05/31/2007
Many residents of Utah, it seems, think like Paul Nachman about the need to tell their Senators — Bennett and Hatch — how bad the Bush Amnesty/Immigration Surge Bill is.Angry Utahns by the hundreds are calling, e-mailing and faxing Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, demanding he oppose an immigration bill that would provide legal status to an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants… In the past week, Bennett staffers have answered about 1,000 phone calls, and 95 percent of them denounce the fragile bipartisan immigration bill. Hatch hasn’t said how he will vote, but his office has been hit by a similar deluge of voters arguing against the immigration compromise. "The intensity of the callers is tremendous," said spokeswoman Heather Barney. "Many are very very angry."
Sen. Bennett sides with Bush on immigration reform by Matt Canham The Salt Lake City Tribune May 30 2007
Bennett is sniggering at them:
Those voters generally receive a coy answer. "My public position is that I’m reviewing the amendments," Bennett said Tuesday. It’s a ploy meant to defuse emotion. But here’s what Bennett’s staffers are not saying: he plans to vote for it.
His stated reason displays staggering economic illiteracy:
Our economy is dependent on labor that is coming from illegal immigrants and that is true of St. George," Bennett said.
(St George is a particularly rapidly growing part of Utah)
Bennett uses St. George as an example of a nationwide issue. He says if the government forcibly removed undocumented workers "you would throw the United States into a serious economic recession," he said
So America never prospered before being flooded with poorly educated Hispanics? In fact, of course, VDARE.COM’s Ed Rubenstein has shown that the economic contribution of illegals is trivial.
In a sense, though, Bennett’s blinkered focus on business probably does explain his arrogant rejection of his Constituents’ concerns: he is following the money. In the interview he gives a hint he will not run again in 2010 (he was born in 1933): no doubt thoughts of lucrative sinecures are exerting their magic.
As so often, the comment thread produces incisive input:
GI MOM: 5/30/2007 7:21:00 AM
Most the new people in St.George are from Cal. They moved there because they can no-longer stand the illegals massive takeover. People in St.George do not want ANY illegals, and they also are against the unchecked building. Bennett will not be getting their votes.
A lady called Mary Jessel has posted a superb, detailed discussion too long to quote here.
And an anonymous post raises a sadly relevant issue
This is hardly surprising as most Mormon politicians have been pro-illegal immigration for years. Going down the list; Cannon, Hatch, Flake, Bennett, Huntsman, Leavitt are all to the left on immigration compared to most Republicans, and even some Democrats….that is why Utah, one of the "reddest" voting states in the union, has one of the most liberal set of laws with regard to illegal immigration.
A point very eloquently made to me when I last blogged on another Mormon, Jeff Flake. As I said when Congressman Chris Cannon survived his Primary challenge
How strange it is that Mormonism, that most American of religions, might well be causative in the Nation’s fall.
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