McCain Is the Amnesty Candidate

Human Events ^ | January 10, 2008 | James R. Edwards, Jr.

[2ndDivisionVet]

It’s amazing how soon people forgot that John McCain is as bad as Teddy Kennedy on immigration.

Sen. McCain took 37 percent of the New Hampshire Republican primary votes Tuesday, winning that state's contest. Mitt Romney finished six points back, at 31 percent, in second place. McCain had shown poorly in Iowa. He tied for third place with Fred Thompson, each with just 13 percent. Romney finished second in Iowa, with 25 percent, while Mike Huckabee won 34 percent.

Take a quick trip down memory lane. Less than a year ago, Sen. McCain was one of the leaders crafting a “comprehensive” mass amnesty bill behind closed doors. He, along with Kennedy, Obama and Clinton, blocked every attempt to amend the bill with any measures to decrease the damage it would have done.

His pro-amnesty stance nearly tanked his presidential candidacy last summer and dried up his fundraising. And despite his denials, Sen. McCain has spoken openly in favor of amnesty repeatedly. And his position -- even after last summer -- still favors mass amnesty for virtually every illegal alien who is already in this country, as many as a 12 -- 15 million of them.

McCain publicly embraced amnesty for years before it caused him to get his political head handed to him. “Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it,” he told a Tucson newspaper in 2003. “I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country...”

At the time of the 2006 debate of the Senate amnesty bill, McCain told a rally that illegal aliens have “grasped the lowest rung of our ladder. They want to rise, and we should let them. Let them come out of the shadows, pay a fine, stay employed, pay taxes, and earn their citizenship.”

Now, he says he’ll go along with some undefined border security measures, attempting to redefine words. But ultimately, he insists on radical legalization of most illegals.

He tried his “spin” at the YouTube debate: “ . . . [W]e never proposed amnesty.” He dissembled again in New Hampshire at Sunday’s debate: “I have never, ever supported amnesty and never will.”

McCain sets up a straw-man argument about either deport them all or legalize them all as the only two alternatives.

On May 30, McCain told FOX’s Bill O’Reilly, "You've got two choices here, Bill. You either round up and deport 12 million people and I know of no one who thinks that's a good idea or practicable. Or you make sure that you do everything possible to make sure that they pay a very heavy price for having acted illegally and breaking our laws."

In June, he told a Miami audience, “The most difficult problem is what to do about the twelve million or more undocumented workers who live and work here now. No critic of our bill has offered a serious proposal to round up all these millions, many of whom have children born in this country, and ship them back to their countries of origin. There is simply no practical way to do that, and most Americans understand that ...”

Now, scrambling back, McCain says, "There are about 2 million people here illegally who have committed crimes; those people should be deported immediately. We can't round up the other 10 million people and deport them all at once, so you are going to have to go step by step.” By “step by step,” he means legalize the vast majority of illegals, but start with some lame “enforcement” and kick out criminal aliens.

McCain remains coy on what enforcement measures he’d support. Judging by his bill, a few more border guards, some border fencing and a “virtual fence,” but little else. He told Vanity Fair, “I’ll build the goddamned fence if they want it.” Reuters quoted him at a recent New Hampshire meeting that he means by border security “walls in urban areas, through vehicle barriers, with cameras and sensors.”

All this is merely process -- stuff and personnel -- not results. Instead of building some fencing and hiring some agents, why not set goals of reducing illegal entry to a trickle? Or reducing the illegal population in four years by 75 percent through both removals and enforcement-driven attrition?

By any reasonable definition, McCain’s recipe constitutes amnesty. It allows nearly all illegal aliens to remain permanently in America. It lets them obtain a permanent resident visa and naturalize five years later. It rewards them with the job they came and stole, taxpayer-funded benefits and programs, tax credits, welfare and Social Security. It allows them to sponsor distant relatives and start their own migration chains.

The Senate bill, S. 1348, by McCain, Kennedy and Harry Reid included many loopholes and perpetually renewable Z visas for illegal aliens. The “background check” on an illegal had to be done in one business day, or else the government had to issue the amnesty visa. Flimsy “evidence” like a buddy’s “affidavit” would satisfy McCain in order to qualify someone for a Z visa. His bill gave illegals in-state tuition.

McCain’s bill allowed amnestees to renew a 4-year Z visa if they merely “attempt to gain an understanding of the English language.” That means “taking” (not passing) the naturalization test (whose standards of English acquisition are woefully inadequate). It also accepted getting “on a waiting list for English classes” (not taking or passing the course). Bottom line, amnestied aliens would remain deficient in English.

What about paying a “very heavy price?” McCain’s bill imposed just $1,000 as the penalty. There were up to $2,000 in various fees, but hardly enough to be regarded as much of a fine. Plus, the $1,000 didn’t have to be paid until after the meaningless “triggers” took effect. S. 1348 didn’t require payment of any back taxes; its last-ditch revision, S. 1639, added a tax requirement for getting a green card.

McCain rejects an attrition-through-enforcement strategy. He ultimately wants both mass legalization of illegal aliens and increases in legal immigration. He’d agree to deporting a couple million criminal aliens, but insists on letting the rest of the illegal population stay on.

In short, McCain has one of the worst grades of any Republican Senator concerning immigration. His overall career and recent Americans for Better Immigration grades are both Ds. On amnesty, he earns F. His congressional record on immigration ABI calls “abysmal.”

To build an immigration record that’s worse than Huckabee’s and even Giuliani’s takes some doing, but that’s what McCain has done. McCain’s record is more in line with Democrat candidates.

By contrast, Fred Thompson flat-out promises to veto any amnesty bill. At the YouTube debate, he said, “Yes. I will pledge that.” He then got specific on what enforcement means to him: "We've go to strengthen the border, we've got to enforce the border, we've got to punish the employers who will not obey the law, and we've go to eliminate sanctuary cities and say to sanctuary cities, 'If you continue this, we're going to cut off federal funding for you. You're not going to do it with federal money.'”

The Atlanta newspaper quoted Thompson’s reasonable enforcement approach: “They set up a false choice -- either we get giant busloads of people tomorrow, and round them all up, or we have to grant amnesty. Attrition by enforcement is what makes the most sense.”

Mitt Romney rejects amnesty, as well. His platform states, “Governor Romney opposes amnesty or any special path to citizenship for those here illegally. He opposed each version of the McCain-Kennedy legislation as the wrong approach and a form of amnesty. Amnesty did not work 20 years ago, and it will not work today.”

The Washington Post, as the Senate debated McCain’s amnesty bill last summer, reported: "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney advocated a policy of attrition to deal with the more than 12 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally, insisting that they can be slowly repatriated simply by enforcing current law or changing provisions of a controversial bipartisan plan pending in the Senate.”

Any American who cares about immigration issues, who opposes amnesty, who favors common sense over appeasement of foreign lawbreakers should not consider McCain an ally.

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Mr. Edwards, coauthor of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, is an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute.

[Jane Austen]

Yep.

[Beagle8U]

“Too many people seem to have forgotten not just the amnesty legislation itself, but the blatant attempt to sneak it through without having it properly discussed and debated.”

McCain had a “Buh Bye” Partisan plan for his amnesty bill.

[CitizenUSA]

Biblebelter: “Jorge Bush established the Teddy Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party with supporting legislation predominantly written by Kennedy such as No Child Left Behind, prescription drugs, and of course Amnesty.”

Ah, but you don’t understand. They CARE about people and only want to help. If that means they have to take something from you to help someone else, that’s fine.

Quit being so selfish! It’s not like you actually earned anything. You simply won life’s lottery, so it’s time to give back.

[tennmountainman]

“McCain must be stopped immediately and since Fred can’t win in Michigan, but Huckabee or McCain can, we should vote tactically for Mitt Romney in Michigan”

I agree. Stopping McCain’s MO in Michigan will keep the race wide open.

It should then give those leaning toward McPain in SC a reason to look elsewhere and that could be Fred. And if the good folks in SC give Fred a win, it’s off to the races we go.

[Iron Munro]

"John McCain is as bad as Teddy Kennedy on immigration."

I disagree.

As I see it, McCain is not as bad as Ted Kennedy, he is actually much worse.

They are both bloviating liberal whores. The difference is that Kennedy makes no attempt to conceal the fact that he is a stark raving, foaming at the mouth, pro-illegal Marxist without a modicum of care or loyalty to his own country.

On the other hand, McCain tries to convince us he is a principled conservative while promoting Kennedyesque policies.

McCain is either:

1 - Totally insane and detached from reality.
2 - A conservative poser who is really a deceitful, scheming, closet leftist who arrogantly considers us so stupid and simpleminded that we will believe any lie, distortion, or Clintonian obfuscation that he hands us.

Probably both, but in any case he pursues the same policies as Kennedy while hiding behind his RINO credentials, chanting his "not-amnesty" mantra to us over and over again, as if he was brainwashing a gaggle of first graders.

He also abuses his military service and the time he spent as a POW.
He has a magnificent record of service to the country and I will always have great respect for the man he was back then.
But he rides his military record so much the effect has worn thin.

And if I hear him say "My Friend" to us one more time as he tries to explain why we are too stupid to understand that amnesty is not amnesty I will shoot my TV (again).

[ImpBill]

Under “NO” circumstances will I ever vote for John McCain!

[TigersEye]

Tip of the McCain iceberg. His nomination would be a Titanic mistake.

Free Republic Opinion Poll:
Would you be for or against McCain?
Member Opinion
against 92.4% 2,989
for 7.6% 247

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McCain denies he was close to quitting GOP

*************************************************************

Why don't you shut your political pie hole?

Stifling the www? Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606)

"1606 is needed because federal courts have ordered the Federal Election Commission to regulate "electioneering communications" on the Internet because of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (McCain-Feingold). If H.R. 1606 fails to become law, your Web site or blog could be shut down for the 30 days prior to a primary election and the 60 days prior to a general election should you express "electioneering communications."

John McCain, you treasonous bastard, I challenge you or any of your traitorous cohorts... (thread by Jim Robinson)

[TigersEye]

McCain’s record is more in line with Democrat candidates.

More in line with? Heck, he wrote it for them.

[TexasCajun]

Yeah, What John said.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

A conservative poser who is really a deceitful, scheming, closet leftist who arrogantly considers us so stupid and simpleminded that we will believe any lie, distortion, or Clintonian obfuscation that he hands us.

That one gets my vote.

[pandoraou812]

Thanks!

[TheLion]

[Iron Munro]

That one gets my vote.

The next time I comment about McCain I won't be so subtle and I won't hold back anymore.

He really is insulting with his attempts to be the the oh-so-reasonable elder statesman as he talks down to us.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Oh, he’s not talking to us. McCain knows we hate him, he just doesn’t give a spit. He’s talking to Democrats. He’s using our party as a leftist outreach program and laughing at us all the way.

And, by all means, hold nothing back. The man’s in a position to do conservatism a great deal of harm.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]