A Republican group called the Ripon Society recently hosted an event with four prominent Republican congressman: Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg, North Dakota Rep. Rick Berg, and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. Heller was appointed to his Senate seat last year, and the other three lawmakers on the panel hope to join him there in January.
The group put this video online of the discussion, which was largely unremarkable, except for what happens at the 18:00 minute mark.
See that? Someone noted to the four Republicans that President Obama would implement the goals of the DREAM Act and asked for their responses. Flake is handed the microphone, and then magically, we see him passing it along to Heller.
Indeed, the video shows Heller saying, "Yeah, it's probably very similar in Nevada as it is in Arizona.... I agree with Jeff." Except, we didn't get to see or hear Jeff Flake's answer, so we don't know what Heller is agreeing with.
There appears to be, as Charles Mahtesian noted, "a selective edit that removes Flake's remarks on the subject." When Mahtesian asked the Ripon Society and the Flake campaign about the missing footage, neither wanted to talk about it. Making matters slightly worse, the original video was 1:15 longer than this edited version, but the original version isn't available to the public.
And why wouldn't Flake or his allies want us to see his comments? Probably because he was a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and a temporary-worker program, right up until he wanted to be a senator, at which point he pulled a Romney and rejected the proposals he supported.
So, rather than let us hear Flake's answer to a reasonable question, we get some clumsy, creative editing.
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He said 'The best way we can help the children of illegal immigrants is to lower taxes on the wealthy so they can hire more servants."
LOL
Thus we learn more about the attention span of the republican voter.
i thought the ripon society had gone the way of the wctu. in my college days (lbj to rmn), it was touted to be the home of "moderately liberal" republicans, you know the javits, rockefeller kind. nowadays, that species is about as common as ivory billed woodpeckers.
What gets me is that they seem to assume that their Republican viewers either won't notice or won't care. I have a feeling they're right.
The Ripoff Society, "reelin' in the years", a minute and 15 seconds at a time
It's really a shame that the Republican Party has devolved to the point where any position a GOP pol takes that involves decency, respect, kindness, compassion - is met by the base with enragement, threats, scorn and cries of "primary them!"
This is because the republican party has been taken over by fascists. Ideological purity is the hallmark of a fascist party.
Good insight.
Steve, I think it's time for a writing contest: "Fill in the seventy-five second gap." Extra points for creative combinations of actual Flake quotes. What might he have said into that microphone?
And to think our country used to make fun of other countries that did this. How far we have come. Thanks to the tealiban, we have adopted the same things we condemn other countries for doing.
Ripon... nice name. Must stand for Rip-on the President.
Oooopsie, I thought it was pronounced Rye-pee-on.
My defective memory recalls that the Ripon Society used to be composed of "moderate and progressive" republicans in the 1960's, 70' and 80's even into the 90's, I was operating under the assumption that they were eliminated during the Gingrich Revolution. I did not realize they had been coopted and became just another part of the right wing noise machine like the Log Cabin Republicans. I am still baffled by anyone with a conscience who would identify with the Republican Party which is based on hatred of people's race, sexuality, religion, moral beliefs and status....seems odd that people of good character would belong to such an organization.