Michael Luo/NYT: Something stirring at Huckabee's (immigration mentioned!)

Michael Luo of the New York Times offers "From Back of G.O.P. Pack, Huckabee Is Stirring" (link):

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He talks tough on securing the borders and refusing amnesty to illegal immigrants, but he championed a bill in Arkansas that would have made illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition and scholarships.

In short, he is difficult to categorize politically, even as he has sought to play up his conservative credentials for the primaries.

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He would be more easy to categorize politically if New York Times reporters would take advantage of the access they have to him to ask him tough questions about his positions, specifically his extremely weak positions on immigration. Perhaps Luo should have held off on writing this until he'd actually had the chance to ask Huck the questions it would take to clarify his positions.

UPDATE: Luo claims he talked to The Huckster twice, and there are excerpts here. I left the following comment:

Huck didn't answer any real questions, he was just asked questions that allowed him to make a speech. I understand that reporters can't be familiar with everything, but at least try to keep up.

1. He says he opposes "amnesty", but that's just a word game. He supports something that millions of people in foreign countries will see as amnesty, and they'll try to come here. Point that out to him. If he says we'll have border security, point out that we don't have it now and point out all the forces - including those linked to Huck - that fight against such security.

2. Point out to him that giving ed. discounts to illegal aliens is an incentive for more illegal immigration and is thus bad public policy. He could just as well encourage those illegal aliens to go home and encourage their home countries to repatriate them. It's not like returning to their home countries is like they were being put in jail.

3. Also point out that there are only so many discounts, and giving discounts to illegal aliens takes them away from U.S. citizens.

His position is so weak that anyone who's familiar with these issues could drive him out of the race.

So, why isn't the NYT doing a public service (and its supposed job) by asking him real questions?

Immigration2007b · Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:59 · · Importance: 1