An account of a tele-townhall meeting
I keep hearing about these. Thanks to inMuscatine for live-blogging it. I am convinced that this is part of Romney moving numbers in Iowa.
Border security group attacks Romney for flip-flopping on immigration
Tasty quotes, full release after the jump:
In 2006 Governor Romney supported the President’s immigration policy as well as the McCain-Kennedy bill. He expressed support for an immigration program that places large numbers of illegal residents on the path toward citizenship and said illegal immigrants should have a chance to obtain citizenship.
He even went as far as to say that Republicans that break from the President on this issue are making a "big mistake" according to the Associated Press.
…
Governor Romney has a long history of flip-flops on issues from abortion, to gun control, to gay rights. This pattern of shifting positions should concern Iowa conservatives who are dedicated to securing our border and solving the illegal immigration crisis.
One wonders whether Mitt Romney’s flip-flops on immigration are going to create problems with conservatives on immigration. Ultimately, the issue is trust, much more than the issues, as much. Poll after poll have revealed that conservatives agree with what’s in the bill, but they don’t trust the elites. Why would someone who panders to them be more trustworthy?
Romney, 1994 flier, and consistency
A number of Mitt Romney’s supporters have pulled out a 1994 campaign flier and argued that it shows that he has always been a conservative. First of all, one might wonder why a conservative in 1994 would have opposed the Read more
Campaigns versus movements 2
Patrick Ruffini wrote an interesting post about, what he called, different modes of activism. I thought that he was arguing that the online left was unfocused, and that it was hard to convert to GOTV, which was where the rubber Read more
Healthcare lobbies campaign in early primary states
I thought this was interesting. It appears that two different healthcare lobby groups are using a strategy of grassroots and media campaigns in early primary states. I have copied the ad for the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. The Hill Read more
Did Romney belittle a veteran on Memorial Day?
Everyone knows that our veterans healthcare system is screwed up and brave soldiers are falling through the cracks. In this case, an injured Guardsman isn’t getting the care that he needs, and his friend asks Mitt Romney for help. Romney Read more
Employers getting unhappy with immigration bill
While I am a supporter of immigration in general and some sort of comprehensive immigration proposal, I am not yet decided on this immigration bill. Earlier, I pointed to a place where business is unhappy with the current bill. Today, Read more
Movements versus campaigns and parties
Patrick Ruffini argues that the GOP has the right model for online activism: I can sing chapter and verse on why our model was better. Lateral communications (or community building amongst supporters) is a worthwhile goal in itself, but often Read more
More Romney Mitt-representations on immigration
This time Mitt Romney is misrepresenting Jeb Bush’s record, and his own, as he continues to struggle both the substance and appearance of his pandering flip-flop on immigration.
So these days, Mitt Romney is claiming that he has a strong record because he cut a deal but never implemented an agreement to allow state police to enforce federal immigration laws. He is making completely incorrect comparisons to efforts done by the (re-elected and popular) Jeb Bush in Florida:
“I deputized, as did Governor Bush here, my state police to be able to enforce immigration laws.
Except that that’s not really what Bush did. From a June 2002 AP article which is quoted in full after the jump, what Bush did was train counter-terrorism officers on federal immigration law and allow them to enforce that law as part of counter-terrorism:
"It’s targeted only to terrorist investigations — not checking green cards and work camps," FDLE Commissioner Tim Moore said Thursday.
In fact, Bush explicitly didn’t want the Florida police to do more general immigration checking:
"I would have a lot of trepidation if … every police officer was going to be a sworn INS officer and our duties end up with local law enforcement becoming the immigration cops of the country," Bush said.
So Romney seems to be confusing Jeb Bush’s actual attempts to use immigration laws to protect us against terrorists with Romney’s media preening about illegals.
Romney’s claim about "deputizing … state police" is, strictly speaking, also false. The agreement that Romney had with the feds required 4.5 weeks of training. When Romney announced it in December, Deval Patrick had already said he would end the program. Indeed, Patrick did end the program, about 4.5 weeks later. In other words, not a single state police official was ever authorized to carry out the arrest of illegals on federal immigration violations. The state police never could have caught those illegal Guatemalans on his lawn. Here’s what actually happened:
Then Governor Mitt Romney signed the 15-page agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Dec. 13 that would have allowed specially deputized state troopers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and charge them with violating US immigration laws.
During his campaign, Patrick called the plan a ?gimmick? and told reporters on Dec. 21 that he would quash the agreement shortly after taking office. About 30 troopers had been scheduled to take a five-week training course early next year.
So Romney’s great immigration accomplishment is that he signed an agreement to allow a training class that never happened.
Full article after the jump
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McConnell on immigration bill
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had some thoughts on the immigration bill. It is a useful check on the hysteria on the right: “This is a divisive issue” for both parties, said McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. But, he said, “I Read more