Thread: Arkansas Gov. Huckabee discusses immigration reform

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs ... /609181748

Arkansas Gov. Huckabee discusses immigration reform, gun rights


By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press Writer


LEXINGTON, S.C. | Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday the federal government has done a "lousy job" protecting America's borders because the country lacks a practical way to let people in legally.

"We simply have not even attempted to create a legal means" to process the people who want to come here and the people we need to run the economy, the Republican governor told about 50 people at a fundraising luncheon for the Lexington County GOP.

When people say illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans, Huckabee said he asks them to name someone "who cannot get a job because a Mexican illegally here has taken the job they want."

"If that's the case, if you can get me their name and phone number by five this afternoon, I can have them making a bed, plucking a chicken, tarring a roof or picking a tomato by the morning at 8 o' clock," he said.

No one has been able to give him a name, he said. Illegal immigrants have jobs Americans don't want, he said.

America has a right to know who's here and why, he said. But federal immigration laws "are so antiquated and the process so cumbersome, it would take some people 10 to 20 years to go through the legal process."

Creating a system to process people properly and thoroughly would cost money, but certainly less than it would cost to "round up 13 million people and deport them," Huckabee said.

He said he doesn't believe in "blanket amnesty," but illegal immigrants here should be given a way to pay a fine and apply for legal status. They should be required to speak English and pay taxes, he said.

He said the debate has gotten too emotional.

"It's a problem we can confront, but we can't confront it if all we're going to do is stand on opposite sides of the room screaming," he said.

"Tonight, when you get home, get on your knees and thank God you live in a country people are trying to break into rather than a country people are trying to break out of," Huckabee said. "If we start there, we might have a possibility of getting a solution."

The luncheon was one of several South Carolina stops the potential presidential contender planned for Monday and Tuesday, which is when he will raise money for Karen Floyd, the GOP nominee for state education superintendent. Gov. since 1996, Huckabee said he will wait until after he leaves office in January to decide whether to run for president in 2008.

Responding to an audience question, the avid sportsman said he would support a national "right to carry" bill that would require states to recognize concealed weapons permits issued by other states.

"That way, we could be anywhere," he said, showing the audience the weapons license in his wallet. He then boasted of killing an antelope Saturday from 250 yards in the One Shot Antelope Hunt in Lander, Wyo.

Though he's a hunter, he said the Second Amendment is not about hunting. "It's about protecting yourself, your families," and making sure government never tries to overrun its people, he said.

Trained by Bush

Originally Posted by Brian503a

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060918/APN/609181748

[b]
"Tonight, when you get home, get on your knees and thank God you live in a country people are trying to break into rather than a country people are trying to break out of," Huckabee said. "If we start there, we might have a possibility of getting a solution."

Ok I thank God... now can we please get them out?!! Because it wont be this way for long.

Maybe if we spell real slow and talk real loud they will understand?


N-O
A-M-N-E-S-T-Y!

lets not forget this turkey is the governor of the same state that slick willy clinton was governor of.

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/200 ... 37765.html

Huckabee getting attention in Washington
Sunday, Sep 17, 2006

By David Sanders

Call it a moment of clarity or a chance at political opportunism, but when presumed presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee recently sized up Sen. John McCain's chances of winning his party's nomination, he certainly garnered some attention.

Huckabee told Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner, a fine read published daily in our nation's capital, that he has doubts about McCain's chances at winning the Republican Party nomination. He claimed that the Arizona senator and presumed GOP front-runner has put himself on bad terms with many who are in the "evangelical wing of the party, the pro-life part of the party" and believes McCain will have a hard time making up with this increasingly important group of primary voters.

It was a shot across the bow at the McCain ship. It has become quite popular.

On Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told the same publication he was glad to see McCain as the early front-runner, because "Back in 1968, my dad was the front-runner and he lost."

So what about Huckabee's chances?

It is a long shot at best. In reading Huckabee's full interview, it appears that he has come to terms with being an underdog.

The governor realizes that his best shot at garnering serious attention for the 2008 nomination will come at the hands of a GOP defeat in 2006. This puts him in the untenable position of the best outcome for his party this year (holding the House and Senate without losing too many governorships) being the worst thing for Huckabee's political future.

For Huckabee to have any chance at being a serious candidate, the GOP's Christian Right will have to come out big for him. His history as a Southern Baptist minister should at least earn him strong consideration from religious conservatives.

However, that will not be easy. The Religious Right has evolved, and is no longer only motivated by abortion and a lack of public prayer in America's classrooms. While their vigor for pro-life policies has not waned, Christian conservatives have increasingly become interested in other issues as well.

If a worst-case scenario unfolds for the GOP, Huckabee shouldn't expect his party to come calling. Sammon asks him about his own problems with "important segments" of the GOP.

Those problems stem largely from Huckabee's refusal to accept a hard line on illegal immigration and his inconsistent record on taxes. In Arkansas, the governor's plan to provide college scholarships to children of illegal aliens has become an attack point that current Republican statewide candidates are using against their Democratic opponents who support and have supported the measure. Huckabee is unapologetic about not accepting the new orthodoxy on illegal immigration.

On taxes, Sammon pointed out that Huckabee's record, supporting tax cuts and tax increases has drawn the ire of groups like Club for Growth. The club's influence in Republican politics has grown because of its ability to serve as the enforcer on party discipline issues related to taxation and government spending.

Huckabee faces additional scrutiny from the Club for Growth, because one of its principal benefactors, Jackson T. "Steve" Stephens, works in an office down the street from Huckabee in Little Rock and the two men have a history. Stephens is no fan of Huckabee and even toyed with the idea of running against him for the GOP nomination in 2002.

Should Huckabee gain any traction in the Republican nominating cavalcade, I would expect an onslaught of television ads from the club aimed at "educating" GOP voters in other states about Huckabee's economic record in Arkansas.

For now, the Washington insiders are taking Huckabee seriously. Time will tell if the attention will turn into something more tangible.



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David Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.