April 23, 2007

Democrats think supporting border fence is a weakness? (Bill Richardson)

The usually better Stephen Dinan offers "United on immigration, Democrats divide voters":

In New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, the questions about immigration arise repeatedly -- and Democratic presidential candidates say they know they are alienating some of their strongest supporters by calling for legalization of illegal aliens.

While some of the top Republican candidates have begun to change their positions to appeal to conservative voters, Democratic candidates remain firmly behind legalization of most illegal aliens. Still, they are almost apologetic as they make their pitches.

Unfortunately - as with Adam Nagourney - he fails to provide examples of those questions and their answers. And, I don't think any of the GOP candidates have changed their fundamental positions, although the NYT says that Giuliani has changed his tone. As for Mitt Romney, his exact position is unclear because no "reporter" is willing to do their job, and so far no citizen journalists have managed to fill the gap.

"You can be in front of a very, very rabid Democratic crowd, and there will be a lot of people in the room who do not agree with what I just said," former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said earlier this month in a speech at the University of New Hampshire as he defended his support for legalization. "The very same people ... are strongly against the war and strongly for universal health care. So there is nowhere close to unanimity among Democrats about this issue."

Then, we get this stupid-or-sly bit:

Advisers to several candidates said privately that [Bill Richardson] is in a good position to attack the other candidates on their support of building more fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

If they're serious, they're nuts. A fence on the border is always going to be much less controversial than deportations and the like. Of course, perhaps they're just trying to bait him.

As for Al Gore possibly being an immigration hawk, he was last in the Senate in 1993, around the same time that Barbara Boxer was suggesting sending the National Guard to the CA border, and Harry Reid was proposing an anti-illegal immigration bill that was on par with HR4427 (Sensenbrenner).

As for Bill Richardson, please go to his campaign appearances and ask him the questions here or here.

Posted to Immigration2007a at April 23, 2007 11:07 PM