McCain Hits Romney, Thompson Hard on Immigration
EmailRick Klein ABC’s Senior Political Reporter and Author of The Note blogs about Sen. John McCain’s Stance on Immigration.
It sure doesn’t look like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is afraid of the politics of immigration.
On
a conference call today with conservative bloggers, McCain launched his
sharpest attack yet on former governor Mitt Romney, R-Mass., who has
begun running television advertisements criticizing the immigration
reform bill McCain is championing in the Senate.
"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," McCain said of Romney’s position on immigration. " Maybe his solution will be to get out his small-varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn."
Listen to McCain’s comments by clicking here.
This
is actually a triple-barreled attack wrapped into two sentences. It
takes on Romney for his shifting positions, his claim to have been a
regular hunter when in fact he has only occasionally hunted small game,
and a Boston Globe story that reported that Romney’s one-time landscaping firm employed undocumented immigrants from Guatemala.
McCain
also responded to former senator Fred Thompson’s, R-Tenn., critique of
the bill. Thompson, who was one of McCain’s biggest supporters in 2000,
has also sharply criticized the bill brokered by McCain.
Despite
the fact that Thompson has yet to enter the presidential fray, the
Arizona Senator labeled that a shift by non-declared actor turned
politician.
"I’m a little disappointed in Fred, because, again, he had a different position not that long ago," McCain said.
In
the last congressional session, Romney spoke of a roughly similar
immigration bill in favorable terms, calling it a "reasonable
proposal."
But Romney has blasted the latest version of the
bill as "a form of amnesty," citing the new visa classification that
would give undocumented immigrants legal status.
The Romney camp responded to McCain’s attack within hours.
"It
seems that certain candidates who brokered this flawed plan are having
a very difficult time grappling with or coming to terms with the
political fallout that has ensued in a substantive manner," said Kevin
Madden, a Romney spokesman.
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Newspaper reports have it that Senator McCain used an expletive or two in a heated exchange with a Senator who had accused him of “parachuting” in for the last hours of the discussion on the immigration bill. Senator McCain has a temper which sometimes matches his outspokenness. Some critics think that he, like Mitt Romney, has wavered–in his view of Christian evangelicalism.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai | May 23, 2007, 9:27 am 9:27 am
To: Selected National Media
re: News Coverage of Pending Scamnesty Legislation
I watched “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” today. They had the following panel to discuss the pending Scamnesty legislation about ILLEGAL aliens: Ron Brownstein, L.A. Times; Jake Tapper, ABC (SALON.com, NPR); Donna Brazile, ‘Crat strategist; and George Will (RINO).
Brownstein spoke of an “energized minority” which opposes ILLEGAL aliens. OH REALLY, Ron?! He noted further that 26 Republican Senators (read: RINOS) voted for an amendment this week favoring ILLEGALS– like they are not bought and paid for by the Conspiracy Of Evil, Ron?!?!
Earlier on This Week, George Stephanopoulos interviewed Senator Bob Menendez and Commerce Sec. Carlos Gutierrez about the pending Scamnesty bill. They (surprise! surprise!) accepted as a GIVEN that we should naturalize the 20 million ILLEGALS
already here– it was simply a “debate” on the margin about how many of their
myriad relatives to invite in also, since all spouses, children and parents can come regardless! They casually discounted mention of Robert Rector’s
calculations that the immediate Scamnesty will mean over $2 TRILLION of net costs to taxpayers alone.
Intuitively, of the 7 people who were discussing what to do about the ILLEGAL
alien crisis on the hour-long show, 6 were card-carrying liberals, and George
Will is a rich “elite” Beltway insider (who typically LIKE their cheap, ILLEGAL
domestic help) who only grudgingly has noted that Middle America is PROFOUNDLY
concerned about the morphing of America into a third world country.
At NO time WHATSOEVER did ANYONE acknowledge that Middle America has views such as those reflected here:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/back906.html
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20530
It sure is reassuring to know that there is no liberal bias in the MM… that we
can count on fair and balanced discussions over Sunday morning coffee– even as Congress, substantially surreptitiously, plots to sell out America for cheap labor and votes.
Comprende espanol, amigos?
Posted by: lodestar | May 27, 2007, 2:22 pm 2:22 pm
Rather than spending his time attacking his opponents in the Repub. presidential sweepstakes, as “my” Senator, I would like his explanation as to why the government can`t do two things at once. For example, why can`t the border be made secure under current law (after more than 5 years after 9/11) at the same time we have an appropriately lengthly debate on the proposed bill? If they can`t do two things at once, are we really expected to believe they can manage a 700(?) page bill? Let`s get real here.
Posted by: A Viet Nam Vet | May 29, 2007, 12:04 pm 12:04 pm
2 words -NO Amnesty!
Posted by: Jerry | May 29, 2007, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
Apparently our Senator from AZ is again playing politics with the immigration issue. It is common knowledge that the current Senate proposed bill, 700+ pages, is not the same as last year`s travesty, and it is probably worse. And of course two political realists like Thompson and Romney are against it. They want to get elected and may know, unlike McCain, that a good proportion of the working poor here in the Southwest are of Hispanic descent and are as upset with this sell-out as the rest of us. Why do these guys and gals keep proposing to fix the immigration laws which may not even be broken, given the fact that they refuse to enforce the current laws? Why are they trying to blackmail us with a continued refusal to secure our borders untill we agree to grant citizenship to these law breakers that are, and, if they get their way, will continue to depress the wages of the working poor? The most they will do for the working poor is pass an increase to the minimum wage that fails to keep abreast of inflation.
Posted by: A Viet Nam Vet | May 30, 2007, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm
here
thanks for the article, I used part of at my blog
Posted by: here | June 16, 2007, 11:41 am 11:41 am
Seeing how 96 percent of the American people are against amnesty for illegal aliens,it’s difficult to underatand how McCain and Kennedy could be so hell-bent on shoving the terribly flawed piece of legislation down the throats of the people. Now, once again McCain is asking for sopport from the very people whom he tried so hard to shaft. Now, the polls show him getting what he deserves.We need a President who cares about the American worker- not the illegals who are breaking the law and making the corporationa richer. McCain and Kennedy are —- poor examples of American Democracy.
Posted by: Coty Artrip | September 8, 2007, 7:42 pm 7:42 pm