The Hill again ignored McCain's reversal on immigration legislation
SUMMARY: In an article, The Hill asserted that "[m]any GOP members have previously questioned McCain for co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have put millions of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship." However, the article did not note that McCain has said he no longer supports that legislation.
In a September 23 article in The Hill headlined, "House GOP backs off immigration, avoids openly questioning McCain," reporter Michael O'Brien asserted: "House Republicans have resisted making illegal immigration a major campaign theme this year, aware that their presidential candidate is at odds with them on the issue and voters are more focused on the economy," adding, "Many GOP members have previously questioned McCain for co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have put millions of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship." However, O'Brien did not note that McCain has since abandoned his support for the immigration bill he co-sponsored with Kennedy, saying, during CNN's January 30 Republican presidential debate, that he would no longer vote for it if it came up for a vote in the Senate. McCain now says that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. Indeed, notwithstanding O'Brien's assertion that McCain is "at odds with" House Republicans on immigration reform, McCain's reversal on border security more closely conformed to the views of the GOP base.
In a June 20 Politico piece, journalist Gebe Martinez reported on McCain's reversal on immigration:
McCain, the Arizona senator, dismayed Latinos last year when he stepped back from his immigration bill that would have tightened the borders and legalized undocumented immigrants. As boos and hisses from angry Republican conservatives grew louder at campaign events, he switched course and vowed to "first" secure the borders. Were his failed bill to come up again, he would not vote for it, he said.
Media Matters for America has previously documented other examples of The Hill ignoring McCain's reversal on the immigration legislation he co-sponsored.
From the September 23 Hill article:
House Republicans have resisted making illegal immigration a major campaign theme this year, aware that their presidential candidate is at odds with them on the issue and voters are more focused on the economy.
Many GOP members have previously questioned McCain for co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have put millions of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.
But now that he is at the top of the ticket and trying to win over Hispanic voters -- a group that could help decide this year's election -- down-ballot GOPers have toned down their comments and refocused on other issues.
"Republicans think immigration is the issue to seal the deal for them, but it hasn't been that," said Lynn Tramonte, policy director for America's Voice, an organization that supports the so-called comprehensive immigration legislation that McCain helped draft.
Even McCain's critics agree that the issue has faded.
[...]
But another reason for the shift is to avoid the perception of the party rank and file and those running for the first time openly questioning their presumed leader on such a visceral topic.
Downplaying illegal immigration on the campaign trail leaves House Republican incumbents and candidates in a tight spot. On one hand, they are trying to win over a smaller group of voters, and depending on where the district is, illegal immigration could be a hot topic. But if they are too vocal on the issue, they could be seen as challenging McCain, who was elected to the Senate by a much larger and less parochial group of voters but could be hurt in the presidential election by public clashes with his party.
McCain survived attacks from Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who sought the party's presidential nomination with a platform that focused attention on illegal immigration. Tancredo challenged McCain during the Republican primary debates on the topic, but other than that, his campaign never gained any traction. Tancredo is not seeking another term in the House.
Further dissonance in messaging from Republicans, Tramonte said, could hurt McCain's chances.
"It's absolutely a handicap for him [McCain]," Tramonte said. "McCain did have strong support among Latinos in Arizona and around the country," she said, adding that that may be jeopardized by harsh rhetoric by Republican candidates.
Watching the GOP re-arrange its campaign message is just like watching the crew hands re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
OT, but this site I linked is about voter suppression and provides links to report it. Given some of the discussion yesterday about receiving republican absentee ballots I thought this might be worth sharing with all of you. It's also non-partisan, so if there are cases of democratic voter suppression, all you conservatives here feel free to use it as well.
BTW - today's electoral vote prediction:
Obama 282
McCain 236
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
McCain's plan to woo hispanic support: lie and then lie some more.
New York Times: What's Spanish for 'Lies'? McCain Immigration Ad "A Gross Distortion." "Senator John McCain's truth-deficient campaign hit another low last Friday with a fraudulent new ad, this time about immigration. The ad, in Spanish, accuses Senator Barack Obama and his Congressional allies of killing immigration reform. It's a gross distortion." [New York Times, 9/15/08: http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/whats-spanish-for-lies/]
Salon: New McCain Ad Is False In Any Language. "It turns out John McCain can lie in Spanish, too. McCain's campaign is running a Spanish-language TV ad in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that blames Barack Obama for the failure last year of a sweeping immigration reform bill. 'Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?' the ad asks. 'The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail.' ... Obama may not have been as involved in drafting the immigration legislation as McCain once was (though McCain was on the campaign trail for most of 2007, and wasn't as involved as he once was, either). And yes, he may have backed some amendments that supporters disliked. But it was McCain who abandoned his own legislation after the Republican base rose up against it, and it was McCain (and the White House) who were unable to convince allies on their side of the aisle to change their minds about the bill. Blaming Obama for the failure of immigration reform is simply wrong, no matter what language you do it in." [Salon, 9/15/08: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/09/15/mentirosa/index.html
All McCain knows is lies. This is one complete disaster in the making.
Anyone still thinking about voting for Gramps mcCain should remember this picture:
And why can't any of these pols face up to the problems of immigration, specifically Uncle Sam being swallowed by the Irish and Chinese?
Where are all of you immigration b!tches? Wes, Mefirst, Tommy, AA?
Are you feeling, like John McCain, left out of the mainstream with your militarized borders bullsh!t?
I can't stand this stuff. Allow reasonable people to disagree on policy (whether you agree to it or not). But to sweep this stuff under the rug so that 'rank and file' voters are distracted by 'lipstick' is outrageous. I wish Media Matters had a Cable Channel right in the middle of CNN and FOX.