Thread: Shades Of Marley's Ghost: John McCain And Amnesty

Sunday, January 06, 2008
Shades Of Marley's Ghost: John McCain And Amnesty
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 10:03 AM

John McCain's crippled presidential candidacy is attempting a comeback in New Hampshire, a comeback built on amnesia --the hope that GOP voters won't recall the Virginia Beach explosion against evangelicals in 2000, the votes against President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the McCain-Feingold assault on free speech, the Gang of 14 undoing of the mandate to end judicial filibusters delivered by the Senate elections of 2004, and most especially the two attempts co-authored by Senator McCain and Senator Kennedy to overhaul the immigration laws of the United States and extend to the 12 to 20 million illegals living in the U.S. the opportunity to stay here forever.

On Meet The Press this morning, John McCain was again denying that McCain-Kennedy was an amnesty bill, and as soon as Russert took the conversation there, McCain had lost the hour and the momentum again. McCain's indifference to public opinion and his colleagues on this issue (the famous f-bomb he threw at John Cornyn over the Texas senator's demand for a tougher approach) and his eagerness to treat with Teddy K. are chains around political future. Recall Marley's ghost in Dickens' Christmas Carol. Marley had been Scrooge's partner:

Seven years prior to the main events of the novel, Marley contracted an unspecified illness and died on Christmas Eve. After his death, Marley's spirit was condemned to walk the Earth for all eternity. As punishment for his shutting out of his fellow man, Marley's ghost could observe, but not interact with, living beings. As an added burden, his spirit was forced to drag around a heavy chain. This chain, made up partly of money boxes, was constructed by Marley's own greed and selfishness.

Now McCain is a political Marley, and every time he rejects the charge of amnesty, he adds another link to his chain. Voters won't trust his conversion on the issue unless and until he quite forthrightly acknowledges what he was attempting to jam down the public's throats the past two years. It isn't that he has flip-flopped on the issue of the Z-Visa. It is that voters don't believe he has flipped at all.

Compounding his problem --another link in the long, long chain he carries-- is one forged yesterday when he flat out misstated his record. Ramesh Ponnuru picked it up at National Review's The Corner:

The Immigration Debate in NH [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Romney, aided by Tom Tancredo and Joe Arpaio, is predictably going after McCain on immigration. Romney will be helped by the fact that today McCain said something that not even his friends in the press can defend. He said, at that Peterborogh town meeting, that he had never supported, and would never support, giving any government benefits to "someone who came to this country illegally." That is provably false. But maybe it won't help Romney, if McCain's friends in the press just ignore it.

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog

Key excerpts from another story:

Romney, McCain clash on illegal immigration

Questioned about an issue that he had admitted hurt him politically earlier in the campaign, McCain said he has not changed his basic beliefs on illegal immigration -- comments that drew fire from Romney.

"The fact is, the American people have lost trust in government, and we have to secure the border," the Arizona senator said, adding he continues to believe in a "fool-proof" temporary worker program.

"These are God's children," said McCain, insisting that he does not favor amnesty. "We have to address this issue as humanely and compassionately as possible but we have to protect our national security interests."

Romney said, "If you have 12 million people here illegally," and they are allowed to remain, "in fact, you have amnesty."

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx ... 92481f81de

"These are God's children," said McCain, insisting that he does not favor amnesty. "We have to address this issue as humanely and compassionately as possible but we have to protect our national security interests."

These squatters need to go with no reward for squatting. Haven't they taken enough? The America owes me something altitude says it all. Mexicans think we owe them because "we" made their country poor neither they or their government has responsibly for the own countries conditions. Are these the type of citizen we want?