReport producer
iReport — Fire in Katy Texas wild fire 9/04/2011 This was the second wild fire along I-10 today .
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. Virginia Esquivel, right, is comforted by her neighbor, Yolanda Rodriguez, after Esquivel's home in Cedar Park, Texas, burned on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011. Two homes on the street were destroyed by the fire. MAGS OUT; ; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY Photo: Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner / AP .
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Wind-driven-fires-kill-woman-child-in-East-Texas-2155659.php#ixzz1X8eIBJbL
Fires break out across Central Texas
KVUE ^ | September 4, 2011 | KVUE
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2773705/posts
Winds fuel flare-ups in Palo Pinto County, across state 
Charred grass, brush and structures come up the edge of the lake in this aerial photograph. Photographed near Possum Kingdom Lake, Palo Pinto County, Tex. on Thursday, September 01, 2011.
Wildfire sweeps acres in Texas 
A helicopter drops water on a fire near the entrance to The Cliffs on the south east side Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas, Aug. 30, 2011
More than 7,500 acres of land in the northern region of Texas has so far burnt, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
. http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/04/3337151/winds-fuel-flare-ups-in-palo-pinto.html
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