8:57 PM 04/08/2013
10 to 0--The MSM's idea of a debate: Thanks to Politico for the list of all the guests on the five major networks' Sunday talk shows (on all of which immigration was a hot topic of the day). I count thirteen politicians or adminstration figures. Of these guests, ten vigorously support some form of immigration amnesty (Schumer (two shows) Graham, McCain, Dan Pfeiffer (2 shows), Bill Richardson, John Huntsman, Luis Gutierrez and Mario Diaz-Balart.) But that's OK, because the networks booked politicians who oppose amnesty to debate them! ... Oh wait, there were no politicians opposing amnesty debating them. Zero. None. FOX included. The closest you could come was Asa Hutchinson, who has a nuanced record, having ... no, sorry, he supported the Bush amnesty plan as Homeland Security Undersecretary. In any case, he was on TV only to talk about guns. ...
2:20 AM 04/08/2013
As Rubio Turns? Will Sen. Marco Rubio bolt from the "Gang of 8"--the small group of amnesty-supporting Senators writing an immigration bill--if his call for "multiple hearings" and extensive debate on the bill gets slapped down (as it was, once again, on Sunday's talk shows by Sen. McCain)? The answer, I think, is suggested by a close textual reading of Rubio's letter to fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee--Grassley, Sessions, Lee and Cruz--who aren't part of the "Gang" and are also demanding hearings. In particular, this passage [emphasis added]:
8:56 PM 04/04/2013
Here's an idea for beleaguered California Republicans looking for someone to run against Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014: Why not Victor Davis Hanson? He's an articulate advocate of the conservative point of view on the central political issues of the state-- a farmer, scholar, charismatic speaker who combines broad knowledge with ground-level machismo. He'd have an appeal in the disaffected, depressed central valley, where he lives, and the yuppie coast. While he's skeptical of the current rush to amnesty, he talks about illegal immigrants living in his area with compassion. He's not a career pol like the other mentionees. He's a real human being. He's not a multimillionaire ex-CEO either (we've had enough of them). The media would have an excuse to cover him--the fish out of water angle--as long as he kept them amused. The debates with Jerry Brown would be highly informative. It's possible Brown would freak out in a fit of intellectual insecurity.**
7:59 AM 04/04/2013
Nothing new since 2007? Democrats--in particulary Sen. Patrick Leahy and White House press secretary Jay Carney--have worked themselves into an untenable position on the question of whether the Senate should hold new hearings on the as-yet-unwritten Gang of Eight immigration plan. The Dem argument is that all the issues involved in immigration have been thoroughly ventilated over the years. Here's Carney:
8:17 PM 04/02/2013
kf Scooplet: In a letter dated March 22--but not disclosed until now--Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly urged Sen. Marco Rubio to leave the so-called "Gang of 8" senators drafting an immigration amnesty bill. Schlafly's letter cited Ronald Reagan's experience with the 1986 amnesty, which was followed by a wave of illegal immigration resulting in the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants for whom another amnesty is now being considered. ("Reagan later admitted he regretted signing the bill and that it was a huge mistake.") Schalfly's letter, a copy of which was obtained by kausfiles, continues, in part:
5:03 AM 04/01/2013
I want my MTP slot: The immigration debate is rapidly becoming the Marco Rubio Show. He's urging Democrats to hold hearings on the draft amnesty legislation (when it is finally drafted), something Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has said he doesn't plan to do. If Rubio withdraws from the so-called "Gang of 8" as a result, that might doom the bill. It's enough of an implicit threat to attract lots of attention even if Rubio's just posturing. Unlike Kim Jong-un, he can hit the mainland.
4:15 PM 03/31/2013
Google should google it: Cesar Chavez's legacy on illegal immigration may not be what Google thinks it is. Here's a Ruben Navarrette column on the subject. As a labor leader, Chavez realized that uncontrolled immigration undercut his workers' bargaining position--as late as 1979 he inveighed against "illegal alien strikebreakers" before Congress.. Some of his tactics were even less than Gandhiesque ... P.S.: Of course, he changed his position in later years "under pressure from Chicano yaktivists." That doesn't mean his later position was right (or wrong). ... See also. ...
11:55 PM 03/30/2013
Cheaper to Free Your Mind? Let's asssume that the various authorities cited by Brad Plumer are correct: Greater economic inequality has caused middle class households to spend more to 'keep up with the [rich] Joneses." Many borrow money to do so, and the resulting "excess debt, in turn, increases the risk of a major financial crisis."
2:48 PM 03/28/2013
Mark Krikorian notes how the Democrats are slowly humiliating Sen. Marco Rubio by denying him the various fig leaves--a phony border-security "trigger" for example--he's used when touting his amnesty plan to conservatives. ... Will he stay in the Gang of 8 or will he walk away, which would probably doom amnesty? ... Prediction: He will walk away, for show. Then he will go back, ** after dramatically winning some fig leaves, because at bottom he is pro-amnesty. You wouldn't have Cesar Conda as your chief of staff unless that were the case. ... P.S.: A paranoid might even say this drama seems pre-scripted! ...
2:45 PM 03/28/2013
Karl Rove approaches Morrisesque** levels of disingenuousness declaring that President Obama "has become a minor actor on Capitol Hill" because " bipartisan groups of senators and congressmen are doing the difficult work of writing detailed immigration rreform legislation." That's silly. During the 1996 welfare reform debate, Bill Clinton stayed publicly out of the action (because the White House feared that if he endorsed any plan the Republicans would simply move the goalposts and ask for more). That didn't mean he was a minor actor, or that his aides weren't involved in the process, and it didn't mean he wouldn't claim credit for the legislation.
12:48 PM 03/28/2013
A group called the Dream Action Coalition protested when four members of the Gang of 8 staged a visit/photo op at the Mexican border:
7:15 AM 03/25/2013
The Week in Amnesty: Jennifer Rubin, who is to bandwagons what Thelma and Louise are to Thunderbird convertibles, recently gloated about the "bad ... week " opponents of immigration amnesty were having, what with Rand Paul on Monday dramatically coming out for amnesty reiterating his February pro-amnesty position and RNC's strategists declaring that-- after an election in which they failed to make the case on jobs and education and health care and foreign policy and character-- the one thing Republicans just had to change happened to be the thing RNC strategists haven't liked all along.
11:00 PM 03/22/2013
Not optics, hydraulics: National Journal 's Ron Fournier is angry that the MSM isn't making a big enough fuss over the demise of the assault weapons ban:
7:58 PM 03/21/2013
John Stanton of Buzzfeed reports that the AFL-CIO is holding up the big Gang of 8 immigration amnesty deal by demanding "protections for domestic construction workers."
3:48 PM 03/21/2013
Here's Designated Tea Party Sellout Pied Piper Marco Rubio, quoted in Mike Allen's Playbook, agitating for a big guest worker program:
2:43 PM 03/20/2013
Wanted--Dem Populists: Are there really no Democrats left in Congress like Sen. Byron Dorgan, the "prairie populist" who helped torpedo immigration amnesty in 2007? Dorgan worried about the effects of an influx of low-skilled immigrants on wages and jobs. His arguments then are still powerful now--but the strategic advantage of playing the Latino ethnic card seems to have trumped concern for low-skilled workers among 100% of today's Democrats. ('Screw 'em--they're losers in today's global free trade system anyway!') Here is Dorgan in 2007:
1:09 AM 03/20/2013
Calling Senator Sessions ... Senator Sessions ... Senator Cruz ... Senator Cruz ...: The current immigration debate always reminds me of the "guaranteed income" debate of the late 1960s. Here was a pressing national problem (immigration poverty) that had been festering unsolved for too long. But a clear bipartisan consensus had emerged to break the gridlock! Instead of insisting on increasingly archaic distinctions (between legal and illegal working and not working) , the government should adopt a comprehensive approach and just give everyone amnesty the cash they'd need to get by--a guaranteed income. Democrats were for it, Republicans were for it (President Nixon embraced it), libertarians were for it. (Milton Friedman was one of its originators). Journalists were for it. Scholars were for it. Pat Moynihan was for it. A bill--the "Family Assistance Plan"--was drafted and seemed ready to slide through Congress. Sure, some of the facile assumptions of supporters seemed questionable, like the idea that amnesty wouldn't act as a "beacon" for more illegal entries a cash guarantee wouldn't encourage dependence or subsidize family breakup, but who was going to call BS on that?
8:43 PM 03/17/2013
Salena Zito argues Obama sees his legacy as expanding the power of the Presidency--authority to order drones strikes, etc.. I suspect Obama is indeed pursuing a legacy of lasting power--he'd be foolish not to-- but why shouldn't it be power to get done what Obama wants to get done, as opposed to what his presidential successors want to get done? Does he want to empower Ted Cruz?
3:46 PM 03/17/2013
Maybe it's not that courageous to defy the near-perfect Elite Media Consensus favoring "comprehensive immigration reform"--i.e. amnesty. But it takes balls to do it a) at a conservative conference rigged to push amnesty; b) if you value your relationship with amnesty-supporting FOX News; and c) if you ridicule Roger Ailes' old patrons, the Bushes, in the process. ...The Coulter video is here on Politico. ... Don't expect it to be featured on Fox! ... P.S.: Hmm. I can't find it on Daily Caller either. It's lucky I'm not paranoid. ... P.P.S.: If you want a policy, as opposed to political, argument against amnesty, stick around for Coulter's explanation (at about 15:30 mark) of Mitt Romney's non-trivial--and therefore shockingly strong--support (20%) among young black men: "They want jobs and they don't want to be competing with illegal aliens for jobs. ... I think we owe them something more than someone who has just run across the border." Over to you Matt Yglesias. ...
7:21 PM 03/15/2013
The sound of one man clapping: It looks like the attempt to turn CPAC into a pro-immigration-amnesty rally has been somewhat less than a rousing success. Sorry, Matt! First came a panel rigged to push legalization--no dissenting voices allowed! (Raul Labrador, the least amnestyish person on the panel, supports legalization but not citizenship.) "The massive lecture hall was roughly a third full for the immigration panel, compared with stronger showings for panel discussions on [other topics]," the Christian Science Monitor noted. Mark Krikorian, one of the obvious conservative voices left off the panel, reports that even this self-selected group seemed unpersuaded:
