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Rubio can wave goodbye to his version of the DREAM Act.
Mitt Romney quietly told supporters the other day that he'd like to see a "Republican DREAM Act" to help his party with Latino voters. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) believes he has just such a proposal, but he's run into three fairly significant problems.
First, Romney is too afraid of the political fallout to take a position on the proposal either way. Second, Rubio's policy is plainly inadequate, and offers affected immigrants no pathway to citizenship.
And third, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), before Rubio has even finished putting his bill together, effectively told the senator yesterday not to bother.
The Speaker said Rubio, a rising GOP star, had briefed him on the details of his plan, but when he was asked about it on Thursday, Boehner gave no endorsement.
"Well, there's always hope," Boehner said in response to a question on whether the GOP House could pass an immigration bill not solely focused on border security. "I found it of interest," he said of Rubio's proposal, "but the problem with this issue is that we're operating in a very hostile political environment. And to deal with a very difficult issue like this ... I think it would be difficult at best."
Or to translate, the House GOP caucus isn't ready to pass any DREAM Act, even one written by a Republican for Republicans.
Boehner's comments come less than a week after Kris Kobach, Romney's right-wing immigration adviser, also said Rubio's conservative version of the plan is simply too liberal for the party's hard-line, anti-immigrant base.
Romney may want a "Republican DREAM Act," but Boehner's and Kobach's reaction to Rubio's efforts reinforce a larger truth: the GOP simply hasn't left itself any room to maneuver. George W. Bush's comprehensive immigration reform package from his second term is now seen in Republican circles as liberal nonsense; the DREAM Act that had enjoyed strong support from Republicans like Orrin Hatch, Dick Lugar, and John McCain has now been abandoned by the party altogether; and now a watered-down DREAM Act is dead on arrival before it's even been written.
There's no room to govern, no room to compromise, and no opportunity to reach out to Latino voters between now and November with a positive message.
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The right is dreaming of a white Christmas where all darker skinned people would leave. They would also love if all those pesky libruls would leave too. Of course who could they hate if we all left?
I'm still trying to figure out why voters have not connected the dots on how the Patriot Act collapsed the US economy (click the links).
Sub-prime mortgages had a negative impact only after housing prices went down.
Population goes up. Housing prices go up.
Population goes down. Housing prices go down.
Housing prices are influenced directly by the population.
Bush and GOP immigration policies made the population go down after 911 because ALEC was able to force-feed toxic legislation because of the ensuing panic.
Shorter Boehner
Are you of Aryan heritage? If not you can keep dreaming .
Why doesn't the GOP and their base just admit it only "white, evangelical Christian" need apply! It really is a sorry tale as most of the GOP's parents "immigrated here" from "somewhere else".
The next thing you know Rubio/Romney will come up with is the I Have A Dream Act,trying to get the black vote away from Pres.Obama.
"no room to govern, no room to compromise, and no opportunity"
Isn't that the core of Republican philosophy?
The Republican party has painted itself into a corner and continues painting. They reject blacks. They have declared war on women. They are opposed to educating our youth. They spit on the poor. Here they have kicked hispanics in the teeth. Apparently the Republican party has abandoned any hope of ever being a majority party again. It is all in for Fox News and the over 60 white guy crowd.
David Frum was right. The Republican party thought they owned Fox News, but it turns out Fox News owns the Republican party and requires Boehner and friends to pander exclusively to Fox News selected demographic.
Republicans have alienated women, Latino's, & college age kids. With only white men who make more than 100K a year left to support them, what chance do they have LONG TERM?
rewritten elsewhere
Don't worry, they can always depend on all the white male working class morons who are glad they live in a "right to work" state where they don't have to give over any money to "corrupt union bosses" to give to politicians who won't "vote their values."
Speaking as an over-60 white male making over $100K/y, I can confidently tell you that they could be doing better in that demographic, too. And I can tell you part of the reason why in one word:
Grandchildren.
Pfft DC! How silly of you to propose that people over 60 might have the audacity to care about their grandchildren! Why that's just nonsense! ;-)
#joking
I wonder how many of the "hardline anti-immigrant base" have ethnic surnames identifying their heritage as Irish, Italian, or Polish? You know, the ones whose ancestors saw the "Dogs and Irish - keep off the grass" signs? The ones whose ancestors had to endure the "wop" and "dago" and "polack" jokes-that-weren't? And that's not identifying all the other ones whose ancestors' "whiteness" was doubted by the "Good Americans" who'd jumped off the boat the generation before. It's nice to see the Republican run back to the 1920s for their religion, economics and politics.
As I keep pointing out, there are 'illegal immigrants' from all counties, yet only Hispanics and Midle Eastern and South Asians will be targeted or even requested to prove citizenship in almost any of these proposals. (I should state I am pro-immigrant, wish the borders were much more open -- and that our country was closer to the 'shining lamp' that once drew all sorts of people here to our benefit -- 'our' being earlier ariived immigrants.)
I wish someone would do a search of deportations to see how many of those not specifically triggered by major criminal actions -- and thus as a part of a judicial sentence for a non-immigration related offense -- were from and to any European country, or any country not Hispanic or Muslim.
You mean like the Russians living in Brooklyn.....Neva happen.
Don't know if anyone realized this already, but "hostile political environment" refers to the white GOP base hostile to immigration reform of any kind.
Exactly right. Boehner is describing his base when he says there's a "hostile political environment."
sure he is not talking about his own side, in the house?
Is it possible for Harry Reid to bring an immigration bill to the floor of the Senate between now and November? Then Republicans could filibuster the bill and reinforce the anti-immigrant views of the party. That would leave Romney even less room to maneuver. If Romney says he would like to see the bill passed, then he loses the hard right voters and if he opposes the bill, then he loses any opportunity to move his numbers in the Latino community.
Unfortunately, filibusters are silent now and all you hear is that a bill failed to get 60 votes. It's not like you have Mr. Smith there on C-Span for the third day in a row, reading the phone book.
IMHO, one step that Democrats should take next Congress (assuming that they retain control of the Senate) is to go back to forcing filibusters to be nonstop talk the way that the public imagines them. It would bring the work of the Senate to a halt, but the Republican solid wall of party discipline filibustering every single act of the Senate isn't much different.
At least if they had to read phone books, there'd be news to cover: "A third Republican Senator collapsed today while reading the Wichita phone book on the floor while carrying on the filibuster to block a floor vote on President Obama's appointment of a permanent undersecretary of the Interior to manage the Park Service. Senator _______, 83 years old, was taken to Walter Reed. A GOP spokesman reports that he is being treated for a stroke and is expected to recover most of the use of his right side."
It is too late for the Dems to change the rules. That has to be done with the opening of the new session which will be next January. Personally, I would like to see all filibusters and holds abolished. Even if the Republicans do not allow the bill to come to a vote, Reid can bring it to the floor and force the Republicans to vote on the filibuster. This is what is being done with other bills so that Republicans are on the record obstructing the bill. It would be very easy for the Dems to get the word out about a vote on the immigration bill.
I should have been clearer about that.
The so-called "nuclear option." Apparently Senators on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to use it, so I was suggesting an alternative -- which in some ways might be better, in that the public would be seeing every night exactly who is blocking traffic in the gridlock that the polls say people hate.
I don't think we should get rid of the filibuster. I do think that the minority needs to have it's rights protected and I would not support legislation that would persecute a minority solely to achieve the objective of the majority. However I do agree that the filibuster in it's current existence must be adjusted.
Perhaps @Maddow can bring back The Tarantino?
A complete abolition of filibusters and holds is the only way to move forward with the business of the country. Neither protects the rights of any minority; only a court can do that. We can have a lot of debate about rights, but that has not stopped Republicans from passing all sorts of anti-abortion and anti-gay legislation. The use of filibusters and holds have been abusive since Obama came in. The restraint under a system without filibusters and holds is that every party will be a minority party at some point. Republicans are open to the same type of tactics that they have used against Obama. That is why I think they have been myopic.
Hope is the seed of dreams. Fear is the root of nightmares. I smell Republican fear of immigrants.