Republicans continue to eat their own

[kentonio]

This time it's Marco Rubio's turn to discover that any attempt to step away from neo-GOP dogma is a guaranteed way to be stabbed in the back by your conservative friends.

Just to recap, this is the 'immigration reform' that was supposed to paint the GOP as minority friendly and bring latinos flooding back into the conservative movement, despite being a nasty little piece of crap that does nothing to help integrate illegal immigrants and instead ensures the path to citizenship takes an insane amount of time and effort while also charging large fines in the process.You know you're on the true new conservative path when your callous impractical attack on the most vulnerable ethnic minorities gets shouted down as being an 'amnesty'.

Immigration Bill Opposition Building Among Conservatives

WASHINGTON -- The limits of Marco Rubio's persuasive powers and charm, and the depth of conservative reservations about immigration reform, are beginning to show themselves.

Rubio, the Republican Florida senator who is spearheading outreach to the Republican base and to conservative talk radio hosts, was unable to persuade one of the top radio figures on the right to support the Senate's immigration reform effort when he appeared on The Mark Levin Show Wednesday night.

Levin, a former Reagan administration official, was pleasant and polite with Rubio during his 17-minute interview with the senator. But his skepticism was clear, and he referred to undocumented immigrants as "illegal aliens." On Thursday morning, he made his opposition to the Senate effort official. Levin posted a note on his Facebook page that said, "Count me out: the border is NOT secured and Obama cannot be trusted, period."

Levin linked to a site that referred to Rubio as a "slick used car salesman." Levin said later Thursday morning that he wished he had not linked to the site criticizing Rubio.

"While I oppose the immigration bill, given the border-security issue and Obama's record of non-enforcement, among other things, I regret linking to a post that refers to Senator Rubio as a slick used car salesman," Levin wrote. "He is earnest and thoughtful and deserves much better. He loves his country and means well, unlike too many politicians. There are slick used car salesmen on Capitol Hill, many come to mind, but Rubio is certainly not one of them."

But he's not the only one. Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, a former South Carolina senator who is a friend of Rubio's and was instrumental in helping Rubio get elected in 2010, posted an op-ed Thursday explaining why he thinks the Senate bill that Rubio is pushing is "flawed."

DeMint foisted the term "amnesty" -- the one-word wrecking ball that killed the 2007 immigration reform effort -- on the immigration reform legislation introduced by the Senate's "gang of eight" this week.

"After decades of empty promises on immigration enforcement, Congress simply lacks credibility to keep its promises," DeMint said, describing the Senate bill as "immediate amnesty in the form of provisional status within months and lofty promises of 'strategies' and 'plans' for enforcement years later."

DeMint decried the creation of a comprehensive bill, and said Congress should "debate and develop understandable reforms in a transparent step-by-step process that addresses all of the immigration issues." With that language, DeMint appears to have given himself some wiggle room to support a bill in Congress this year, but not a lot.

Many Republicans see passing an immigration reform bill as crucial to the party's electoral future, given the horrid state of their relationship with Latino voters. But conservatives like DeMint and Levin are not persuaded by that argument.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3109770.html

[Dinner]

Well, at least the wing nuts didn't mail him a ricin letter yet like they did the Senator who said he supported immigration reform.

[DinoDoc]

Well, at least the wing nuts didn't mail him a ricin letter yet like they did the Senator who said he supported immigration reform.

That guy did it because Wicker wouldn't do anything about the black market organ conspiracy he discovered.

[Dinner]

Oh, and, yes, the GOP's opposition to any immigration reform, no matter how sensible or modest, does indeed have it's roots in the racism of the GOP's base. They hate non-white people and they get pissed off at their politicians who want to broaden their party's appeal beyond old white male bigots.

They've played for and pandered to the bigot demographic for so long, played the race card at every opportunity for so many decades, that now they've been captured. Anyone not part of the narrow, hate filled, regressive far right abandoned ship long ago so now they're stuck. They can't broaden their appeal without losing the support of the extremists who make up the core of the party's base. They've been captured as a party and they have no one to blame but themselves and their own lying propaganda.

[DinoDoc]

Mostly they are just fearing a repeat of 1986 where the problem isn't solved and we're just back at square one in a decade.

[Dinner]

That guy did it because Wicker wouldn't do anything about the black market organ conspiracy he discovered.

Among other things.

[kentonio]

Mostly they are just fearing a repeat of 1986 where the problem isn't solved and we're just back at square one in a decade.

So instead it's clearly preferable to go the 'War on Drugs' route and enact legislation that will solve absolutely nothing, but let everyone feel good about themselves?

[DinoDoc]

Among other things.

Link. Most everything I've seen beyond the Right wing blogs snickering about him being a Democrat point to him being focused on that delusion.

[DinoDoc]

So instead it's clearly preferable to go the 'War on Drugs' route and enact legislation that will solve absolutely nothing,

That's what they fear is happening.

[DaShi]

Link. Most everything I've seen beyond the Right wing blogs snickering about him being a Democrat point to him being focused on that delusion.

You read right wing blogs?!!

[DaShi]

Anyway, back on topic. They are only going after Rubio after Obama tanked his election chances by agreeing with him. Obama now plans to agree with or praise each potential republican 2016 candidate before the primaries. However, I suspect he'll skip Santorum and Jindal.

[giblets]

So instead it's clearly preferable to go the 'War on Drugs' route and enact legislation that will solve absolutely nothing, but let everyone feel good about themselves?

What's your solution? Bonus points if your solution doesn't reward breaking the law.

[kentonio]

What's your solution? Bonus points if your solution doesn't reward breaking the law.

How about we try admitting that 'the law' when it comes to stuff like immigration means nothing more than 'stuff we decided a few years ago and may well have been wrong and stupid about'? Seriously, the current laws managed to get America to it's current position. They haven't worked, and now you have millions of people living as a virtual underclass in America. Yet you want any solution to somehow fit within those broken laws?

You have a couple of choices really IMHO, either allow a much more open long term guest worker status with the chance for citizenship under a reasonable set of conditions, or you go serious 'Wall Around America' and that means imposing strict checks and severe punishments on Americas employing illegals. At the moment the GOP are hankering for the latter while trying to paint it as the former, which is pretty pathetic.

[giblets]

Sure, we can make changes to immigration law so legal immigration will be easier, but why give a free pass to people who have already showed a blatant disregard for US law? Let's make getting legal permission easier, and kick out the people who came in illegally. And a wall could be a good tourist attraction if it's done right.

[kentonio]

Sure, we can make changes to immigration law so legal immigration will be easier, but why give a free pass to people who have already showed a blatant disregard for US law? Let's make getting legal permission easier, and kick out the people who came in illegally.

There's estimated to be somewhere between 10 and 20 million illegal aliens in the US, how exactly do you propose kicking them out?

Also there's the little question of the huge amount of work they do in the US economy, especially in job roles that Americans largely don't want to do. Oh and how about the taxes they pay?

The Texas State Comptroller reported in 2006 that the 1.4 million illegal immigrants in Texas alone added almost $18 billion to the state's budget, and paid $1.2 billion in state services they used