April 04, 2006

John McCain: "If you like, I will leave"

Earlier today, John McCain was booed because of his immigration schemes. Unfortunately, his threat to leave appears to have been just one big jolly jape:

"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted...

...the senator outlined his position on the Senate immigration debate, saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker provisions that give illegal immigrants a legal path toward citizenship.

Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. "Pay a decent wage!" one audience member shouted...

...But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.

"I'll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."

Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic...

What exactly was the "pointed" question? Shouldn't they disclose that?

And, what exactly is a U.S. Senator trying to say about American workers? We sent a man to the moon and now we're too soft to pick strawberries?

And, what exactly is he trying to say about Mexican field workers? Are they genetically pre-disposed to fruit-picking? Or, do they just have the right level of desperation?

Posted to Politics at April 4, 2006 10:08 PM

Comments

it should tell us something if the advocates of illegal aliens, continually find it necessary to lie about the value of their work, when they even have a job. If we actually reached that nirvana where $50/hour menial jobs would be turned down by almost any political event attendees, that would be the time also, that we stopped growing lettuce the old-fashioned way. In fact it may be already past time that such phases of commercial agriculture be stamped out, and replaced by more productive ones.
Aggression through net public subsidy, is being used to maintain such unproductive practices, and that is an evil which must be suppressed, more and more, all the time.

Posted by: John S Bolton at April 5, 2006 02:00 AM

Kind of makes you wonder if McCain really wants the job. At this point in the game, the idea is to make friends, not piss people off. Once you're in office, then you can start to stick it to the people who put you there. See: George W. Bush.

Posted by: Gary at April 5, 2006 06:32 AM

Nothing surprising here, McCain has a long history of public displays of mental instability.

Posted by: perroazul del norte at April 5, 2006 09:41 AM

"Nothing surprising here, McCain has a long history of public displays of mental instability"

I recently read that McCain “went off” at a group of 9/11 family members who had come to the Hill to lobby on behalf of more secure borders. They approached him, introduced themselves, and noted that they opposed McCain-Kennedy. He began yelling at them, saying, among other things, something about how he had done so much for them, why were they causing him all this trouble, and offering to debate them in AZ, "where (he’d) gotten 77% of the vote". Please note that these folks were simply lobbying their representatives in Congress. They were not waving signs (or foreign flags), shouting, or otherwise out looking for a fight.

He also offered to debate FAIR, which opposes his bill. FAIR accepted and it has been close to 300 days and counting since that happened and McCain has declined to take up the offer. He sounds like a man who has trouble controling 1) his anger and 2) his tongue. It is interesting that he has offered to debate at least 2 groups without making even a half-hearted attempt to actually come through. What is this compulsion to demand that folks debate him when he knows that he will never take them up on this offer?

Posted by: D Flinchum at April 5, 2006 05:22 PM

CNN Had a web address for A job application to accept TRAITOR John McCain's 50 buck an hour job offer. The address the gave was www.projectusa.com, but it isn't located there? does anyone know the proper web location?

Posted by: JB at April 14, 2006 08:56 AM