It's Not Amnesty!

One thing you hear a lot from "comprehensive immigration reform" advocates is that their proposed bill is "NOT amnesty!!!!!!!" even though Ronald Reagan described the very-similar intended results of the 1986 reform as "amnesty in exchange for border security." I guess I could take their word for it, but Marco Rubio, et al. might want to know how immigration law is being marketed - in English! - by attorneys catering to the immigrant population here in San Mateo County:

(This, btw, is a rare example of Free Will shoe-leather reporting as the FW Cub Reporter and I traveled a mile down the road from our HQ to snap these dramatic photos).

The fact is that, regardless of what the old white guys in the Senate might say, the immigrant community and those who advocate for it, are telling themselves that DC's efforts to "normalize" the illegal population is amnesty, whether through the DREAM Act or through the Senate's comprehensive reform bill. That's certainly what Marco Rubio has been saying in Spanish to Spanish-speaking audiences. (if the guy doesn't like getting booed at Tea Party allies, he might want to cut down on repeated use of this Arafat-style of political persuasion). And that's certainly why we are being treated to an incomprehensible 1,000 page bill intended to mask its true effects, both intended and unintended.

Even if amnesty is not the result, we know what will happen: more masses chanting "Si Se Puede," more quavering-voiced news stories about people living in the "shadows," and an effort in the courts to obtain amnesty through judicial fiat with border security thrown to the wayside. Some form of amnesty seems inevitable, whether through legislation, judicial intervention, or pseudo-revolution. Choose your poison, I guess.

Baby, I'm A Star: Marco Rubio's Push For Immigration Reform

Hard to believe just a few months ago that Marco Rubio was the Tea Party's "New Reagan" (like the Boss used to be the "New Dylan," I guess). Now he's working with the despicable likes of Chuck Schumer and Dick Durban to pass left-wing legislation, making major policy pronouncements in Spanish, and creating an atmosphere where his aides feel comfortable dumping on American workers:

“There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it. There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss that publicly.”

That crack might make some sense - not everyone can be Steve Jobs, after all - if the Schumer-Rubio bill sought to address this alleged shortfall in "star performers," but it doesn't. Instead, the emphasis is on the mass migration of low-skill, low-wage, low-education laborers, and their extended families. Maybe there's a Mexican Sergey Brin mixed in among these huddled masses, but I doubt it. Mexico's idea of a "star performer" is Carlos Slim. With the exception of an increased number of tech viasas, there is nothing in the bill that would encourage the sort of high-skilled, well educated entrepreneurial people to emigrate to the United States. Instead, we will continue the depressing, dysfunctional status quo: millions of marginal types either entering illegally or staying after their tourist visa expires get all the political attention, while immigrants educated up to the Phd level languish on waiting lists or give up and go home. 

This "star performer" stuff is a crock anyway. Since when are Americans expected to be "stars?" The expectation is that you work hard and are productive. That's all you can expect from the mass of humanity. And who are the star performers among the current population of illegals? Is there a star performer in the lettuce patch looking to pivot to avocados? 

As bad as this is, Rubio's apparent tendency to say "security first!" in English, while promising "legalization first!" in Spanish is worse. It's the old Arafat trick of saying something moderate to an English-speaking audience while saying the opposite in another language. It's the perfect tool of the demagogue, and something even Obama has not dared to do. I know, I know. George Bush used to speak Spanish to crowds too. (Bush did it! is a bi-partisan "get out of jail" card), but there is a vast difference between throwing in a sentence or two of Spanish lingo, and actually making political promises in Spanish to a Spanish-speaking audience. 

Our only hope, I guess, is that it's the Spanish speakers who are being lied to by the cynical border-firsters in the Gang of 8 (hah!), but we all know what's really going on. Rubio is the front for an obfuscatory effort to pass dubious legislation that won't even accomplish its stated goals. 

It could be that Rubio knows something the rest of us don't know about the electorate a la Obama circa 2007, and this effort will strengthen his aspirations while giving us a chance to rationalize our immigration system, but, after seeing Rubio's performance over the last few weeks I kind of doubt it. 

Off The Mat: Marco Rubio's Turn In The Spotlight

I can't say I think much of Marco Rubio - not being personal, but this "savior" stuff seems a little premature - but the following from his SOTU rebuttal is worth a highlight

But his favorite attack of all is that those who don’t agree with him – they only care about rich people. 

Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren’t millionaires. They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They’re workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. They’re immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy. 

The tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families. It will cost them their raises. It will cost them their benefits. It may even cost some of them their jobs. 

And it will hurt seniors because it does nothing to save Medicare and Social Security.
So Mr. President, I don’t oppose your plans because I want to protect the rich. I oppose your plans because I want to protect my neighbors.

It's one of the great ironies of of modern politics that the "party of the rich" is filled with politicians who come from modest backgrounds. Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, John Boehner, Ronald Reagan, Dennis Hastert, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, the dread Karl Rove, and on and on all came from marginal or modest families. It's Democrat (and "moderate" Republican) politicians who are much more like to come from wealth, often ludicrous wealth. 

Of course, the news media that never stopped talking about Mitt Romney's car elevator also plays along with the fiction that billionaires like John Kerry - who, btw, appears to have had plastic surgery - is a reg'lar guy, the same sort of fiction that props up the careers of so many left-liberals. But, what's stopping Republicans from pointing out this reality? Got me, but I'm glad Rubio took his moment in the spotlight - it's a rare moment indeed when a conservative can speak unimpeded or unedited - to make this basic point. 

Marco Rubio Seizes The Day

One of the benefits of the Obama era has been the ascent of a new breed of Republican officeholder. Call them Tea Partiers, if you want, but 3 years ago you wouldn't have seen people like Rand Paul, Mike Lee, or Rob Johnson in the Senate or Michelle Bachman ascending into the first tier of GOP presidential contenders. But, the guy with the most potential is Marco Rubio, and he has been on fire. If you ever get frustrated with the namby-pamby "collegiality" of DC Republicans, check out this blast from an interview Rubio did with Hugh Hewitt the other day:

HH: Senator Rubio, you represent a lot of senior citizens in Florida. The country knows that. I think it’s despicable to scare them this way. What’s your reaction to the President’s threat to hold their Social Security checks hostage?

MR: Well, if they don’t get their Social Security checks, it’s because the President’s decided to do that, because we still have revenue coming in. Here’s the other thing I would say. If in fact the President holds up their checks for Social Security, and Medicare, and whatever else he wants to hold up to make his point, isn’t he admitting that all these programs are funded by deficit spending? Isn’t he admitting that all these programs are dependant upon borrowed money? And I think the folks who are on Social Security, people like my mom, would be shocked to learn the truth that the money that they’re receiving in Social Security isn’t the money they worked hard for all these years to put away, the government was going to give back to them in their retirement. The government spent all that money already. They spent it long ago on other things. This is borrowed money. This is money that we’re borrowing from our children and our grandchildren. And I think people are going to, if that happens, I think people are going to be shocked to learn the real truth about what the government’s done with their Social Security money.

Honestly, why doesn't every Republican talk like that? I also liked his line - in a speech on the Senate Floor, no less - about how Obama should stop acting like the leader of a banana republic.

The other Tea Party Republicans have taken turns in the media crosshairs, having to defend stupid gaffes (Bachmann) or disconcertingly outside-the-box statements about the Civil Rights Act (Paul). Rubio has escaped this, partly because he has kept a relatively low profile, and partly because his communication skills are so disciplined and refined that his mouth doesn't get him into the sort of trouble that Sarah Palin - God love 'er - steps into every few weeks. Read the Hewitt transcript all the way through: it's one great line after another, simultaneously attacking the president in (well-deserved) harsh terms while also laying out an alternative to endless government spending.

I think Reagan comparisons are absurd at this point. For one thing Rubio is a year younger than I am. But the guy can convey a message very well. To think that, under normal conditions, he would have never left Florida, and Charlie Crist would be in the Senate.