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It's approaching that time of year again where the GOP plank on immigration turns into Shakespeare theatrics as manuevering begins to get the right players on the platform committee. Please note the letters attached already being circulated. Delegates are sure to encounter the overtures of those pressing for some type of legalization scheme just short of citizenship or the pressures of remaining loyal to the Rule of Law and protecting the next generation. If you are active in Texas politics and would like to weigh in on the GOP plank on immigration please take the poll and pass it along...

Re-typed verbatim from the 2004 Republican Party Platform (pages 80 and 81): Supporting Humane and Legal Immigration The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration system to ensure that it is legal, safe, orderly and humane. It also supports measures to ensure that the immigration system is structured to address the needs of national security. America is a stronger and better nation because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants, and the Republican Party honors them. A growing economy requires a growing number of workers, and President Bush has proposed a new temporary worker program that applies when no...

NEW YORK - All is not sunshine at the Republican convention. Tom Tancredo isn't smiling much. Tancredo is a conservative congressman from the Denver suburbs who has made immigration his signature issue. The open-bor- ders policy of President Bush drives him crazy. Tancredo held a press conference to express his displeasure - in a kosher New York restaurant staffed by foreign accents from around the globe. Outside on Broadway, the international hordes went about their business. Also note that Tancredo's fellow panelists were New Yorkers who swim easily in the sea of diversity. They didn't reflect any white-bread fears of...

Even as Michael Bloomberg heralded New York's diversity Monday, President George W. Bush's controversial plan to put in place a temporary worker program is getting no major billing at the Republican National Convention. 'snip'"It seems very clear to us that the White House got the message. There just does not seem to be very much of an appetite there to pursue this," said John Kelley, a spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-partisan think tank on immigration issues. "Is any single speaker going to mention the "I" word? I don't think so.'snip'Outside Madison Square Garden, Rep. Tom Tancredo...

August 29, 2004 A Platform for Immigrants olitical parties generally like to get through the business of adopting their campaign platforms without too much fuss. But on the eve of their convention, President Bush and his loyal followers had to deal with undercurrents of unhappiness from conservatives about the issue of immigration reform. Anybody who has watched the Republicans wrestling with this explosive issue this year knew it would be difficult to please both the Republican moderates who realize that the system is "broken" - as Mr. Bush put it in January - and ideologues like Representative Tom Tancredo of...

If there are any deluded souls out there who still believe George W. Bush is a conservative, I invite them to examine the 2004 Republican Party platform on the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants. Bush is for it. That makes him a liberal. Worse, he proclaims that the amnesty is not an amnesty. So he is not only a liberal, but a liar as well.

New York - Rep. Tom Tancredo failed Thursday to add his anti-immigration agenda to the Republican Party's national platform."They threw some bones at us, but we didn't really get what we wanted," said the Colorado congressman, ending his threat to wage a policy fight on the floor of next week's Republican National Convention.Tancredo blasted the party for quashing dissent, complaining that it stacked the platform committee with delegates supportive of President Bush's plan for a new temporary-worker program that would tap current illegal immigrants. Even Thursday, after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist adjourned the committee, Tancredo complained that the party...

<p> August 26, 2004, 9:05 a.m. By Mark Krikorian Before the draft Republican platform was released yesterday, the immigration plank was being billed as an independent effort, not directed by the White House. The selection of Pennsylvania's Rep. Melissa Hart to head the subcommittee that would address immigration was spun last week as a concession to pro-control conservatives, despite her mediocre voting record on immigration. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the platform committee co-chairman, denied that the White House was writing the platform immigration plank, telling the Washington Times that "I have talked to Karl [Rove] about the...

NEW YORK — The Republican Party platform draft strongly supports President Bush's "guest worker" plan that critics within the party say amounts to amnesty for illegal aliens, The Washington Times has learned. The draft will be debated here this morning, several days before the opening of the Republican National Convention, by 26 handpicked members of the Republican National Convention subcommittee that deals with immigration, led by Pennsylvania Rep. Melissa A. Hart. The draft's immigration section, titled "Supporting Humane and Legal Immigration," backs the president's case for giving some illegal aliens temporary legal status under a guest-worker program, a position vehemently...

PASADENA, Md., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement is by Constitution Party Presidential candidate Michael Anthony Peroutka whose running mate is Dr. Chuck Baldwin from Pensacola, Florida. Interesting story in the "Washington Times" (8/23/04) headlined: "GOP To Finesse Immigration Issue" -- the applicable definition of "finesse" here being, in this context, to trick or use fraud. Or, some might say, to lie. So, about what, exactly, is it the GOP is going to use trickery or fraud or lies, to deceive us? Illegal immigration. This story, based on an interview with Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the Republican...

A draft Republican Party platform distributed last night to delegates takes conservative stands on several social issues that sometimes divide the party, including abortion, stem-cell research and a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. But it also supports the expansion of legal immigration, a position that is already drawing opposition from some in the party's conservative base.Roughly half of this year's Republican platform is devoted to foreign policy and national security. "President Bush has confronted unprecedented challenges, including a world scarred by terrorism," its preamble begins. "The president's leadership has achieved successes once deemed impossible to realize in so short...

ALERT: Well, the Republican Party is asking for input from you and I to help set the party's agenda. That's right, it's time once again to write the GOP Platform -- the foundational document that declares to the world, "THIS is what Republicans stand for!" This is also where the "trench warfare" takes place every four years, between the conservative base of the party, and the "big tent" of liberals, neocons, and good ol' "RINOs" - Republicans In Name Only. If you've never experienced the passion and determination of our conservative warriors on the front line of this ideological warfare,...

...Sources say that in recent weeks, word has gone out from Karl Rove's office that Republican congressional candidates who fail to "stay away" from the issue of illegal immigration risk losing the financial support of their national party... One person with knowledge of the process says national party leaders and campaign officials vetted every delegate to the GOP convention to ensure support for an illegal alien amnesty eagerly sought by corporate lobbyists in Washington...

With the selection of an old-line Democrat to give the keynote speech at the Republican national convention in New York at the end of the month, the chance of a convention floor fight over the immigration issue may have increased substantially despite the best efforts of the party establishment to suppress the issue."Republicans," reports Adam Nagourney in a front page article in Sunday's New York Times, "are pressing for a quick and quiet adoption of a platform to minimize dissent." But on the immigration issue, which Nagourney cites as being of particular concern to Republicans, keynote speaker Senator Zell Miller...

The Republican Party's platform will oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, predicts Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the platform committee chairman."I believe it likely there will be a strong statement against amnesty," the Tennessee Republican said in an interview with The Washington Times.President Bush's "guest-worker" proposal for dealing with illegal immigration, which he outlined in a White House speech in January, includes a limited, three-year amnesty for qualified illegal aliens holding jobs in the United States.The plan has deeply angered many Republicans, who say it is meant to pander to the growing Hispanic vote, and they blame the idea on Bush...