Only one month into the new Congress, and Lindsey Graham has already started scheming with Chuck Schumer on how to pass an illegal-alien amnesty. I’m surprised he waited that long. McCain won’t be far behind.
A few excerpts from the Politico story:
And Schumer and his staff have quietly begun reaching out to some unlikely players in the Senate, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has professed a newfound freedom since winning reelection last year without the Republican Party’s help.
Thanks, Alaska!
House Republican leaders blocked Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a foe of illegal immigration with a penchant for harsh rhetoric, from taking over the immigration subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee — signaling that they are sensitive to the political pitfalls of alienating Latinos. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has also shied away, at least for now, from pursuing the most divisive proposals, such as revoking birthright citizenship.
It’s true that Boehner and Cantor have said that immigration policy has to focus, like most everything else, on jobs and spending. But Lamar Smith told me himself that Steve King was not passed over as chairman of the immigration subcommittee for ideological reasons, but rather because of seniority — Elton Gallegly asked for and got the chairmanship because he’s been in the House 16 years longer than King, who’s now vice-chairman.
And in one closely watched comment, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) let it slip recently that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) “seems to think that there’s a shot at this.” It led to a round of speculation that the McCain of the past, the senator who ushered a comprehensive bill through the chamber in 2006, might be ready to come back.
Told you! And I hope Paul Ryan sticks to what he knows about and is good at — spending cuts — because wading into immigration without knowing how to swim certainly didn’t do Pence any good.
“Conservatives are hacked off with Schumer for so many reasons,” said the Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who supports comprehensive immigration reform. “Both carry baggage. There need to be some new faces that carry” the issue, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Richard Land is a member of a one-man club — Southern Baptists for Open Borders. And Rubio has a bright future ahead of him — why would anyone think he’d jump onto this hopeless cause? Especially having told NR: “We’ve got to secure the borders in our existing system first before we can even begin to have a conversation about the other elements of immigration.”
McCain said he won’t rejoin the talks until Congress approves a 10-point border security plan, which he and Kyl introduced last year, and the governors of the states adjoining Mexico certify their borders as secure. “The smart move for the country and the administration would be, take McCain-Kyl and make it law,” Graham said. “Let everybody know we are putting resources in the border and we’re going to fix it. And then move on to the other parts.” “It would be a real enhancement of border security that will make it easier for those who want comprehensive reform to talk about it,” Graham added.
You know what would really “make it easier for those who want comprehensive reform to talk about it”? Passing mandatory E-Verify for all new hires, now, as a stand-alone measure. The president and everyone in Congress, on both sides, have said they’re for Mandatory E-Verify, but the reason it’s not going anywhere is that the pro-amnesty folks think it’s their only bargaining chip for amnesty. So they’re blocking something that would enhance enforcement but at the same time make their own push for amnesty easier, by demonstrating seriousness about enforcement. It seems kind of ironic unless the primary goal is to ensure that unfettered immigration continues, even if it’s illegal, with amnesty as a kind of luxury that would be nice to have but is less important than keeping the borders open.
"Thanks, Alaska!" Seriously?
Supporting Murkowski - rather than upsetting her if she wins anyway - is far more a Lindsy Graham position than taking a shot at ridding the Senate of yet another blueblood RINO.
[the rest of it's right on, but we don't need me to say that]
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet me remind you once again, that most Alaska Republicans DID NOT VOTE for Earmarkowski. We know what she is like up here. It was the unions and the dems that elected her
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSome folks never learn and Lindsay Graham and John McCain are two of them. They can scheme with Chuck Schumer all they like, but unless they can pass an amnesty bill without the American people knowing about it, they're wasting their time. Do they remember what happened when they tried to pass a bipartisan amnesty bill during the Bush years? The American people went wild.
It's mystifying to me why some Republicans insist on being involved in legislation most of their constitutents so adamantly oppose. Hispanics have proven time and time again that they vote Democratic because of the entitlements that are made available to them, not because of amnesty for illegal immigrants. If their loyalty was tied to amnesty, Hispanics would have abandoned the Democratic party in 2010, after its super majority in Congress ignored the immigration reform legislation it promised.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey Washington, Republicans and Democrats(there's a difference?), You might want to keep your eye on international unrest aimed at unresponsive, head in a hole governments.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGriswel: I think he's referring to the general election, not the fact that there was a primary challenge.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe GOP leadership has really got to wake up and understand that i is an issue that is central to all of the country's biggest problems:
-fiscal insanity
-entitlement dependency
-falling education levels
-decreased upward mobility
-a threatened relative level of innovation
-stagnating average incomes and the growing inequality that results from them
-disenchantment with citizens in the government's ability (or desire) to fairly enforce its laws and restrict itself to its core scope of security, borders and maintaining the rule of law through both enforcement of laws and an objective court system
If we want to see all of these problems worsen and become a full-blown basketcase, we can continue letting the Southern border erode, and the United States can be subsumed into Central America.
If we want to do anything to ensure a populace that is capable of getting an education, competing in the global economy, living out the American values of self-reliance and self-government, and not bankrupt the country, we really need to put in place E-Verify, as Mark suggests, and again adopt adherence to and faith in the rule of law as what Lincoln called, in his best speech (Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois) our "political religion."
If we follow Graham/McCain/Murkowski's "path to amnesty," this country will have eroded all possible faith in fairness, equality under the law; we will move from being a global melting pot to a more racially striated, Central American-leaning society; and we will see government spending balloon on welfare, Medicaid housing subsidies, food stamps, generations of ESL, and other programs just as we see median levels of education and income plummet as we imbibe tens of millions of people among the worst-prepared in the world for the global economy.
Is it all worth it solely in order to grant special law-breaking privileges to a politically favored ethnic group? If Republican politicians think it is, we'll sure as heck all be better off in Canada or Australia.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRegardless of what the Senate gets up to, it's hard to imagine the Republican House being so clueless as to vote for ANY sort of amnesty bill.
Although it's interesting to observe how much more liberal Republicans in the Senate are compared to their brothers in the House.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe can only win the illegal immigration war, if regular people make a stand on the issue. The US government has for far too long intentionally overlooked this massive problem over thirty years. The border has been overrun, undermanned and so to the delight of un-American employers, millions have swept into this country stealing jobs. As I see it, it’s definitely lowered wages for the working man and women and the taking (approximately) 8 million jobs, in the majority of trades and profit producing companies offering minimum wages and no health benefits. Illegal alien and family members are uninsured, and end up painfully stinging the US taxpayer in the emergency rooms. If businesses didn't attract illegal aliens and reduced the influx they would have no other choice but to hire US citizens and legal residents and therefore wages would spiral upwards and the hospitals would not get a monetary soaking, that eventually pried from YOU and ME by the IRS.
It’s up to the American worker or citizen to serve as a whistle blower and inform ICE, if the company they are employed by is hiring foreign workers. It’s unsettling to note that Nevada has become a settlement for illegal nationals even more so than the Sanctuary State of California. Does it not seem strange that trespassing onto American soil are rewarded by our government, and do not suffer the same fate as illegal’s intruding in other nations. Other countries have severe penalties such as being charged with felony or being fired upon at the Mexican-Guatemalan border. As more and more State legislators see the insaneness of pandering to the invasion that is costing billions of dollars and enact policing laws such as 287 (g) and E-Verify audits. The majority of anxious illegal foreigners will be looking for a new homes across state lines to find a refuge. California is already suffering from turning a blind eye by granting illegal aliens a free pass to welfare entitlements and a non hostile climate were citizens pay a hefty penalty in heavy taxes.
Over many decades taxpayers have been manipulated through badly misinterpreted laws such as the 14th Amendment, allowing the babies of illegal immigrants to access welfare benefits including housing for the low income. When old soldiers remain homeless illegal aliens can receive a key to Section 8 housing--if they conceive enough infants. Even before these people arrive in America, they have been well trained into deceiving the welfare offices with fraudulent ID. Today anybody who believes that we only have 11.5 million foreigners here, must be fortunately indifferent to the coming overpopulation chaos. Only those Americans or legal non citizens who care about the federal deficit will even bother to join a pro-sovereignty group, to show their courage against the open border organizations or even call their federal and local politicians to fight back against this injustice. Those oppose any kind of restrictions on illegal or even legal immigration are in the majority leftist groups with Liberal extremist undertones. Our government keeps more or less silent that over a million legal immigrants enter the US annually? Even the US government , (GAO) the General Accounting office has disclosed that for every (1) dollar paid in taxes by illegal foreigners, they receive back 3 dollars of our money.
It’s my judgment that unless California's Sacramento lawmakers mend their ways and begin the task of cutting off every benefit to the millions of foreigners squatting there, they will become a principle destination. As enforcement becomes the name of the game in less compassionate States those homesteading there will head for Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and other malleable States. It's started already with the State of Arizona that is the first stop on the map for heinous criminals, people smugglers and drug gangs.
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I guess Alaska gets a large share of the blame for Murkowski, but the Republican leadership in the Senate gets the majority blame. They could have strangled her write in campaign in the cradle (oh uh violent rhetoric) if they had simply stripped her of all committee seniority.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Republican House needs to be unified to prevent a bill to pass. There are still plenty of democrats in the House and it will only take something like 40 or so Republicans to go wobbly. We still have at least that many RINOs in need of purging.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey Mark, quick! Go talk some sense into Rich. He wants another open immigration Bush in the White House!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen will these 'Republicans' learn? They are NEVER going to get a majority of Mexican voters. These immigrants come from a socialist country, and they are naturally sympathetic to a strong government that offers lots of largess. Which perfectly describes the Democrat party. They have no problem borrowing money from China to bribe minorities to vote for them. Harry Reid has shown how it's done. Unbridled Mexican immigration has changed California from a state that elected Ronald Reagan to one that has exactly ZERO Republican statewide office holders.
These Republicans are selling out the country for a perceived boost up in the polls. Not smart, nor good for the country.
Graham's gotta go.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat I don't understand is how a nice, conservative gal like South Carolina ever 'fell in love' with an out-and-out rascal like Lindsey Graham.
South Carolina is from a good southern family, and is certainly old enough to know better.
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