Immigration Issue May Doom Republicans

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:03 AM on May 25, 2007.

This post originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!

My meeting started today at 8:30am and ended around 6pm. There were no windows and the recirculated air was dry, ultra-cold and unhealthy. And it was a very tough, contentious meeting. I got back to my hotel and switched on the tube to see if Congress had voted to give Bush a blank check yet. While I was waiting for the shameful vote, Lou Dobbs was on CNN bashing everyone who supports Bush's immigration "Grand Compromise." My favorite part was about how redneck Arizona Republicans are so furious at their two wingnut senators, Jon Kyl and old man McCain, that they're leaving the GOP in droves.

Robert Novak, like me, thinks that Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Saxby Chamberpot (R-GA) being boo-ed at their reactionary, racist, xenophobic party's state conventions, portends ill for Republicans. Both corporatist whores are trying to deliver cheap labor to their Big Business financiers and "behind the catcalls was GOP rage over undocumented foreigners, a sentiment GOP lawmakers must appease or risk dire consequences."

Graham has called his rightist antagonists ignorant Know Nothings-- which they mostly are-- but that has made him even more of a target for their rage and feelings of betrayal. When Novak asked the closeted Republican why his constituents are so angry with him, Graham "quoted from a federal government report on the new arrivals to this country, 'largely unskilled laborers' and heavily illiterate: 'The new immigration has provoked a widespread feeling of apprehension as to its effect on the economic and social welfare of the country.' The report, by the U.S. Immigration Commission, was dated 1911."

Graham and Chambliss, both up for re-election next year, were unprepared for the hostility they encountered at their state party conventions. At Columbia, S.C., delegates erupted in boos when Graham mentioned Kennedy's name. Chambliss' apparent proximity to Kennedy in a photograph evoked booing at Duluth, Ga. Unaccustomed to such treatment, Chambliss expressed his resentment to Senate colleagues back in Washington. Graham was not happy with his junior South Carolina colleague, Sen. Jim DeMint, for playing to the convention crowd with anti-immigration oratory.

Nor was Graham happy with the performance in Columbia by DeMint's candidate for president, Mitt Romney. The former governor of Massachusetts won cheers by claiming the Senate compromise constitutes "amnesty"-- the word guaranteed to rouse Republican audiences. Only two years ago, Romney supported a less restrictive bill passed by the Senate on grounds it did not constitute "amnesty." Sen. John McCain, who supports the Senate compromise and is Graham's choice for president, said Monday: "Maybe I should wait a few weeks and see if [Romney's position] changes."

Many Republicans reach for an anti-immigration lifeline because of the party's plight. Burdened with an unpopular president and an unpopular war, the GOP cannot claim to be the party of limited government and controlled spending. But immigrant-bashing divides rather than unites Republicans. In a recent closed-door meeting of the House's conservative Republican Study Committee, Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina raised the danger of resembling South Africa's National Party advocating apartheid.

How long will it take before wingnut Repugs borrow an idea from France offering to pay its 5 million immigrants to go "home?" Remember, the French just elected a xenophobic rightist who was cheered on by the Repugs. "New French President Nicolas Sarkozy made immigration a central issue of his campaign. Now, his new minister for immigration and national identity says its time to start paying immigrants to leave the country." The French are offering immigrants $8,000 per family. The Republicans are probably too cheap to offer that much but expect something idiotic from some of these neo-fascist desperados.

Tagged as: immigration, republican party, guest workers, graham, novak

Howie Klein was president of his freshman class, drove to Afghanistan and Nepal, became the president of Reprise Records and started a blog called Down With Tyranny. He's always hated tyrants.