A "Bush is wrong on Immigration" roundup

**UPDATE - 2/14/2006**

Phyliss Schlafly chimes in with great commentary...as usual.

...The Bush Administration whines that it can't (i.e., won't) do anything to implement border security unless its guest-worker/amnesty proposal is part of the legislative package, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff looked pathetically weak when interviewed on television by Bill O'Reilly. When is our government going to protect us from the crime, the drugs, the smuggling racket, destruction of property, the endangerment to U.S. residents along our border and our undermanned Border Patrol?

In charge of protecting Americans against this war is 36-year-old Julie Myers, to whom President Bush gave a recess appointment after her Senate confirmation bogged down because of her total lack of law-enforcement experience. Her qualifications are her connections: she is the niece of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers and the wife of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff's chief of staff...

** END UPDATE **

For many conservatives, it seems that the alternative to George W. Bush was/is so terrifying that even when he's screwing up we take solice in the fact that he's not John Kerry...or Hillary, Dean or Gore for that matter.

Combined with the all-too-common inability to articulate his message, this has led to the expectations for Bush creeping lower and lower. As he walked out to deliver his latest SOTU address for example, all I could think was "just don't stammer your way through this...and don't give us too much of that emploring 'I'm smarter than you think I am' cheesy grin-speak". Practically all he had to do was stay on his feet and I'd be feeling good about his performance.

Many conservatives feel good about what he's not, and cling to grateful optimism by continuously lowering the Bush-bar. On the scale of right-wrong however, George W. Bush has walked on the wrong side, and even has some conservatives comparing him to...Jimmy Carter?

Chuck Muth
"The White House doesn't have a tin ear on this issue; it's DEAF. And it isn't just conservatives who want stricter border control without the amnesty...er, guest worker program. Citizens from sea to shining sea of all political stripes simply won't support any kind of "guest worker" program until they FIRST see serious and dramatic changes in how the nation's immigration laws are enforced. Period. End of story."

J.D. Hayworth
"Both the timing and the thin, patchwork context of this House bill reinforce my concern that Washington continues to view illegal immigration as a political problem to be managed rather than an invasion to be stopped. Now is the time for bold steps, not timid incrementalism."

"It is up to the people to deliver this message to Congress: Enforcement first; no amnesty; no excuses; this time, get it right. Do whatever it takes to protect our national security and our sovereignty,"

Rep. Tom Tancredo
(on the 01/06 SOTU) "Sadly, the President missed yet another great opportunity to correct his course on immigration reform tonight. The President should have clarified his plan and joined the forces in Congress holding the line against amnesty. Instead, Americans will have to wait and wonder where the President stands on securing our borders, while he pushes for guest workers."

Mac Johnson
"Any measure to reform our immigration system is pointless until we reform our immigration enforcement system. So please, Mr. President, give us our stick up front this time, and then we can talk about carrots. Let’s get control of the situation and show that we can enforce the laws we have before we begin fantasizing about new laws."

Rep. Mike Pence
"The first thing we have to do is close the border. We can do that. We have the technology and the resources to do it. I am someone who believes that a nation that cannot defend its borders is not a nation, and if we secure our border first, then the American people who believe in what it says on the Statue of Liberty would be prepared to consider a broad range of proposals unrelated to citizenship in regards to the eight to 10 million people who are here. But I’m not willing to consider that until we’ve closed the border, because one of the unbroken truths of amnesty in American history has been if the back door is ajar and you announce amnesty, then you are going to greatly worsen your problem with illegal immigration as people sprint for the continental United States."

Human Events Top 10 Lists
Top 10 Priorities for GOP Congress in 2006

10. End earmarks
9. Ban all human cloning
8. Repeal Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
7. Stop President Bush’s amnesty/guest worker plan
6. Authorize oil drilling in ANWR
5. Renew the Patriot Act
4. Reform Social Security with private accounts
3. Cut federal government spending
2. Make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, including abolition of the death tax
1. Build border fence to cover entire U.S.-Mexico border

Lynn Woolley
"President Bush can blather on all he wants to about matching willing workers with willing employers -- but none of that will make much difference if the Southwestern region of the United States becomes so Mexicanized that it seeks a rejoining with Mexico -- known to those who support it as “the Reconquista.”"

Here's the kicker...

Charles Hurt
"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is staking out a position on illegal immigration that is more conservative than President Bush, a strategy that supporters and detractors alike see as a way for the New York Democrat to shake the "liberal" label and appeal to traditionally Republican states.

Mrs. Clinton — who is tagged as a liberal because of her plan for nationalized health care and various remarks during her husband's presidency — is taking an increasingly vocal and hard-line stance on an issue that ranks among the highest concerns for voters, particularly Republicans."