Wednesday, November 15, 2006

So Much For Principle, Mr. Pence

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), during the immigration debate earlier this year, tried to set himself apart from the naysayers in his own party by proposing somewhat of a compromise on the hotly debated immigration issue. Pence wanted to create a new work visa program for illegal aliens in the U.S., which would have permitted them to work legally in the U.S. after they first left the U.S. and returned with a valid work permit under a program administered by private job placement companies. This week, Pence is singing a different tune as he battles Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) to become the party's new House Minority Leader. He is now renouncing his formal plan in place of a take-no-prisoners approach on immigration. The Washington Times reports:

Some Republicans have expressed reluctance to return Mr. Boehner to leadership after last week's disastrous elections, and some are opposed to Mr. Pence for forging a compromise on immigration that critics dismissed as "amnesty." Yesterday, Mr. Pence renounced those efforts.

"All those debates about compromise are a thing of the past," he said in an interview with talk-radio host Laura Ingraham.

"I reject any form of amnesty, even if we've got border security," he said. "I really reject the idea that people whose first act in this country was a violation of the law ought to be able to get right with the law without leaving the country."

Pence's newfound attitude on immigration is disheartening. By all accounts, the GOP's share of the Hispanic vote in last week's elections fell off sharply, contributing to the party's massive losses. If the House GOP intends to take this approach to immigration in the new Congress, they might as well make plans for staying in the minority for many years to come.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems like EVERYONE, Democrats as well as Republicans (except Democrats in very safe seats)is trying to outdo each other with regard to how punitive and unrealistic they can be to illegal immigrants. "My opponent says he opposes amnesty? Heck, I'm in favor of instant deportation." "Deportation? He's too soft....what if we make them WALK 3000 miles back to Mexico!" "Let 'em walk? What a commie....how about firing squads?"

It's just sickening.

Anonymous said...

Pence is someone with whom I agree phiolosophically very little. He occupies the seat of a former mentor, Phil Sharp.

But I always admired him as a principled politician.

I guess now I can remove the word "principled" from that definition.

So sad. Unnecessary, too...my GOP friends in DC tell me he doesn't have a bat's chance in hell of winning this race without making these kinds of pronouncements.

That's what your party has become Gary. A contest to race to the right. To out-Reagan one another.

It's funny, because I firmly believe history won't be kind to Reagan at all. And that's not where the nation is. But to win in that arena, that's what Pence thinks he needs to do.

We need a loyal oppposition in this country.

Anonymous said...

God knows we haven't had a "loyal opposition" with the Democrats in the minority.

Anonymous said...

That's what your party has become Gary. A contest to race to the right.

And the Dems have become a party to race to the far left. Right now they're somewhere between Lenin and Fidel Castro.

Anonymous said...

Ummmmm 3:45.... I think history has already been kind to Reagan.

And this is from a guy who did NOT agree with all he did.

Anonymous said...

A little off subject but when do they plan on counting the other 17% of votes in known GOP precincts for the Carson vs Dickerson race? Doesnt everyone want to know what the final tally was?

AI, do you know if they have already counted the rest of the votes? Can they just decide not to finish counting because it looks like she won. She was up 8500 votes with 20000 left to count. He still could win. Even if he really lost, don't we deserve to know what the real spread was. Voters would like to know that their vote was counted. Don't they have to finish?

Anonymous said...

5:03, er, Jocelyn: it was JC up 10,000-plus votes with 10 precincts left to count. Who knows what 10 precincts? This election county has been so screwed up that it's difficlt to know.

The 10 uncounted 7th CD precincts may not be the same uncounted in other races.

But, if the ten uncounted precincts were the ten heaviest-voted in the county, that'd be, maybe, another 7- 8,000 votes.

And JC would have to get none of those, and ED all of them, for him to be within 2,000 votes.

It's over, Jocelyn. He lost. Grave try, some stupid mistakes, but, hey, you can all live to fight another day.

What we all should be concerned about, is the two or three really close races in the county, on both sides of the aisle...and the provisional ballots whose voters did not have proper new state photo ID. We should be pushing for the allowance of some other forms of ID...this is insane.

Citizen Kane said...

His previous position was wrong, and I don't care why he changed as long as he does not switch back. It is patently ridiculous to allow our country to be overrun with poor people exported by Mexico and other Central and South American countries.

It is not about being hard or soft. It is about doing what is right. Just because most of the politicians want to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration because of their business campaign donors does not make it right. We are under no obligation to provide for the people of Mexico - and if I hear one more idiot talk about the :jobs that Americans won't do."

Of course, no one also considers the impact of the criminals immigrants turning our border into a war zone, not to mention all of the legal immigrants who overstay visas, etc. Wait unitl MS-13 explodes in this area and people are getting chopped up by machetes and police officers and headquarters are the targets of criminal terrorists. Meanwhile we are in Iraq pretending to solve the terrorist problem while allowing future terrorists to slowly take over our cities. And if you think that 100 million poor people (at the rate of illegal immigration, we will reach that number sooner than most think), uninterested in being citizens, will not unite to create a living hell for the rest of us - and we won't know what hit us. If we don't decide how we want our country to grow, it won't be our country anymore.

Anonymous said...

Nice and xenophobic, Kane. It's more complicated than that.

And a 700-mile wall costing a billion dollars is the answer?

If the far right can be temporarily distracted and appeased with a wall, then they are even more shallow than I thought.

The only solution to this problem is going to take some sound, smart minds and patience.

Thing is, by most reasonable accounts, that would let W off the hook. But he has the beginnings of the only policy that might work.

So give him a chance. And I NEVER think W has a bright idea...but, even a blind squirrel can find an acorn oonce in a while.