This jaw-droppingly idiotic recent quote from Pennsylvania's governor Ed Rendell shows that he is not qualified to be anything above dogcatcher:

The only ones I want to hear speaking up and complaining about immigration are the Native Americans who we screwed.

Honestly, I can't believe that someone who would make such an idiotic, anti-American comment is a governor. I am so stunned to hear a major elected official - even after adjusting for the fact that he's a Democrat - spew extremist reconquista talking points that I'm just going to link to this: "Ed Rendell Denounces America's Existence on Behalf of Illegal Aliens".

Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta has responded to that and other recent Rendell quotes:

"As a former mayor of Philadelphia, Governor Rendell should understand the desire to protect the legal citizens of a city," Barletta said in the news release. "As the governor, Mr. Rendell is aware of the current financial situation of the City of Hazleton , where it is important to make every dollar count, where every dollar should be spent on the legal residents of Hazleton."

Barletta said he wants to know how upholding a law is "mean-spirited or divisive" and said he was "very surprised" when reading remarks made by the governor.

"I was surprised with the governor's comments – especially since two members of his Governor's (Advisory) Commission on Latino Affairs have gone on to say some pretty mean-spirited things at me and at the city with no response from the governor's office," Barletta said.

The mayor referred to remarks made by Anna Arias, who spoke out against the IIRA during a recent Hazleton City Council meeting and called him a "monkey" during a television interview.

"I would say that calling the mayor a 'monkey' during televised interviews, as the representative of the governor did, is also mean-spirited," Barletta wrote. "The ordinance is not motivated out of anything other than a desire to protect the legal residents of Hazleton and make every precious taxpayer dollar go as far as it can."

UPDATE: Ed Rendell's soul mate has been spotted in the person of Azul Christian Caravaggio, a pro-illegal immigration protester who's walking to Washington to protest our laws. He and a few buddies stopped in Tennessee:

What began as a peaceful illegal immigration demonstration turned briefly physical Saturday morning in Jonesborough after one side charged the other over the presence of a Mexican flag.

Carl Twofeathers Whitaker, a Sevierville resident who is running as an independent candidate for governor, was charged by members of a Hispanic group [perhaps including Caravaggio] seeking to take the flag away from him.

...Caravaggio also thought seeking a better life in the United States is impossible to do legally, for most. She compared illegal immigrants to European settlers, saying European immigrants killed the indigenous population of North America when they arrived...