Story from the Christian Broadcasting Network - The Bush Implosion

[The Sushi Bandit]

I was sent a link to this story today that I found worth sharing.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/168884.aspx


For me, the “canary in the mineshaft” of the Bush administration died at 12:00AM this morning, when the Wall Street Journal posted a piece about the President’s unpopular immigration bill by former Reagan speechwriter and influential Republican Peggy Noonan.

Whether you like the immigration bill or not, you cannot deny that it is splitting the GOP. And with this bill, the White House has turned its back on its base in a way that is far more politically risky than the Iraq invasion or anything else it has attempted, and could seal Bush’s place in the history books as a failed president.

Understand that Peggy Noonan has been known as a loyal Republican. She’s not on the fringe and has never been a “bomb-thrower.” That makes her words astounding, to me at least, and spot on. She writes, “The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.”

[yurbud]

1. oooooh Noonan told the truth about country club view of the Jethros.

git the popcorn.

[yurbud]

2. economic populism could siphon off some of the disaffected redneck if Dems could get their heads out

of corporate asses.

Ted Kennedy gave a good speech on this bill and emphasized the 1,000 inspectors the bill hire to go after employers who hire illegals.

If they cranked up the volume on that angle and defined the problem better than the GOP, they could pull off those voters.

They won't do it because they are afraid of alienating the employers of illegals, who can vote and also make campaign contribution. But any heartless bastard who is trying to get around paying minimum wage is going to support republicans in any case, because they know whatever they do on immigration, they will NEVER put somebody with money in the bank in jail.

[athebea]

5. The American people aren't buying it...

"Ted Kennedy gave a good speech on this bill and emphasized the 1,000 inspectors the bill hire to go after employers who hire illegals."

But didn't this very same Ted Kennedy raise a ruckus and loudly denounce a raid on a factory in New Bedford that rounded up illegals ? It's hypocritical to tout hiring inspectors when you have no intention of letting them do their jobs.

The American people flatly do not trust Ted Kennedy to secure the borders. They suspect that he will be perfectly happy to import a new voting bloc whose votes he will buy with their jobs and their tax dollars.

[yurbud]

6. "secure the border" gets to the gist of a lot of anti-immigrant feeling. It's not economics, it's

racism.

[athebea]

9. Yes it most assuredly is economics...

The entire point of why cheap labor business interests want illegal immigration is to drive American wages down. And it's working. Working class people have seen declining real wages for some time now.

It doesn't require a PHD in economics to figure out that if you glut the supply of something the price will go down. The entire point of cheap labor, corporate globalist policy is to glut the labor market with illegals for manual workers or with H1b's for white collar professionals or with outsourcing for everyone to destroy the bargaining power of American workers and drive wages down. And its working. Or hadn't you noticed ?

In serving this agenda you are being played for a fool by the Wall Street Journal editorial page. If you will subordinate the bread and butter needs and interests of American workers to multiculturalist slop and political correctness you are destroying any real basis for a viable left. A left that will not fight for the livelihoods of American workers has no real reason to exist. It can't just stand for the cultural values of the affluent.

[Beartracks]

15. paying minimum wage...

I've not quite understood that part of the proposal. I thought that, according to the White House, we need these illegals because they provide a vital service to our economy, doing jobs that 'muricans don't want to do. If we create a "guest worker program" to allow them to remain working here without being illegal -- that is, put them on the path to citizenship -- well, eventually, aren't the employers going to have to pay these people at least minimum wage? And above the table? With employer taxes and everything? That is.... doesn't the supposed economic benefit of having vast numbers of illegals working really cheap vanish under Bush's proposal, taking with it one of the proposal's primary rationales?

[OHdem10]

3. Thanks for the Post.

I fear this Immigration Issue is going to be a duzy.

The Pols(many not all) see this as a winning wedge issue
for them.

Unfortunately, there is a certain percent (O'Reilly says about
30 percent who want those 12million Illegal Immingrants
deported. Even he say this is an impossible feat. Anyway
these particular people believe it Amnesty to make the deal
with them. He says they will not budge in their position.

IMO, this situation has been aloud to "fester" over the years
and people; when in an anxious state, react reflexively and
there is a tendency to blame others for their unfortunate
circumstances. Is this correct ?? No People out in the
hinterlands are not deaf, dumb and blind. They realize the
Middle Class is diminishing(Trade Policy and Technology).
They have been "harmonized downward one too many times."
They are having to take lower salaries. Perception is often
reality to many fellow citizens. They have lost health care
or have friends who have lost health care. Some have lost
Pensions. Unfortunately they see the illegal immigrants as
one more threat to their well-being. I am only trying to ask
everyone to look at the picture from all sides. Their perception
is they will or have already lost health care, and the Immigrants
get free health care. Their kids cannot afford college and
college tuition is provided Immigrants.

This is going to get ugly, I fear. Republicans love nothing
better than a "Wedge" Issue to win elections. They have
become expert at it.

[The Sushi Bandit]

8. Mahalo!

you would have never seen this kind of article prior to the 2006 election.

[kimmylavin]

4. What's also telling...

... is the link to the story in the Houston Chronicle that the author points readers to, particularly the comments at the bottom:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/mason/4852625.html

Seems the Repubs are feeling just as betrayed by their party, only over a different issue...
But basically, as far as both sides are concerned, the only people being represented by our government anymore are Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and corporations. Lovely.

[yurbud]

7. what's scary is it's because Bush isn't being a big enough asshole. they want a lynch mob

[athebea]

10. Try being a working class person...

... who has seen his income drop by a third and see how mad you get.

[nxylas]

12. Or a legal immigrant

Who goes through all the USCIS bureaucracy at considerable personal expense and still can't find a job (try telling an interviewer that you're not yet a US citizen and watch their faces fall - you can tell them that you're legally allowed to work, but their tone of voice tells you that they don't really believe you), whilst illegals seem to get hired almost instantly. That was me a year ago, though thankfully I have a job now.

[Oak2004]

11. Yup, Bush is a uniter, not a divider

Keep going, RNC and DLC, and before you know it you'll have brokered the merger of DU and the Free Republic.

Maybe they could call the new website something like "Democratic Republic", because a lot of us would like to live under one of those things.

[CGowen]

13. I don't get the Christian thing

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/12/tempting-faith-christian-conservatives-duped-by-bushco-part-ii/

Tempting Faith" also suggests that the Bush White House would use anything for politics.

Olbermann: Among them, that–behind their backs–the nation's top evangelical Christians were regarded with routine mockery and contempt by White House staffers — called 'nuts' and 'ridiculous'.

rough transcript below the fold….

[The Sushi Bandit]

14. Thanks for the link

a good read

[Beartracks]

16. Insults and hostility

I like this part:

“The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they ‘don't want to do what's right for America.’ His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, ‘We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up.’ … Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed…

“Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens? And often, though not exclusively, concerned conservatives?”


Why indeed? It’s the same approach they’ve taken for years with concerned citizens that were often, though not exclusively, concerned liberals. I don’t seem to recall conservatives thinking such harsh words were unwarranted then.

Also, the bit about his squandering his political inheritance, while true, seems a bit understated. He didn't just fart off his party's coalition, he rather farted off a good chunk of the global coalition and goodwill, too.