GOP Must Choose Sides

6:02 pm EST February 8th, 2006 | Politics | 14 Comments

Is the Republican party anti-hispanic and anti-immigrant?

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement today as Republican Party extremist Tom Tancredo joined Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist for an anti-immigrant rally at the United States Capitol. Tancredo’s extremist divisive views received the endorsement of Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman last July with Mehlman stating that he was “proud” to have Tancredo’s extremism as part of the debate on immigration:

“If President Bush were serious about comprehensive immigration reform, he would reject the anti-immigrant fervor on display today, and revisit his half hearted guest worker program whose piecemeal approach fails to address this critical issue. I call on President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman to denounce today’s divisive Minuteman rally and to join Democrats in offering a real comprehensive approach to reforming our nation’s immigration policy.

 Democrats are committed to strengthening our borders and enforcing our immigration laws, but there is no place in this debate for the reckless scapegoating of immigrants, nor the private vigilantism that only fosters hostility against them. President Bush’s failure to provide leadership on immigration reform and to enforce our border laws is leaving state and local governments to bear the burden. Americans need effective leadership and solutions, not the Karl Rove playbook on divisiveness.

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14 Responses to “GOP Must Choose Sides”

  1. drpedro says:
    February 8, 2006 at 7:02 pm

    No…..

    why do you race-bait so much?

    “Democrats are committed to strengthening our borders and enforcing our immigration laws”

    Dean is a racist!

  2. Oliver Willis says:
    February 8, 2006 at 7:02 pm

    Why is it “race-baiting” to point out when the Republican party is preaching a strong message of divisiveness with racial overtones?

  3. drpedro says:
    February 8, 2006 at 8:02 pm

    What is divisive about enforcing our immigration laws?

    Affirmative action has “racial overtones”, you don’t have a problem with it….

  4. stick says:
    February 8, 2006 at 9:02 pm

    Enforcing the immigration laws & repatriating illegal aliens would send around 750,000 Mexican back south every year, plus a hopefully one-time trip for the 8-10 million that are already here. Please, Oliver, explain to me why this democratic policy embraced by Dean is not devisive and racist while Republicans proposing the same thing are racist?

  5. Oliver Willis says:
    February 8, 2006 at 11:02 pm

    These people do not simply believe in “enforcing” the immigration laws. They believe in closing the border and spying on hispanics.

  6. nudnik says:
    February 8, 2006 at 11:02 pm

    You and the Democratic party are muddying the issue. It is not a question of immigration – the way that the Dems are trying to frame it – but one of illegal immigration. Closing the border to illegal immigration is a simple issue that is in no way racist. It is simply enforcing the laws of the land.

    The more interesting discussion should be what do we do after we close the border to illegal immigrants, since it is clear that the US needs cheap labor. Increasing the number of immigrants the US allows seems to be one solution to that.

    Stop demagoguing, and start thinking.

  7. Frank_D says:
    February 9, 2006 at 9:02 am

    Oliver: Short answer — the Republican Party is neither.

  8. drpedro says:
    February 9, 2006 at 10:02 am

    Oh and Paul (frameone)

    Do you support your fellow writer at the LA Weakly, Mark Cooper on his story regarding the uselessness of the United Farm Workers Union?

  9. Oliver Willis says:
    February 9, 2006 at 6:02 pm

    Again, the conservatives must always attack, attack, attack. The conservative movement has made clear it believes in much more than enforcing current immigration rules, it believes in sealing off the border with a wall of some sort, subjecting hispanics to extra scrutiny, etc. If I felt for a second the right actually cared about the underlying policy, I’d give them some credit, but its the same old ignorance wrapped up in new words.

  10. JayTea says:
    February 9, 2006 at 6:02 pm

    So, Oliver, you’re saying that all Hispanics are illegal aliens? Or are all illegal aliens Hispanics?

    This is not about race, you buffoon. It’s about whether or not the United States has the right to maintain its borders or not. Vincente Fox says no. The United States Constitution and international law says yes.

    I’ve heard one solution kicked around: enforce our southern border in exactly the same way Mexico handles its own southern border. It’s my understanding that invaders — I’m sorry, “undocumented migrants” — are shot on sight.

    Actually, I’ve long supported relaxing immigration quotas and streamlining the process — coupled with rigorous, almost draconian enforcement.

    The real victims of this are the poor idiots who actually do follow the rules, obey the laws, do the paperwork, and come to the United States LEGALLY. It seems that they get treated a hell of a lot more shabbily than those who cut in line ahead of them. In anything resembling a just society, they’d be welcomed and lauded, and the invaders kicked out with all due haste.

    J.

  11. drpedro says:
    February 9, 2006 at 9:02 pm

    Is a fence really that offensive to you oliver?

    How do YOU seal off a piece of geography? Good Faith?

    Do you lock your doors at night? Is that “offensive”

    You are just scrounging for reasons to be against this, and you aren’t even believable…

  12. JayTea says:
    February 10, 2006 at 12:02 am

    Care to show some actual, I dunno, PROOF of “subjecting Hispanics to extra scrutiny,” Oliver? Or is it simply easier to ascribe racist motivations to your opponents than to deal with the issues?

    There’s a New Hampshire poet that had a hell of a lot of good things to say about the illegal immigration issue that I’d rather listen to than unsubstantiated, recycled, rote accusations of racism.

    “There is something that doesn’t love a wall…”

    “Good fences make good neighbors.”

    J.

  13. Marty says:
    February 10, 2006 at 2:02 am

    Oliver- this is just pathetic.

    Have you yet found that Democratic plan or otherwise that you support on immigration?

    We’re still waiting.

    By the way- where’s the link to the source of this … article? (That’s not like you.)

  14. JayTea says:
    February 10, 2006 at 3:02 am

    Marty, he gave the source as a press release from Howard Dean.

    That needs no link. Oliver ALWAYS reports the every uttering of Dear Leader, Chairman Howling Howard, as the Gospel it is. This whole page is an extension of the DNC’s press office. Just reprinting their every talking point saves Oliver the tiresome effort in coming up with his own content.

    J.