General Discussion

SpartanDem

(4,533 posts) Fri Nov 9, 2012, 06:59 PM Nov 2012

Conservatives revolt over immigration shift

After getting trounced Tuesday, thanks in large part to lopsided Latino support for Democrats, some Republican leaders are having a bit of a come-to-Jesus moment and saying for the first time they need to moderate on immigration policy to win back Hispanic voters. Speaker John Boehner, along with pundits Sean Hannity and Charles Krauthammer, have been leading the charge. But as Steve Kornacki noted this morning, there’s a real chance the hard-liners and nativists in the GOP base could sabotage this strategy.

Indeed, the response has already been as swift as it’s been blunt.“I think what you’re seeing now is desperation on the part of the Republican Party. And when people get desperate, they tend to do things that don’t quite make much sense,” Ira Mehlman told Salon. He’s the spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has been at the center of conservative immigration thinking, helping to promote laws like Arizona’s SB-1070 and its author Kris Kobach, who works for FAIR’s legal arm. “My message to the Republican Party is: Don’t act of out of desperation … by simply embracing the same position that the Democrats are embracing. They’re only going to be digging the hole deeper for themselves.”

Even fellow lawmakers are sounding the alarm. “I’m concerned that Speaker Boehner is getting ahead of House Republicans when he commits to getting a ‘comprehensive approach’ to immigration taken care of ‘once and for all.’ There’s been zero discussion of this issue within the conference,” Louisiana Republican Rep. John Fleming said in a statement sent to reporters. “Obama voters chose dependency over Liberty. Now establishment R’s want citizenship for illegals. You can’t beat Santa Claus with amnesty,” Iowa Tea Party favorite Rep. Steve King wrote on Twitter.

Conservative pundits and media figures had even harsher words. “Hey, GOP … WE DON’T NEED IMMIGRATION REFORM. We need IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT,” said Bryan Fischer, a prominent social conservative figure and radio host. “Pro-abort, pro-amnesty GOPers shd…stop arguing that ppl who actually WERE elected shd change,” conservative radio host Laura Ingraham tweeted.

And it’s easy to see why; just look at the polling. A CBS News poll from August found that a majority of Republicans — 54 percent — want to change birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. A CBS/New York Times poll from May found that 70 percent of Republicans support Arizona’s harsh immigration law. The same poll found that fully 71 percent of Republicans say that illegal immigration is a “very serious” problem, while another 20 percent said it’s a “serious” one. A slight plurality of Republicans said that immigrants on balance “cause problems” as opposed to “contribute” to society (Democrats said the opposite by almost a threefold margin), according to a CBS poll from April. (All polling data via PollingReport.)

.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/09/conservatives_revolt_over_immigration_shift/

That sound you hear is the Tea Party lighting torches and grabbing pitchforks. Oh and somebody please photoshop that picture