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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, about seven months before he hopes to be elected governor, has suddenly become a little shy. The far-right candidate has traditionally been rather bold in sharing his views, but as the Washington Post editorial page discovered, the Republican nevertheless decided to give his campaign website "a little airbrushing."
As recently as November, Mr. Cuccinelli's campaign Web site boasted of his uncompromising positions on illegal immigration, including opposing tuition subsidies for undocumented students (even if they grew up in Virginia), firing state contractors who employ illegal immigrants and stepping up deportations and employment verification.
But clicking Tuesday on a link to the campaign site's immigration policy page brought up the following: "This is somewhat embarrassing, isn't it? It seems we can't find what you're looking for."
Somewhat embarrassing, indeed.
Of course, the candidate's record can't be scrubbed quite that easily. Cuccinelli is on record supporting an end to birthright citizenship, defending Arizona's scandalous "papers please" law, denying unemployment benefits to those who don't speak English, and allowing law enforcement to investigate and punish crowded boardinghouses, which he called "one of the most common side effects of illegal immigration." Before it was deleted, Cuccinelli bragged he "voted consistently against in-state tuition for illegal aliens."
A friend to the immigrant community he isn't.
But perhaps the more important takeaway here is that Cuccinelli felt the need to scrub his page in the first place. It wasn't long ago that Republicans seeking key offices would boast about their extremist, anti-immigrant stances. Now, in Virginia, traditionally a "red" state, the Republican gubernatorial candidate no longer considers this wise.
It's a reminder that the politics of immigration are changing quickly, so much so that some in the GOP -- Cuccinelli, Jeb Bush, et al -- are struggling to keep up.
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They can get Ralph Lauren or anyone else to change their image, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Not one of these right wingers wants to see immigration reform; it is too threatening to them. They see too many minorities mucking up the system already.
They are the good old white boys club; minorities not invited or accepted. To these Republicans, it might as well be India in the early 1900's.
Raj that!
Nonsense! I am positive that the good old boys are willing to have a few uncle toms smiling from the crowd in their party, as long as they don't get uppity.
Calling people with whom you disagree uncle toms, doesn't win any hearts or minds. It is plainly not a bright idea and only re-enforces the notion that they have strayed off the reservation and that is why they are being labeled. We can agreeably disagree with them but show them some respect as people and you might actually get to first base with them. They can't be any happier about voter suppression than we are.
The teapubs love illegals as long as they are working in their garden, washing their cars, doing housework, cooking, and etc., for the cheap. Except of course, when they are running for office, for Pete's sake.
Phenner,
It is an old southern tradition, going back to Mammy on the plantation:
"They" can get as close as they want, but don't get too high.
Stay in the nursery, garden or kitchen, in other words.
They'd like that "high" to include staying out of the voting booths.
And that is why we must eliminate them with OUR votes in 2014, at least the ones "eliminatable".
DuBois: "Black Republican," "Jewish Republican," and "Gay Republican" are all synonyms for "brain dead moron."
I am just so certain the Virginia press is going to be relentless in their questioning him about his "change of heart"./snark
Everything he stood for yesterday notwithstanding, gesturing vaguely toward immigration today is part of the New Republican Message.
Ken, don't worry about "not being able to find" those old posts to your web site. I'm betting that LOTS of people have copied those posts. They'll be able to help you "restore" them to your site.
We're sure that you'll want to do that. You wouldn't want to lie to the good citizens of Virginia, would you? That wouldn't say much for your morals, would it, Ken. You certainly wouldn't think of compromising those, would you Ken?
The real immigration problem for the repuke party is that their candidates ran as
anti-immigrationanti-brown proponents and sold it to most of their reich wing bases. It has always been a contradiction, because the wealthy of this country want the cheap labor supply to drive down working class incomes. Now, the battle becomes can the repuke pols change horses in midstream to please their funders or are they stuck placating their bases who they fired up with hate messages!It is amusing to watch them try to do both at the same time.
Please do not forget the GOP obsession with controlling women's reproductive systems when you list the "anti-attributes" of the Party.
Cuccinelli, too, has Paulziemers (meaning he is a freaking liar!).
Cuccinelli calls immigrants rats.
How about some cache action:
Cuccinelli's website via the way back machine.
http://web.archive.org/web/20090205194008/http://www.cuccinelli.com/issues_immigration.htm
Currently, the Virginia Legislature is considering a picture I.D. requirement. Just last year, Va. got approval from the Justice Dept. for voter registration requirements which did not require picture I.D, but they're back for another bite of the apple.
The voter registration OFA team, now Fairfax County, ((of which I am one) is gearing up to start registering from April forward in Fairfax County, etc. Ken Cuccinelli is a dangerous man, there is adequate video and written proof of that fact, it's the GOTV effort that must defeat him in November 2013. Please vote if you live in Va. because senior right wingers always do, remember 2010! Yes I know Terry McAuliffe isn't perfect but consider the alternative especially if you are a women.
coochie is a con man. so much like cantorum. please note, the pimped out repubes are doing everything they can to gain command and control of the u.s. military to run their "WE RULE" campaign over the entire world. they are CERTIFIABLE.
Another Etch-A-Sketch moment in Republican politics.
The GOP way: if we say a particular LIE enough times, it will become truth.
as some have suggested, many companies have used immigrants to fill worker positions because the immigrants will work for less money and will usually work any and all extra hours. of course the companies also pit workers against each other to drive down the cost of labor. the overall problem with that is one of the major reasons we are in a fix today. driving down the cost of labor across the board does one thing. it drives down the buying power of the people who are affected. it does nothing to help employment. the owners and ceos make more money, but the people no longer have the money to buy extra items. at least not as many. several years ago i retired from an auto plant. at that time workers were making about 40k per year. they had decent lives and had good buying power. today those same workers make 25k per year. they can no longer buy the cars that the parts they make, goes into. so when you see that we are struggling as a nation you can see that even the companies that stayed here have actually hurt themselves. when their own workers can no longer buy their own end product, you as a producer are in deep trouble. it appears that owners and ceos are no longer smart enough to grow a business, all they know is how to either ship jobs overseas or cut wages or workers. we used to be a much better country than that!