Republicans insult Hispanics' intelligence.
What was that Bush said about the soft bigottry of low expectations? Via Talking Points Memo, (also the Carpetbagger and Nicholas Beaudrot) the Republicans are panicking about the backlash from their draconian immigration House bill and trying to pin it on the Democrats, in particular Harry Reid. The Las Vegas Sun reports:
The 60-second spot says in Spanish that Reid "blocked our leaders from working together" and blames Democrats for legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House that would make illegal immigrants subject to felony charges.
"Reid's Democrat allies voted to treat millions of hardworking immigrants as felons," the ad says, "while President Bush and Republican leaders work for legislation that will protect our borders and honor our immigrants."
The reference is to a House vote on an amendment that would have reduced the proposed penalty to a misdemeanor. Many Democrats, including members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, voted against the amendment, arguing they did not support criminal penalties. Nevada Republicans Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons also voted against the amendment, which failed. The felony provision remained in the bill, H.R. 4437, and it passed the House on a largely party line vote.
And what was that about liberalism being a magnet for identity politics? From the same report:
Reid also is fielding attacks from local Republicans. In a statement Thursday, the Nevada Republican Hispanic Coalition, a group affiliated with the state and Clark County GOP, called Reid "a rich Anglo" and accused him of "using Latinos as a pawn for political gain."
Since the legislation was drafted by Republican James Sensenbrenner, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, and the deliberation, such as it was, took place last December in an emergency session of the House, I don't even see what Reid has to do with it. But even if Reid is complicit in giving orders, the "political game" complaint is really laughable. Sensenbrenner introduced the bill with the provision to make illegal residence a felony written into the text. Then he introduced an amendment on the floor to downgrade the crime to a misdeneanor, one that he had to know wouldn't pass without Democratic support given that plenty of firebreathing anti-immigrant Congressmen from his own party would vote to keep illegal residence a felony. In the end, 203 House Republicans voted to pass the final bill -- felony provision left in -- compared to 36 Democrats.
Republican moustache-twirling is always fun to watch in a rubbernecking, what-will-they-do-next kind of way. The audacity of Swift Boating or Fancy Fording is sort of admirable in a way, politics at its most raw, and dangerous to underestimate in terms of fundamental effectiveness. But this moustache-twirling plus oh-my-God-we're-going-to-lose-the-Hispanic-vote-for-a-generation flopsweat isn't quite the same. The GOP is treating the very demographic it's terrified of losing like rubes (the ads ran in Spanish), and pitting its dissembling up against the sort of organization that produced the rallies in major cities last week, against the power of the Hispanic talk radio network, churches and unions. I don't see how the GOP isn't miscalculating again with these ads, just like it did with the Sessenbrenner bill. For once the audacity is kind of sad.
The 60-second spot says in Spanish that Reid "blocked our leaders from working together" and blames Democrats for legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House that would make illegal immigrants subject to felony charges.
"Reid's Democrat allies voted to treat millions of hardworking immigrants as felons," the ad says, "while President Bush and Republican leaders work for legislation that will protect our borders and honor our immigrants."
The reference is to a House vote on an amendment that would have reduced the proposed penalty to a misdemeanor. Many Democrats, including members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, voted against the amendment, arguing they did not support criminal penalties. Nevada Republicans Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons also voted against the amendment, which failed. The felony provision remained in the bill, H.R. 4437, and it passed the House on a largely party line vote.
And what was that about liberalism being a magnet for identity politics? From the same report:
Reid also is fielding attacks from local Republicans. In a statement Thursday, the Nevada Republican Hispanic Coalition, a group affiliated with the state and Clark County GOP, called Reid "a rich Anglo" and accused him of "using Latinos as a pawn for political gain."
Since the legislation was drafted by Republican James Sensenbrenner, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, and the deliberation, such as it was, took place last December in an emergency session of the House, I don't even see what Reid has to do with it. But even if Reid is complicit in giving orders, the "political game" complaint is really laughable. Sensenbrenner introduced the bill with the provision to make illegal residence a felony written into the text. Then he introduced an amendment on the floor to downgrade the crime to a misdeneanor, one that he had to know wouldn't pass without Democratic support given that plenty of firebreathing anti-immigrant Congressmen from his own party would vote to keep illegal residence a felony. In the end, 203 House Republicans voted to pass the final bill -- felony provision left in -- compared to 36 Democrats.
Republican moustache-twirling is always fun to watch in a rubbernecking, what-will-they-do-next kind of way. The audacity of Swift Boating or Fancy Fording is sort of admirable in a way, politics at its most raw, and dangerous to underestimate in terms of fundamental effectiveness. But this moustache-twirling plus oh-my-God-we're-going-to-lose-the-Hispanic-vote-for-a-generation flopsweat isn't quite the same. The GOP is treating the very demographic it's terrified of losing like rubes (the ads ran in Spanish), and pitting its dissembling up against the sort of organization that produced the rallies in major cities last week, against the power of the Hispanic talk radio network, churches and unions. I don't see how the GOP isn't miscalculating again with these ads, just like it did with the Sessenbrenner bill. For once the audacity is kind of sad.
2 Comments:
It's my understanding that the Democrats wouldn't support the amendment because it placed the offence under a "misdemeanor". The current offence is categorized "civil". In other words, it's not really a crime as much as social sin, and the Democrats refused to support anything that would elevate the level of the offence.
It's a very slick amendment maneouvre on the part of the Republicans, but they can't help but get caught out on this one. They're now lying (again) and if the Democrats would get busy, they could make it clear that they didn't want the bill at all.
The Republican coalition cannot resolve its internal contradictions on this issue. The corporatist wing has the situation it wants: abundant labor, easily extorted or blackmailed by the 'illegal' status of the worker, and working for far less than minimum wage. Also, many employers/exploiters put these workers in horrendous conditions. I worked at a hotel and personally saw as many as 8 men put in ONE two-bed room for weeks at a time. (I was told to MYOB when I mentioned it; my own boss wanted the business.) I've had several 'employers' tell me they renovate 3 bedroom trailers and put as many as 15 Hispanic men in them at a time. You think the corporatists want to dry up the supply or have to pay them legal wages? No way, friend.
The Nativist wing of the GOP has to be mollified, though. Hence you hear a lot of baloney and raw meat for them in the speeches. When it comes to any action, though, since none can be allowed to happen, a scapegoat must be found. How they intend to blame the Dems (who control nothing) credibly baffles me.
And W wants the Hispanic vote? Good luck. I have a lot more respect for their intelligence than he does, I think.
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