A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on October 30th, 2008 in US News

CNN commentator Ruben Navarrette continues to rewrite history:

But Congress is no longer under Republican control, and yet we’re no closer to comprehensive immigration reform. That’s because Democrats have, in the last two years, bungled immigration reform by undermining a guest worker program as a favor to organized labor, whose leaders continue to insist — with a straight face — that laid-off middle-aged factory workers would love to pick strawberries if only illegal immigrants weren’t hogging the best jobs.

The truth is that many Republicans undermined the guest worker program because the far-right wing of the party couldn’t be placated with anything that could wrongly be labeled as “amnesty”. It was Republicans, not Democrats, that voted against the measure:

Last May, just 36 senators – three of them Democrats – voted against a bill that included a guest-worker program. The Senate was unable to work out a comprise before the Nov. 7 midterm elections with the House, which passed legislation rebuffing Bush’s desire for foreign workers to gain legal employment.

Yes, in Navarrette’s re-writing of history, three of thirty-six votes against a measure is Democrats “undermining” a measure. He continues:

Then Democrats put the whole issue on ice and ducked a subject that Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Illinois, has dubbed the “third rail” of American politics. Some leadership.

Yes, they “put it on ice”. And if they held up everything else to deal with it, then they’d be “doing nothing”.

And that third rail stuff? All it means is that whatever position you take, you’ll mobilize people against you. There’s no clear consensus among the American people – largely because of right-wing demogoguery of economic ills tied to illegal immigration.

[Obama] voted for a pointless Senate bill calling for the construction of 700 miles of border fencing (he later said he regretted that vote); proposed a “poison pill” amendment intended to gut the guest worker program; lost the Latino vote to Hillary Clinton in part because he was so enthralled with the politics of black-and-white that he overlooked the Latino electorate; and suggested that he would not get around to comprehensive immigration reform in the first 100 days of his administration.

I think the idea of a fence is stupid and unAmerican. Okay – the Senate bill passed 80-19. And it also included money to hire more border patrol agents – a key element of any enforcement plan. Guess what? Both McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for that same bill. And the “poison pill”? Well, that was proposed by Byron Dorgan and it would have limited the plan to five years, after which it would have to be renewed or closed down. The amendment Obama proposed was actually defeated.

And, honestly, aren’t there more pressing concerns after inauguration?

Obama lost to Hillary Clinton because of immigration? He overlooked Latinos? Not true. Obama invested in Latino outreach in Connecticutt! The problem he faced was that Clinton was already ahead with Latinos and he had to both introduce himself and give them a reason to vote against her.

The question is whether McCain or Obama would be more likely to overhaul immigration. Well, John McCain talks about it in terms of “Border Security”. With Obama, security is the first bullet point, but at least he calls it “immigration”.

So I agree, Mr. Navarrette – let’s not give anyone a pass here. Let’s look at things honestly. It’s a pity you’re given a platform at CNN and use it so poorly.

Sphere: Related Content