Ken Mehlman constructs strawman about illegal immigration

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 2005 at 10:49 pm

Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the RNC, was spotted yesterday constructing massive strawman arguments at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association. To hear the WaPo tell it:

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urged his party Thursday to oppose rising anti-immigrant sentiments in the debate over border security and illegal immigration, suggesting that the GOP risks being on the wrong side of history and electoral politics alike if it embraces an exclusionary message.

Could Mehlman give examples of wide-spread "anti-immigrant sentiments"? While some have "anti-illegal immigrant sentiments", and many have "anti-illegal immigration sentiments", I'm not aware of too many people who oppose legal immigrants. In that light, isn't Mehlman basically, well, lying?

If Mehlman wants to have an inclusionary message, he should stress that we admit almost a million legal immigrants per year. Wouldn't reaching out to those be the best way to show that the GOP is an inclusive party? If Mehlman can't figure that out by himself - or knows that but for one corrupt reason or another refuses to admit that distinction - does he really deserve his job?

He issued a strong call for tougher enforcement of immigration laws but extolled the contributions of immigrants and denounced those who have sought to close the country to foreigners.

What exactly is he talking about? Could Mehlman or the WaPo provide any examples of people who want to do what he claims they want to do?

Most Americans want to close off this country to illegal aliens. Anyone who pretends that implies all "foreigners" is simply lying. And, is it really a good idea to lie about what your base wants?

Previously:
Jorge Arbusto has a new site
Democrats, Republicans grovel before National Council of The Race
And: Mehlman attended Bilderberg

Comments

Ralph (not verified)

Sun, 12/04/2005 - 01:57

The fact is that what they SAY and what they DO are quite different. While SAYING that they only object to illegal immigrants, some have harassed and insulted legal immigrants engaging in legal activities.

One example is the Herndon minute men. It is perfectly legal to hire day laborers. While a study found that the majority of the day laborers are illegal immigrants, some still are legal immigrants, and the minute men protest the legal along with the illegal.

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Fri, 12/02/2005 - 15:32

Thank you Gary, well done! the enemy is inside the gates and god help us all.

Long live the ideals of 1776.

anyone not hispanic is a racists that is in it's self the real idea of what racism is, hitler used the same ideals on anyone standing against the Nazi and the Reds used that same evil act on people for 60 years.
john and ken are doing a great job by placong info in front of millions of listens and info is not liked be evil guys in mexico city or washington D.C., and the mexican drug dealers hate the ideals of freedom and want us as dead as bin laden.

Gary (not verified)

Fri, 12/02/2005 - 09:26

Let's see this for what it is. Mehlman isn't expressing an original thought here, he's saying what he's been told to say. Rove and Bush have decided that the way they're going to fight this is by portraying their "enemies" within the party as anti-immigrant...and that's only because the word they really want to use (i.e. "racist") is too inflammatory in that setting. Besides, you leave the real dirty work to your media shills like Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt is doing John Campbell's heavy lifting insofar as the radio talk show circuit goes, referring to John & Ken's listeners as 10th grade dropouts and implying that the two hosts and their listeners are racists.