GOP hopefuls run from amnesty

From The Washington Post:

Less than a year ago, Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the most visible Republican in the fight for immigration reform, having joined forces with Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to clamp down on border security and create a guest-worker program for the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants.

Now, a renewed effort is underway, but this time without McCain as Kennedy's co-star. As he stumps in Iowa and New Hampshire, McCain has handed off day-to-day negotiations on immigration to his staff and to fellow Senate Republicans Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). In his formal presidential announcement speech in New Hampshire last month, he made no mention of the issue.

"The fact that he's not in the room helping to build a bipartisan consensus . . . it's going to be far more difficult to get a bipartisan bill," said Frank Sharry, a pro-immigrant lobbyist. "This guy is my hero on this issue. I am heartbroken that he's not in the room. Heartbroken."

Senators from both parties and senior White House officials are hurrying to negotiate a deal that would give illegal immigrants a path to legal status after clearing criminal checks and paying fines. The plan would beef up border security and put new emphasis on enforcing workplace rules. Democratic leaders have given them until tomorrow to produce legislation before forcing another vote on the McCain-Kennedy bill that failed last year.

In the meantime, the leading Republican candidates for president are distancing themselves from the plan.

[. . .]

"When the public opinion matters most is during elections," said Steven Camarota, the research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, whose group advocates a harder line on illegal immigration. "That's why all the candidates tend to move toward enforcement and not talk so much about legalization."

This "distancing" means that the Republican candidates know that amnesty and open borders are deeply unpopular and do not wish to be tied to them. This begs the question of why they ever supported them in the first place.

It is understandable why Democrats support amnesty, legalized abortion has robbed them of at least 20 million voters over the past 30 years, but what about Republicans? It is hard to believe that a relatively small number of very labor intensive industries could exert that much influence on the GOP.

It is more likely that a combination of sleazy and greasy political prostitutes like Dick "The Toe Sucker" Morris, "moderate" RINOs from liberal congressional districts or states and brainless Pollyannas who believe that just because most Mexicans are nominal Roman Catholics that they will all flock to the pro-life Republican Party.

Amnesty and open borders/guest worker programs are not popular and are not inevitable. Those who wish to turn America into a carbon copy of the European Union want us to believe that it is all a done deal. They want us to believe that we can't deport just deport all the illegals (even though we can) and that we can't close the borders to illegal crossings (even though we can) and so we just need to give up and accept up to 30 million new citizens (2/3 of which will be reliable Democrat voters).

Of course its going to be more difficult to fight amnesty now with the new makeup of congress. I hope all you "Republicans deserve to lose" cretins are happy with the results of your moronic little temper tantrum.