By Joe Guzzardi
12/04/2009
Two weeks ago, I encouraged my patriotic immigration reform friends: choose your battles wisely.
Since most of us will be engaged in the exhausting immigration struggle for the rest of our lives, we need to marshal our emotions for the big fights ahead — not waste energy getting into a lather over the small, predictable annoyances.
Reader responses indicated that not everyone understood my point.
To clarify, I'll detail exactly what I mean when I refer to things that matter, as opposed to things that don’t during this never ending battle.
Once you catch on, you'll enjoy a Merrier Christmas.
This includes the predictions that they regularly emit insisting that so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" is on-track and will be presented to Congress "soon."
Here’s a recent example of how far out of their way amnesty loonies will go to make their case. During her trip to the Philippines last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first urged Filipinos, especially educated ones, to stay home to improve their country’s quality of life.
Then, out of nowhere, came this from Clinton:
"We're hoping that we can achieve comprehensive immigration reform, which is something that I feel strongly about. We have so many priorities. I can’t even adequately describe what it was like coming into office eight years after the prior administration, when problems have been stacked up. It felt like there were thousands of planes circling in the air that we have to bring safely to a landing, and immigration reforms is one of those. We hope to get to comprehensive immigration reform and this issue will be part of the legislation that we introduced."
In Manila, 9,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. and immediately after imparting the sensible advice that Filipinos should remain behind, Clinton suddenly sounded like she was addressing the National Council of La Raza.
Clinton’s ridiculous remarks served to entice millions more the Filipinos to abandon their families, communities and country to take jobs from U.S. workers.
At one time, Clinton’s speech might have alarmed me. Now I realize that when the radical Left needs something to fill up air time, their default subject is comprehensive immigration reform.
Any Obama appointment that brings a known Treason Lobbyist into his inner circle.
In November 2008, when Obama appointed former La Raza senior vice president Cecilia Munoz to the newly minted, meaningless, powerless position of Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, a buzz ran through the Internet.
But why? When was the last time you heard Munoz’s name? Be honest.
What real difference does it make if someone is physically on the inside or has instant access to President Barack Obama from the outside? In 2007, Janet Murguia, Munoz’s La Raza comrade worked hand in hand with the Senate Judiciary Committee to draft Bush’s amnesty proposal. It failed miserably.
Any more drivel about Lou Dobbs.
If Dobbs has changed his mind and boarded the amnesty express — which many readers whose opinions I admire insist he has — then so what?
Dobbs has lost our favor without gaining standing in the opposing camp. None among them would trust that Dobbs, after years of hammering about illegal immigration, is sincere about his desire to grant amnesty to aliens.
If private citizen and New Jersey resident Dobbs wants to vote to re-elect to the Senate refugee champion Frank Lautenberg, let him. The election will not be decided by one vote.
As far as I’m concerned, Dobbs did his job by pointing out to millions of previously unenlightened Americans the consequences of unchecked illegal immigration. That’s what matters.
They have, actually, lost ground.
Recently, our success level, despite every conceivable obstacle, is nothing short of amazing.
In 2007, during a still robust economy, amnesty-driven President George W. Bush addressed the nation from Yuma, Arizona on the shared U.S. and Mexico border.
Bush urged Americans to support comprehensive immigration reform. Promoting "a practical answer" and working with a newly elected Democratic Congress, equally devoted to amnesty, neither Bush nor the Democrats could sell it. [Bush on the Border, Editorial, New York Times, April 11, 2007]
The Democrats regrouped to try to market amnesty in bits and pieces, specifically the DREAM Act and Ag Jobs legislation. They couldn’t even get that through either.
In 2009, despite a House 81-seat Democratic advantage, no comprehensive immigration reform bill has reached the floor.
Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez promised to drop his version three months ago. The White House, which already has a plate full of unpopular causes, may have stymied Gutierrez. Or perhaps Gutierrez is smart enough to realize that he doesn’t have the votes.
Like the White House, Gutierrez also has unpleasant distractions that might come into play in 2010. A pending investigation by Federal authorities into a loan Gutierrez received from a real estate developer/campaign contributor may surface during his re-election effort. [Congressman’s $200,000 Loan, by Robert Becker, Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2009]
No serious Senate interest in Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Chuck Schumer, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, held rigged hearings (a familiar but always unsuccessful ploy), where testimony in favor of amnesty overwhelmed Kris Kobach’s lone dissenting view.
But the net result: nothing.
Senator Ted Kennedy’s death.
In the scheme of defeating comprehensive immigration reform, Kennedy’s absence from the Congressional debate is a huge plus for us. Even Schumer, his Judiciary replacement, admits that his Senate influence will never equal Kennedy’s.
The very real prospect that some of amnesty’s most vocal Senate voices may be defeated in 2010.
Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, former Senate Judiciary Chairman and Democrat turned Republican turned again Democrat, finds himself facing an electorate where 67 percent of Democrats are "non-committal" toward his candidacy. Of course, Specter has no support from his former Republicans.
Connecticut’s Chris Dodd trails his likely Republican challenger Rob Simmons by eleven points. Among the negatives that will haunt Dodd leading up to November 2010 are his endorsement of controversial AIG bonuses, his Countrywide VIP sweetheart mortgages and his cozy Wall Street relationships, which turned voters off in Jon Corzine’s New Jersey.
Best of all, Nevada’s Harry Reid is, to use a term the former boxer would recognize, is "on the ropes." Nevada, along with Michigan and California, is one of the most economically devastated states.
In a recent polling, a majority of Nevadans pointed to Reid’s failure to deliver on Obamacare as a sign that he’s a weak and ineffective leader. Ninety-two percent of all Democrats viewed Reid unfavorably.
Interestingly, with his poll numbers in the tank, Reid has stopped talking about delivering on his promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform "this year".
If in 2010 we get rid of one of the three pro-immigration Senate Democrats, that’s good. Two would be great. Three, a strong possibility, would be champagne-popping time!
Our most significant achievement this year is not only that there won’t be amnesty anytime soon. That’s now considered conventional wisdom (which you first read, if you'll permit me, right here in my columns)
More important is that the prevailing and increasingly entrenched Congressional attitude about amnesty is that it’s a dog that has nothing but political liability associated with it.
As defeated Texas Congressman Martin Frost replied when asked if 2009 is a good or bad year for immigration reform:
"No year is ever a good year to seek immigration reform."
All things considered, the patriotic immigration reformers' position is much stronger than that of the Treason Lobby.
Joe Guzzardi is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
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