Yeah, ... I don't see any potential problems with this idea ...
Posted on 05/19/2011 7:22:57 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I don’t know, guys. We’ve reached the point where the “Newt implosion” narrative has crystallized so thoroughly that every new story about him ends up being refracted through that prism. I don’t trust my own judgment at this point. Is this new bit genuinely toxic, as Ace’s co-blogger Gabe seems to think, or is it much ado about nothing?
Newt Gingrich, whose campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has gotten off to a rocky start, risked fresh controversy on Thursday by suggesting that some illegal immigrants living in the United States “may have earned the right to become legal.”…
Gingrich recounted how World War Two-era U.S. draft boards chose who would serve in the military, saying a similar system might help deal with the millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally.
“Because I think we are going to want to find some way to deal with the people who are here to distinguish between those who have no ties to the United States, and therefore you can deport them at minimum human cost, and those who, in fact, may have earned the right to become legal, but not citizens,” Gingrich said.
Here’s the complete quote via Radio Iowa:
“This is, at the risk of — as I do on occasion — of getting into trouble with the news media,” Gingrich said, in answering the question, and a few people in the audience chuckled. “…I’m looking seriously at the way the Selective Service Act used to work in the 1940s and World War II where a local Selective Service board who knew the local people made the decisions…because I think we are going to want to find some way to deal with the people who are here to distinguish between those who have no ties to the United States and therefore you can deport them at minimum human cost, and those who, in fact, may have earned the right to become legal, but not citizens.”
That’s not totally alienating to the conservative base, right? You can imagine local amnesty draft boards designating illegals who’ve served in the military for special legalization privileges. (We already do it, kinda sorta.) As well as anyone else who has “ties to the United States,” which, er … could be millions of people.
Seriously, am I misreading this? Or does Newt know something about the imminent zombie apocalypse, leaving him willing to antagonize grassroots righties at every turn knowing that none of it will matter come Sunday? Exit quotation: “My reaction is if you’re the candidate of very dramatic change, it you’re the candidate of really new ideas, you have to assume there’s a certain amount of clutter and confusion and it takes a while to sort it all out, because you are doing something different.”
Update: Greenroomer Patrick Ishmael e-mails to say that Newt made these comments in Waterloo, Iowa. And he is, apparently, a big Abba fan. So I guess this is obligatory…
Well, I do like THAT, but overall I still think we’d be screwed, and the US would disappear in a whimper.
Shut up, Newt.
Who knows? It’s hard to tell what Newt means anymore.
Perhaps he was a RINO all along?
Now he wants the Oval Office?
Ya gotta be kidding me.
pure idiocy
I guess that in addition to being a left-wing Republican, he is now also a left-wing Catholic and has adopted the Bishops' Conference POV on illegal immigration.
As I recall the Democrats decided it was time to remove ALL the Republican homosexuals from public office, and they did so.
Egghead Washington insider. He’s a thinker and there are parts of his ideas to be appreciated. This one isn’t a good one, but it does nuance the problem.
We’re not going to get the immigration policy conservatives want. We’ll have to compromise in a smart way that preserves the best and discards the rest.
Newt Gangrene is an American sovereignty denying, One World Gov’t Globalist...
Newt’s agenda is the agenda of the United Nations, NOT the United States of America...
Newt is going after the maximum amount of votes...He doesn’t care which party or which country they come from...
Call it a “waiver” and file it under Obummercare.
Then Newt can go sit on a park bench with a crimalien and do a commercial about it.
I don’t care what anyone says. What the heck do people expect this time around anyway? Newt is the best possible Republican candidate we should expect. Of course that’s if his advisors are Lanny Davis, Susan Estrich, and James Carville. And so far, that sure seems to be the case, taking his statements into consideration.
Wow Newt, you go fella. If you’re not going to withdraw, this certainly is the next best thing.
I just hope young people don’t think he represents the Conservative stance. He’s not in danger of doing that evidently.
Newt was once a bright guy on the issues of Conservatism. Today his lights have gone out.
Are we going to apply this to all crimes? Just set up a board to decide who gets to skate? If I take up bank robbing can I get groups to rally for me to get my crimes to go away? How did we get to this point?
Regarding Newt, as far as I am concerned he had his chance, he had the support and he might have been able to head this country down the right path and we wouldn’t be in the financial mess we are today- BUT he blew it!!
The entry point to the panals is from the country of origin.
Ditto. And for that reason, I also don't trust candidates who don't open their yaps. I want to know what I'm voting for, even more than who I'm voting for.
Yep, Gingrinch is another open borders guy and has been for a long time.
Just one more reason why I will not support him.
I will not support a candidate who refuses to do something serious about our immigration policy.
No more Jorge Bushes or Juan McCains.
Zero tolerance on border crossings. When we have stopped the invasion, if we decide 300 million + people isn’t crowded enough, we can then determine who we want to legally allow in (and it shouldn’t be millions of tomato pickers or millions of Africans to enroll in welfare programs).
This one is problematic. They have already immigrated here illegally.
Also, making convicted crimes as the criteria for getting access to the legalization process seems like a very low bar. I think we need a process that screens out those that:
1) Will be on the public dole once legalized.
2) Will eventually become voters that vote for welfare state.
I have already seen problems with legal immigrants worshipping government after getting handouts.
Yeah, ... I don't see any potential problems with this idea ...
Aside from the military option, I think the idea is that established boards would know who has developed positive ties to the community, and not people “flocking” to a place. Painful as the immigration problem is, we have to consider what it might be like to try to deport 12,000,000 people.
Really think about it. Arrest, capture, imprisonment, transportation, getting countries to accept a huge load of people, etc. Sounds kind of expensive—higher taxes?? 12,000,000 men, women and children. Kind of sounds like a police state action.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.