Mel Martinez

Yesterday, Barack Obama met with various members of Congress to discuss comprehensive immigration reform. His remarks are at [1], a list of attendees is at [2], and some quotes from attendees is at [3]. Nothing very important appears to have happened or been said. Note also that before the meeting, Rahm Emanuel said, "If the votes were there [for amnesty], you wouldn't need to have the meeting....

... this interview he speaks about Mel Martinez: "I would just say that Mel is a friend, someone I admire and respect. . . . There's nothing about Mel that I’m disappointed in today. I think he's done the best he can under the circumstances. On immigration, he voted for a package I probably would not have voted for, because I believe that we’ve got to secure the borders in our existing system first...

... Politico informs us (link) that Sen. Mel Martinez (no relation) is initiating an unfocused push to get comprehensive immigration reform:

Steve Schmidt - former chief strategist of the John McCain campaign - was interviewed by Ana Marie Cox about the various failures he was involved in and presumably he tries to defend himself against charges that he's completely incompetent; I didn't bother reading the whole thing (link) since this bit is all we need: If you look at the returns from the southwestern and mountain west states, with...

... even sooner than was hoped, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) has quit as the head of the RNC. Don't let the door hit you, etc. Now comes Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times to put the worst possible face on it ("Latino head of RNC resigns", link).

... Republican Party chairman and Senator Mel Martinez said he wants to revive the Bush/Senate massive illegal immigration amnesty scheme, this time starting in the House. Short answer: see this recall petition. Longer answe

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials has at least one link to the Mexican government: they nominate persons for Mexico's highest award to those outside Mexico, the Ohtli award. That's certainly not as objectionable a link as other groups have, but it's a link nonetheless. At the end of the month they'll be holding a shindig in Miami and all the Democratic...

... including the party's chairman, Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, Mr. Chambliss and Mr. Kyl, the Senate Republican Conference chairman, were at the press conference announcing the bill... * DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff meanwhile challenged critics to offer alternative solutions instead of simply saying "this isn't good enough." (link; the obvious answer is, of course, that he should do his job...

... Rep. Kendrick Meek and Sens. Mel Martinez, John McCain and Ted Kennedy -- declined to comment further or did not respond... Someone supporting a moratorium now is a very strong indicator that that person would support yet another moratorium and that they really don't support our immigration laws at all. Perhaps the politicians listed are just tactically smarter than the list "rights" groups. I...

Rudy Giuliani announced that he's running for president on tonight's Hannity & Colmes, and watching his remarks on immigration I realized that he's completely full of $#*|. A transcript is here. Giuliani's euphemism for a massive illegal alien amnesty is "regularization".

Senator Mel Martinez has been elected to the made-up title of "general chairman" of the Republican Party's National Committee (RNC). Despite a secret ballot, not that many might have voted against him. I would strongly suggest to all GOP members that now is the absolute best time to turn your backs on the party in an attempt to change their pro-illegal alien amnesty ways.

... Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Mel Martinez, R-Fla... Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and Howard Berman, D-Calif., are sponsoring the House version. It has the backing of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn. and Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, a member of the Republican leadership team.

Gerardo Sandoval is a San Francisco Supervisor, and he offers "Democrats must push immigration reform". Everything about it is wrong or just plain loony, so a full treatment isn't possible.

... the RNC chair-elect, Senator Mel Martinez: ...[He] said his goal will be to undo the election damage done by the border-enforcement-first message of most Republicans -- which he called "harshness only." ...Speaking to reporters after the Oval Office announcement, Mr. Martinez said he was "not going to do a post-mortem on the election here today." Moments later, though, he did a post-mortem...

If you're in the Orlando Florida area, you might want to visit the University of Central Florida on October 9 for a "symposium" on illegal immigration. While a few of those speaking might be opposed to amnesty, most are cheap labor cheerleaders. It's free, but it's not known whether there will be a Q&A session; if there is, I strongly urge you to think up a series of very damning questions...

... bricks in the office of Senator Mel Martinez.

... shut out critics"). According to Mel Martinez (R-FL): "There was a pretty good consensus that what we have put into the Hagel-Martinez proposal here is the right way to go...