DETROIT -- Mitt Romney certainly has a heart, and Rick Santorum a brain. But right now, neither is getting much attention.
As the Republican presidential race in Michigan comes down to the wire with the former Massachusetts governor and the former Pennsylvania senator neck and neck, Romney remains on message, and Santorum continues to be all over the place.
Romney stuck with his economic message Monday, as he has all campaign.
"The reason that I'm going to beat Barack Obama in Michigan in the fall is that this is going to be a contest about who can strengthen the economy," Romney told supporters in Royal Oak Monday night. "We'll look at his record -– and it's been a failure -– and we'll look at my record and the successes I've had in the private sector, the Olympics and in my state, and I'm going to be able to talk about the economy with credibility he doesn't have."
Romney made things a little more interesting than usual by appearing runescape gold with musician Kid Rock, a supporter, producing the jarring image of the clean-cut Romney and the long-haired Kid Rock shaking hands after a performance of "Born Free," Romney's campaign anthem.
Santorum, meanwhile, refused to stop talking about the things that matter most to him, no matter how much they take him down rabbit trails that make sense to him, but inevitably produce headlines and news coverage that confuse or provoke casual observers. It's a high-risk wager by his campaign that he is connecting with enough of the GOP base in the primary, and will have time to win over independents later.
"What do you do to overcome the view that your very conservative views make you unelectable in the current political climate?" Santorum was asked by a moderator at a chamber of commerce breakfast in Livonia.
"We'll wait and see where the American public is on this," Santorum said. "We know where buy runescape gold the media is. They'll take every comment every day and they'll just blow it up, try to make a big issue out of something that isn't. That's been happening to me all my life. I'm ready for it."
"I'll still stand for the things that made this country great. Hopefully Americans will look deep in their heart and ask this question: 'Do I believe in myself, my family, my community, to be able to build a great and just society, the way Americans still do? … Or have we reached a point where things are just too complicated and things are just too difficult, and we need someone else to make decisions for them?"
"If you fall in the second camp, if the majority of Americans do, I think we've given up something great, something transformational," Santorum said.
At least one attendee at the breakfast, business consultant John Lankford, thought Santorum was spot on.
"I like the simplicity of his message and I like the fact cheap runescape gold that he speaks from inside of him," said Lankford, 61, who said he is supporting Santorum.
Santorum lost ground in the polls over the past week. He has been painted by the Romney campaign, and a super PAC supporting Romney, as a "creature of Washington" who helped foster a culture of big government and deficit spending during the presidency of George W. Bush.
But Romney has failed to decisively overtake Santorum. Romney leads Santorum in the Real Clear Politics poll average by less than two percentage points, 37.3 percent to 35.8 percent. So Tuesday's contest here is uncertain. Romney has a better organized campaign. Santorum did not even sign up a political director in the state, Joseph Cella, until after his wins in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7.
However, there's no doubt that Santorum is connecting with conservative Republicans in a way that Romney has not, and seems incapable of doing.
And in fact, a poll rs gold released just before midnight on Monday, by Public Policy Polling, showed momentum swinging back toward Santorum, who was up 38 percent to Romney's 37 percent.
However, PPP pointed out that "18 percent of the electorate has already cast its ballots [in early voting] and with those voters in the bank Romney has a 56-29 advantage," meaning Santorum will have to win election day voters "by a wide margin to erase the lead Romney has stored."
Republicans in Arizona will also vote Tuesday. But because that state will award all 29 of its delegates to whoever wins the popular vote, there was never much incentive for Santorum to compete hard there. Romney is expected to win the state.
In Michigan, 28 of 30 delegates will be awarded by congressional district. Candidates will earn two delegates for every congressional district in which they win the most votes. There are 14 districts, and the remaining two delegates will be awarded based on who wins the most cheap wow gold votes statewide.
The Republican nominee will need 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination.
Romney and Santorum likely will be close in popular vote, and each will get a double-digit number of delegates. It's possible that one man could win the statewide popular vote while losing the delegate contest.
The Arizona delegate yield will help Romney. Nonetheless, he will only be moving from 123 delegates to roughly 170 delegates or so, while Santorum will edge up from 72 by whatever amount he wins.
The Santorum campaign was already claiming a victory on Monday: "No matter what the results are, we've won. This is Romney's home state," Santorum adviser John Brabender told CNN.
That prompted Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul to retort: "You don't win by losing."
But the definition of a win will be the subject of debate Tuesday, given Romney's continued difficulty in convincing his own party that he is the best standard-bearer.
And so the lengthy, bitter primary will muddle on to Super Tuesday on March 6, when 11 states will vote and 419 delegates will be up for grabs. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be looking to reemerge as a factor in the race on that day as well, having skipped the contests in Arizona and Michigan to focus on his adopted home state of Georgia and other Southern contests that day in Oklahoma and Tennessee.
"You're going to have to ask yourselves, and ask your neighbors, and people across Michigan and across the nation are going to have to say, 'What do we want in our next president?' We know what we have now: A guy who's an eloquent speaker who made a lot of promises he hasn't been able to keep," Romney said in Royal Oak.
"What do you want in the next president?" he repeated.
"You!" an audience member shouted.
"Well thank you," Romney said. "I believe you want someone who understands how to get the economy working."
"To get that spot of course, I've first got to be our nominee," he said with a chuckle.
2012年2月23日星期四
Slavery and the Presidents: Where Is the Public Acknowledgement?
On Feb. 9, a member of Congress took an important step in attempting to educate the nation about an important slice of history relative to the White House. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) sent a letter to President Barack Obama to suggesting that the latter find a way to commemorate those enslaved individuals who helped to build the White House.
The letter stated, in part, "An acknowledgement of the role of slave labor displayed in the White House would be an important swtor credits symbol that the United States does not run from its history, but rather learns from it." The White House, of course, is an important icon of the nation's identity but embodies one of its most long-standing contradiction: a revolution against tyranny that maintain (and expanded) the enslavement of millions.
According to the White House website, in the last two years alone, there were 1.5 million individuals buy swtor credits who visited the White House. None of those visitors would necessarily know that 12 U.S. presidents were slaveholders and seven of them had slaves in the building we now call the White House which opened in 1801. There is no mention of these facts either in White House tourist brochures or any other documents given to visitors.
George Washington is not included in this scenario because he and nine of his slaves spent his presidency swtor gold in Philadelphia. Ironically, a plaque does exist recognizing those nine individuals which is part of the new pavilion in Philadelphia that houses the Liberty Bell. The pavilion is built over the site and specifically the slave quarters where Washington lived as president. It took a decade of protests, lawsuits, and grassroots activism to finally get the National Park Service to include the plaque which it initially refused to do.
Plaques wow gold also exist that acknowledge the slaves who helped to build the U.S. Capitol, many of whom also worked on the White House. In June 2010, Congress dedicated two plaques in "Emancipation Hall" at the Congressional Visitor's Center. The plaques state, "This original exterior wall was constructed between 1793 and 1800 of sandstone quarried by laborers, including enslaved African Americans who were an important part of the work force that built the United States Capitol."
As buy wow gold noted, many of these individuals built the White House between 1790 and 1800. This included unskilled as well as skilled labor. For example, there were at least five black carpenters -- Peter, Ben, Daniel, Harry, and Tom -- who worked on both structures. Slave labor also cut down trees, made bricks, cleared the land, and performed many, many other tasks all without pay, adequate food, or basic health care.
A public plaque or some other display would, in part, complete the circle of owning the history of presidents, Congress, and slavery. While there are hundreds of memorials, plaques, and other means that present a false narrative of American history, there are too few that genuinely tell the more complicated and often harsh reality that many faced as U.S. democracy unfolded.
As Rep. Ackerman notes in his letter, "I urge you to take steps to have an appropriate representation acknowledging the role of slave labor in constructing the White House in an area of public viewing."
The letter stated, in part, "An acknowledgement of the role of slave labor displayed in the White House would be an important swtor credits symbol that the United States does not run from its history, but rather learns from it." The White House, of course, is an important icon of the nation's identity but embodies one of its most long-standing contradiction: a revolution against tyranny that maintain (and expanded) the enslavement of millions.
According to the White House website, in the last two years alone, there were 1.5 million individuals buy swtor credits who visited the White House. None of those visitors would necessarily know that 12 U.S. presidents were slaveholders and seven of them had slaves in the building we now call the White House which opened in 1801. There is no mention of these facts either in White House tourist brochures or any other documents given to visitors.
George Washington is not included in this scenario because he and nine of his slaves spent his presidency swtor gold in Philadelphia. Ironically, a plaque does exist recognizing those nine individuals which is part of the new pavilion in Philadelphia that houses the Liberty Bell. The pavilion is built over the site and specifically the slave quarters where Washington lived as president. It took a decade of protests, lawsuits, and grassroots activism to finally get the National Park Service to include the plaque which it initially refused to do.
Plaques wow gold also exist that acknowledge the slaves who helped to build the U.S. Capitol, many of whom also worked on the White House. In June 2010, Congress dedicated two plaques in "Emancipation Hall" at the Congressional Visitor's Center. The plaques state, "This original exterior wall was constructed between 1793 and 1800 of sandstone quarried by laborers, including enslaved African Americans who were an important part of the work force that built the United States Capitol."
As buy wow gold noted, many of these individuals built the White House between 1790 and 1800. This included unskilled as well as skilled labor. For example, there were at least five black carpenters -- Peter, Ben, Daniel, Harry, and Tom -- who worked on both structures. Slave labor also cut down trees, made bricks, cleared the land, and performed many, many other tasks all without pay, adequate food, or basic health care.
A public plaque or some other display would, in part, complete the circle of owning the history of presidents, Congress, and slavery. While there are hundreds of memorials, plaques, and other means that present a false narrative of American history, there are too few that genuinely tell the more complicated and often harsh reality that many faced as U.S. democracy unfolded.
As Rep. Ackerman notes in his letter, "I urge you to take steps to have an appropriate representation acknowledging the role of slave labor in constructing the White House in an area of public viewing."
2012年2月20日星期一
Congressional Budget Cuts Could Slash Job Opportunities for Fema
Earlier this week, proposed congressional budget cuts in 2013 spending called for steep reductions in employment related programs, including a 12 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Labor. This significant decrease would adversely impact employment training programs for women veterans and women victims of violence who are struggling to find employment.
According to their 2013 budget request, the Department swtor credits of Labor's allocation for the existing Pathways Back to Work Fund would be significantly reduced. This fund helps current low-income adult workers gain new skills in order to stay in the workforce long-term. Together with the Department of Education, the Department of Labor would support partnerships between community colleges, states, and businesses that would buy swtor credits aid job transition for these vulnerable adults. For women 20 years and over, the latest household data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate decreasing, from 7.9 in January 2011 to 7.7 in January 2012 (seasonally adjusted). Now that the unemployment rate seems to be decreasing for these women, why cut the funds that are helping women find long-term careers?
More swtor gold than ever, the large number of enlisted servicemen and National Guard returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters are finding traditional employment assistance programs leaving record numbers out of work and financially vulnerable. Veterans would also have benefited greatly from the Department of Labor's funding in 2013. Not only does the department intend to support educational opportunities, runescape gold but they also plan to fund employment and additional transitional services to help veterans get a civilian job (Department of Labor 2013 Budget Request). The budget would also have promoted grants for employment services to veterans. As far as female veterans, more than 20 percent of these women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could not find a job in December 2011, according to the Bureau of buy runescape gold Labor Statistics. Transitional services would have been especially helpful for female veterans, as they seem to have a harder time finding and staying in a civilian job after they leave the military. This is due to a Veterans Affairs system that has much to be desired as far as meeting essential needs of women: health care, child care, and psychological needs.
As the president and founder of Second Chance Employment rs gold Services, I know how important transitional services are to veteran and low-income women. I also know how important job training is, especially now, when an overwhelming number of Americans are competing for employment. Veterans and women victims of violence are extremely disadvantaged in this job market, as many have not been employed in years, and they have not learned unique skills specific to their dream careers. At Second Chance, we help women victims of violence and women veterans find and secure jobs. We help women with job applications, schedule interviews and provide interview training, and we track their progress in their new jobs. The GOP's proposed budget cut will not only slash women veterans' and victims of violence chances of getting a job, but it will also put more pressure on nonprofits like mine to fill in the public job service gaps the government cannot.
Let Us Honor Slave-Owning Presidents?
Here it is again, the intersection of Presidents Day and Black History Month. Eight of our early presidents, beginning with George Washington, owned slaves during their tenure in the nation's highest office. The two I am most familiar with, given my career at the historic sites of Monticello and Montpelier, and as the author of the recently published A Slave in the White House (Palgrave Macmillan, $28.00) are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Jefferson and Madison owned over a hundred enslaved people at their Virginia plantations and took several slaves with them to swtor credits the White House. Running the domestic side of the executive mansion was a private undertaking then, and the third and fourth president each assembled a household staff, headed by a French steward, of about ten: white and free black workers, slaves hired in the capital, as well as slaves from their plantation.
Slavery was not a debate. It was a crime being perpetrated on real people in real time.
Ten-year-old Paul Jennings was one of the home slaves selected by President James Madison for the White House household staff. As a buy swtor credits footman Jennings set and served meals, assisted the coachman, and ran messages and other errands. Later he became Madison's personal manservant or valet, and in freedom he authored the first White House memoir.
One enslaved man, John Freeman, served as a White House footman during both Jefferson's and Madison's administrations. Jefferson purchased Freeman in 1804 with the understanding, set by his former master, that he was to be freed in sixteen years. In 1809, the year Madison's first term began, the third president sold Freeman to his swtor gold successor for $231.81 (calculated to the penny based on Freeman's remaining time as a slave). This is the only recorded instance of the sale of human property between these two presidents, though Jefferson also sold a woman, Thenia Hemings, and her five young daughters, to another of our slave-owning presidents, James Monroe.
It is easy to see the contradiction--some say hypocrisy--in the author of the Declaration of Independence and the father of the Constitution lording over plantations of more than one hundred slaves and presiding over a government wow gold devoted to upholding individual rights while being served by enslaved footmen in livery.
Yet we tend to make excuses for the failure of our Founding Fathers to end slavery. They were men of their time, they had to put union first, they did not understand that we are all one biological race. We look back and see slavery less as a political issue, more as a moral offense. The truth is that Madison and Jefferson saw it that way, too.
Madison acknowledged that slavery was an evil of great magnitude, a "moral, social and economical" failure. Jefferson called it an "abominable buy wow gold crime" and a "moral depravity" and allowed that should a violent contest between slaves and slave owners transpire, there was no doubt which side God would be on.
Both men supported gradual emancipation if something could be done with the free blacks. It was the concept of colonization, the transport of free blacks to Africa that offered Madison relief from his despair over slavery. Maybe all slaves could be freed, he wrote, if the "double operation"--emancipation followed by colonization--was put in place.
Thus in the end it was not slavery but race--racism--that was the cheap wow gold sticking point. Jefferson and Madison thought that people of color should enjoy the same individual rights as white citizens. But not here. They averred that black and white could never live harmoniously in America together.
Two centuries later (centuries!) we are still working on proving them wrong in their prediction, still working on realizing a truly pluralistic society that all Americans honor.
Paul Jennings's great grandson, Dr. C Herbert Marshall, who, along with his fellow black doctors, could not practice in all-white hospitals or even join the American Medical Association, wrote an "op-ed" in the Negro History Bulletin in February of 1960 that started off, " I have every reason to be proud of being an American." It concluded, "Today, we find ourselves on the threshold of a new era ushering in the type of freedom for all for which my fore-parents sacrificed so much."
If Dr. Marshall could offer that positive a sentiment in February 1960, then certainly we in February 2012 can take a sanguine view of the distance we have come since then. If we are not post-racial yet, we are getting there. No matter the sins of the Fathers, it is on us now. A sprint to the finish, anyone? Everyone?
Jefferson and Madison owned over a hundred enslaved people at their Virginia plantations and took several slaves with them to swtor credits the White House. Running the domestic side of the executive mansion was a private undertaking then, and the third and fourth president each assembled a household staff, headed by a French steward, of about ten: white and free black workers, slaves hired in the capital, as well as slaves from their plantation.
Slavery was not a debate. It was a crime being perpetrated on real people in real time.
Ten-year-old Paul Jennings was one of the home slaves selected by President James Madison for the White House household staff. As a buy swtor credits footman Jennings set and served meals, assisted the coachman, and ran messages and other errands. Later he became Madison's personal manservant or valet, and in freedom he authored the first White House memoir.
One enslaved man, John Freeman, served as a White House footman during both Jefferson's and Madison's administrations. Jefferson purchased Freeman in 1804 with the understanding, set by his former master, that he was to be freed in sixteen years. In 1809, the year Madison's first term began, the third president sold Freeman to his swtor gold successor for $231.81 (calculated to the penny based on Freeman's remaining time as a slave). This is the only recorded instance of the sale of human property between these two presidents, though Jefferson also sold a woman, Thenia Hemings, and her five young daughters, to another of our slave-owning presidents, James Monroe.
It is easy to see the contradiction--some say hypocrisy--in the author of the Declaration of Independence and the father of the Constitution lording over plantations of more than one hundred slaves and presiding over a government wow gold devoted to upholding individual rights while being served by enslaved footmen in livery.
Yet we tend to make excuses for the failure of our Founding Fathers to end slavery. They were men of their time, they had to put union first, they did not understand that we are all one biological race. We look back and see slavery less as a political issue, more as a moral offense. The truth is that Madison and Jefferson saw it that way, too.
Madison acknowledged that slavery was an evil of great magnitude, a "moral, social and economical" failure. Jefferson called it an "abominable buy wow gold crime" and a "moral depravity" and allowed that should a violent contest between slaves and slave owners transpire, there was no doubt which side God would be on.
Both men supported gradual emancipation if something could be done with the free blacks. It was the concept of colonization, the transport of free blacks to Africa that offered Madison relief from his despair over slavery. Maybe all slaves could be freed, he wrote, if the "double operation"--emancipation followed by colonization--was put in place.
Thus in the end it was not slavery but race--racism--that was the cheap wow gold sticking point. Jefferson and Madison thought that people of color should enjoy the same individual rights as white citizens. But not here. They averred that black and white could never live harmoniously in America together.
Two centuries later (centuries!) we are still working on proving them wrong in their prediction, still working on realizing a truly pluralistic society that all Americans honor.
Paul Jennings's great grandson, Dr. C Herbert Marshall, who, along with his fellow black doctors, could not practice in all-white hospitals or even join the American Medical Association, wrote an "op-ed" in the Negro History Bulletin in February of 1960 that started off, " I have every reason to be proud of being an American." It concluded, "Today, we find ourselves on the threshold of a new era ushering in the type of freedom for all for which my fore-parents sacrificed so much."
If Dr. Marshall could offer that positive a sentiment in February 1960, then certainly we in February 2012 can take a sanguine view of the distance we have come since then. If we are not post-racial yet, we are getting there. No matter the sins of the Fathers, it is on us now. A sprint to the finish, anyone? Everyone?
2012年2月16日星期四
Ten Deep Thoughts on the All-Male Panel on My Vagina
House Oversight Committee Chairman, master car thief and general criminal, Darrell Issa held a hearing today on the Obama administration's new regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide contraception coverage to their employees. Claiming that it was "not about reproductive rights and contraception swtor credits but instead about the administration's actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience," Issa barred a progressive woman from testifying, as that would have ruined the all male conservative religious anti-Obama motif he was going buy swtor credits for. This led three Democrats to walk out of the House (which must have been extra hard, because their panties were all up in a bunch). But I watched the hearing. And here are some thoughts.
1. I guess I should give the GOP props for voting against the Violence Against swtor gold Women Act, since it would be hypocritical to condemn violence against women, while at the same time advocating ultrasound rape.
2. This is a really beautiful image of small government and big family values.
3. I'm really glad women aren't allowed to testify at this hearing, which runescape gold is about their bodies. It's a dangerously slippery slope and I think we all know what comes next: box turtles are allowed to testify. It's also really hard to be objective and have a vagina at the same time.
4. Rep James Lankford should recuse himself from abortion discussions, as he, himself, buy runescape gold is a fetus.
5. Given what men of the cloth are known to do in this position, I'm kind of relieved when a clergy member testifies that he gets on his knees every morning and "prays for the president."
6. Joe Walsh shouldn't be speaking or even here. He has way overdue child support to pay.
7. Darrell rs gold Issa throws the panel a real hard ball and asks them "Do you think this hearing was a sham."
8. That hearing was good, but having Fred Phelps there would have made it even better.
9. That hearing was good, but having it in Salem in the 17th century would have made it even better.
10. I'm holding a hearing in which an all female panel will testify for weekly colonoscopies performed on the male clergy and GOP members who participated in today's hearing. We will also discuss Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell's amendment requiring men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.
2012年2月15日星期三
In the Debate on Immigration, Deportation Must Be Sensible
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in his Roll Call op-ed ("President Is Ignoring Immigration Laws," Feb. 6), argues that a policy of deporting serious criminals instead of parents, military families and students attending college is bad for the country. Once again the Republicans are on the wrong side of the law-and-order approach to immigration.
Like so many Republican accusations swtor credits about this president, the ones surrounding immigration come straight out of a fantasy world. I wish we had the president that Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) says we have. If we did, I could have saved two trips to Park Police headquarters for being arrested in front of the White House protesting the president's deportation policies.
I praise buy swtor credits the president when he does well, and I criticize him when he's wrong. But the fact is that President Barack Obama has deported more people, put more personnel on the ground at the border and reduced illegal entry more than any previous president. He is proud of it and trumpets it frequently. But through the Republican political lens, he appears to be a president swtor gold who is soft on illegal immigration.
The question is not how many people to deport. Unfortunately, given the complete obstructionism of the Republican side to craft a more sensible alternative, we are stuck with a system that forcibly removes about 400,000 people per year, with huge costs to taxpayers, families and communities. A population about the size of Minneapolis is deported runescape gold every year, and we have reached our capacity to deport more.
For this president, the question has not been how many to deport but who to deport first. Republicans say we should deport anyone we find, even if that means reducing the number of criminals we deport and reducing the capacity of both local law enforcement and our criminal courts to go after actual violent criminals -- regardless buy runescape gold of whether they are immigrants. A sophomore in college or a handyman with two U.S. citizen children are simply not threats to public safety. But Republicans want them prioritized equally with someone who has murdered, driven while drunk or trafficked drugs. That is plain crazy, but that is the Republican approach to immigration.
When this Congress is over and the president is re-elected, I rs gold fully expect a debate on how we re-establish law and order in our immigration system, and I fully expect the leading Republicans on the immigration issue to fight every attempt at reform tooth and nail. Too many on that side of the aisle are addicted to scapegoating and denigrating immigrants -- and Democrats -- to have it any other way.
But the rest of us want a legal immigration system that works and a way for those who have been here for years and built lives here -- the vast majority of those who are here illegally in the absence of a functioning legal immigration system -- to get in the system and on the books so that immigration enforcement has teeth and employers play by the rules.
We will have that debate eventually, over the strenuous objections of Republicans who oppose a sensible law-and-order approach to immigration reform.
Like so many Republican accusations swtor credits about this president, the ones surrounding immigration come straight out of a fantasy world. I wish we had the president that Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) says we have. If we did, I could have saved two trips to Park Police headquarters for being arrested in front of the White House protesting the president's deportation policies.
I praise buy swtor credits the president when he does well, and I criticize him when he's wrong. But the fact is that President Barack Obama has deported more people, put more personnel on the ground at the border and reduced illegal entry more than any previous president. He is proud of it and trumpets it frequently. But through the Republican political lens, he appears to be a president swtor gold who is soft on illegal immigration.
The question is not how many people to deport. Unfortunately, given the complete obstructionism of the Republican side to craft a more sensible alternative, we are stuck with a system that forcibly removes about 400,000 people per year, with huge costs to taxpayers, families and communities. A population about the size of Minneapolis is deported runescape gold every year, and we have reached our capacity to deport more.
For this president, the question has not been how many to deport but who to deport first. Republicans say we should deport anyone we find, even if that means reducing the number of criminals we deport and reducing the capacity of both local law enforcement and our criminal courts to go after actual violent criminals -- regardless buy runescape gold of whether they are immigrants. A sophomore in college or a handyman with two U.S. citizen children are simply not threats to public safety. But Republicans want them prioritized equally with someone who has murdered, driven while drunk or trafficked drugs. That is plain crazy, but that is the Republican approach to immigration.
When this Congress is over and the president is re-elected, I rs gold fully expect a debate on how we re-establish law and order in our immigration system, and I fully expect the leading Republicans on the immigration issue to fight every attempt at reform tooth and nail. Too many on that side of the aisle are addicted to scapegoating and denigrating immigrants -- and Democrats -- to have it any other way.
But the rest of us want a legal immigration system that works and a way for those who have been here for years and built lives here -- the vast majority of those who are here illegally in the absence of a functioning legal immigration system -- to get in the system and on the books so that immigration enforcement has teeth and employers play by the rules.
We will have that debate eventually, over the strenuous objections of Republicans who oppose a sensible law-and-order approach to immigration reform.
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