Replies

OK, I found it.

Here is the exchange between Al Hunt and Mel Martinez:

MR. HUNT: Senator, two of your party’s leading presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney say that the immigration bill that you negotiated up on the Hill, that it would not secure the borders and that it would amount – the Z visas would amount to amnesty. Is that right?

SEN. MARTINEZ: Well, they are wrong on that and they are wrong in just criticizing. I wish that as presidential candidates, they would take the next step, which is to say, and here is how I would solve the problem.

MR. HUNT: Do you think either Governor Romney or Mayor Giuliani have done that?

SEN. MARTINEZ: No they haven’t, and I wished they would. Look, I’m impartial in the race because I also happen to be the general chair of the party, and I like both of
these gentlemen very, very much. And one of them who emerges as a nominee, whoever it does from our field, I think we’re going to have an excellent candidate. But at the same time, I have to say, on this issue they are falling short. I think it’s been too easy for too many people in the Senate and outside the Senate to simply criticize and find fault. No doubt that this is an imperfect product, but at the end of the day, what is your solution? What is your answer? This is a problem that – 12 million illegals in this country, a porous border, no national identification for work that can be biometrically verified – all of these things have to be done. The status quo is not good enough. And so whether a presidential candidate or a Senator, they need to take the step beyond criticizing and offering a solution.

So, Martinez is criticizing them for not offering an alternative solution (when both have given provisions they would accept).

This is not an attack. This is a joke of an article, meant to create division within Republican ranks.

meant to create division within Republican ranks.

Bigger than the one that already exists you mean?

They have offered an alternative solution, just not the one that Martinez likes. It is called enforcement first. Secure the borders, including tracking and deporting visa overstays, and enforcing the existing laws on the books against employers who employ illegals.