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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Rove Flatters Racists [John Derbyshire]

Just been listening to Karl Rove's address to La Raza ("The Race"), the far-Left white-hating Hispanic lobbying group. You can hear the address here . It's 23 minutes and change.

It was pretty much WH boilerplate on immigration. "Hispanics, and all immigrants, are real Americans [So I guess illegal immigrants are 'real Americans'.] ... Mindful of the dignity and value of every human being... shared values... The President understands that immigration is a benefit for America... Current immigration system is broken [No it isn't. It just needs E-N-F-O-R-C-I-N-G]... Needs comprehensive solution... First, we must secure the borders [Five years after 9/11, we must secure the borders. Great idea!] ... The system's broken... Biometric ID card... All these measures will come to naught without a temporary worker program... Match willing employers with willing workers for jobs Americans will not do [And so long as the willing workers are Hispanic, I guess. Why shouldn't Chinese, Africans, Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Egyptians, etc. have a shot at being 'matched'?] ... Out of the shadows... We must address the status of the undocumented...

There was an odd little contradiction. At one point Rove seemed to claim that Mexicans just want to stay here a while to save money, to start a business in Mexico (which, said Rove, costs $5,000). Five minutes later he was talking about "Illegal immigrants who have roots in America... who want to stay..." What happened to those sojourning entrepreneurs, Karl?

And then there was the standard snow job on illegals "getting in line behind those who've applied legally..." Those who've applied legally, Karl, are waiting patiently **in their home countries** for the chance to come live in the USA. Some of them have been waiting for DECADES. If illegals are to wait in line behind them, then they too should go back to their home countries to wait. Seen from abroad, the great prize is not US citizenship; it's US residence. You are giving this tremendous prize away to law-breakers, many of whom couldn't care less about citizenship.

Rove's address included a long and implausible parallel between 19th-century Norwegian immigration (his own forebears were Norwegian) and present-day Hispanic immigration. "Norwegian immigration didn't occur without a backlash..." etc. The population of Norway in 1900 was 2.2m. Current population of Latin America: 470m. First rule of immigration: NUMBERS ARE OF THE ESSENCE.

The seems to be a lot of heckling and booing. Rove just talks right through it (making it hard to follow some of the address). He got a big cheer at the end when he mentioned Bill Richardson, though. Why? Because Richardson is half-Mexican. It's race, race, race. That's why they call themselves "The Race." My guess is that most of the people in that convention hall don't know where Norway is, and couldn't care less. As La Raza's sister organization Mecha says: "For those in the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing." Race, race, race—-that's what these people are all about. This is an outfit the administration wants to court?

It is shameful, shameful and disgraceful, that a senior adviser to our Republican President should be truckling and pandering to these Hispano-racists.

Posted at 7:50 AM