White House immigration meeting of amnesty all-stars: Obama, McCain, Graham, Cornyn, Gutierrez

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. You could go to a roll call".

As before, Obama stressed his commitment to "reform" (i.e., amnesty) and made questionable statements:

DHS is already in the process of cracking down on unscrupulous employers, and, in collaboration with the Department of Labor, working to protect those workers from exploitation.

There hasn't exactly been a rash of high-profile prosecutions of employers, and, while protecting workers from being exploited shouldn't be an issue, what's important is what happens afterwards: instead of deporting those illegal aliens, the Obama administration gave some of them work permits.

Obama also stressed that those amnestied would pay taxes; that talking point is rather recent but it's been picked up by several.

He also referred to the "overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue". Maybe he was looking at Luis Gutierrez when he said that.

And, he gave a shout-out to a very special person, someone seated directly next to him:

I want to especially commend John McCain, who's with me today, because along with folks like Lindsey Graham, he has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing. I stand with him...

[1] whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/
Remarks-by-the-President-after-meeting-with-members-of-Congress-to-discuss-immigration

[2] Administration officials:
Janet Napolitano
Hilda Solis
David Ogden
Rahm Emanuel
Joe Biden

Congress:
Dick Durbin
John Cornyn
Dianne Feinstein
Lindsey Graham
Jon Kyl
Pat Leahy
Mel Martinez
John McCain
Bob Menendez
Charles Schumer
Jeff Sessions
Arlen Specter
Xavier Becerra
Howard Berman
Anh Cao
James Clyburn
John Conyers
Joe Crowley
Lincoln Diaz Balart
Gabrielle Giffords
Luis Gutierrez
Sheila Jackson Lee
Zoe Lofgren
Adam Putnam
Silvestre Reyes
Loretta Sanchez
Heath Shuler
Lamar Smith
Nydia Velazquez
Anthony Weiner

[3] huffingtonpost.com/the-progress-report/time-for-the-heavy-liftin_b_221457.html

Fri, 06/26/2009 - 11:34 · · Importance: 4