BOHICA: The amnesty sellout cometh
Tea Partiers and other grassroots limited government types have been disappointed time and again by the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill they elected and elevated in 2010 and 2012. Spending. Taxes. Benghazi. Gays in the military. Brace yourselves. It appears ONE MORE is on the way:
[…] A new report from the Texas-based Quorum Report, published by longtime Texas journalist Harvey Kronberg, says that House Speaker John Boehner plans to push amnesty legislation through the House, after the primary filing deadline for candidates. The move would prevent Tea Party from challenging GOP lawmakers who support amnesty in 2014.
Scott Braddock reported on Tuesday that “in recent weeks, various Texas business interests have told Quorum Report that Boehner has been telling them that he will start holding immigration votes not long after the filing deadline has passed.”
Braddock noted that those business community sources spoke with him “on condition of anonymity because their conversations were held behind closed doors and they added it wasn’t made clear to them just how confidential the information was meant to be.”
“Nevertheless, what was made clear was that Boehner felt the need to protect House Republican incumbents who are otherwise seen as conservative but have expressed an openness to immigration reform that includes a robust guest worker program,” Braddock wrote, before citing three specific Texas GOP congressmen: Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX), John Carter (R-TX) and Sam Johnson (R-TX). […]
*Oh-KAY.* Let’s tie that to word that Renee Ellmers is slated to become a point-person in the “immigration reform” debate, and her speech to amnesty advocates in Randolph County last year. Let’s also keep in mind US Senate candidate Thom Tillis’ remarks to the Farm Bureau late least year.
Let’s also look at the story about Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the House judiciary committee chairman, who HAS been an opponent of amnesty. He’s apparently softened the language about amnesty on his web site BIG TIME.
Will the GOP actually kowtow to the corporate lobbyists and The US Chamber of Commerce on this issue? Will they really go along with Obama & Reid to tarnish and trash the sanctity of U.S. citizenship — just to keep the PAC money spigot wide open? If what I am reading in the media — and what I am seeing on campaign reports — is true the answer appears to be a resounding YES.
What can we do to counter this reported scheme by Boehner on the amnesty votes? Give EVERY sitting Republican on Capitol Hill a primary opponent. (They tend to pay attention to us a lot better when their job security appears threatened.) EVERY ONE. Even if you like them. Give them an opponent. A name on the ballot, and a paid filing fee. It sends the message loud and clear: If you go along with this sellout, we can bring YOU home at primary time.
Thank you for shining a light on this and so many other issues Brant, most states are not as lucky as we are to have such a great source of information.
Why is Boehner moving to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in 2014 by motivated the grassroots to stay home? Indeed, he might even succeed in blowing up the Republican Party and causing the formation of a conservative third party (which likely would allow Democrats to trample a divided opposition for an election or two).
Amnesty is simply non-negotiable to conservatives, and if he does this he will destroy any remaining trust he has from the grassroots on ANY issue.
Boehner ought to take a look at how the immigration issue is playing in the UK, France, the Netherlands, and other places in Europe. Take the UK. In the last local elections in the UK, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which had been getting about 1% in local elections snatched almost half of the vote that normally went to the Conservative Party. Exit polls showed that the number one reason that voters shifted from Conservative to UKIP was that UKIP took a much stronger stand against immigration (the #2 issue was withdrawing from the EU, and #3 was gay marriage which Conservative prime minster Cameron supported and UKIP opposes). On the same day as the local election there were two by-elections (special elections) to Parliament, including one key marginal seat that the Conservatives expected to win, but UKIP ran second in both and pushed the Conservative Party into third place. The next nationwide election will be this year for the UK’s seats in the European Parliament, and analysts are already predicting that UKIP will come in first, with Labour second, and the Conservative Party third. At the same time, the Conservative Party’s constituency associations, their grassroots, are bleeding members.
Immigration as an issue can be as devastating to the Repubican Party in the US as it has to the Conservative Party in the UK, if the ”leadership” caves in to the special interests.
I agree that all potentially pro-amnesty Republicans need to be primaried, and if any escape primaries, they ought to face conservative independents in November, even as write ins. Any Republican who votes for amnesty needs to be taken down.
I would add that yesterday’s three by-elections in the UK continued the trend to UKIP. One Labour safe seat stayed in Labour hands. One formerly safe Conservative seat went to an Independent after UKIP and the Conservatives split the usual Conservative vote (combined, they would easily have defeated the Independent). In the third seat, also formerly a safe Conservative seat, UKIP ran first, pushing the Conservative Party into third place, and with UKIP getting more votes than the three other parties combined.
The Conservative Party’s headaches in the UK will be the Republican Party’s headaches in the US if Boehner moves forward with his insane amnesty plan.
I agree, and would add that it is not just amnesty for unknown millions. The various immigration proposals backed by the Chamber of Commerce and corporatist Republicans, not to mention nearly every Democrat, contain provisions for massively increasing legal immigration and foreign guest workers (by ~3 fold) who all could eventually get permanent residency.
By all true employment numbers, we are in a depression. We have 90-100 million who’ve dropped out of the work force. Half of college students cannot find jobs, especially in their fields. Yet these dirt-bags want to flood the country with foreign labor, including giving a green card to every foreign STEM student who graduates from a US university even though currently there are twice as many STEM grads as there are jobs available. These are many of the best-paying jobs.
It is simply inconceivable that they would do this to those they are charged with representing.
During the glory days of UNC athletics this would never have been reported. Now look at all the time and money that will be spent spinning these athletes into being Rhodes Scholars. The real tragedy here is the cost of smoothing this over.
In the end it is the taxpayers of North Carolina who will suffer. We spend much money each year on UNC and deserve winning teams. Most people do not care how well they read as long as they can read “Final Four” or “Orange Bowl.”
This will destroy what is left of our Constitutional Republic. Warren Buffet is putting out a billion dollar prize for anyone who gets the brackets correct all the way through the NCAA basketball tournament as a great distraction. He is preventing the Keystone Pipeline so oil can continue to be transported on his trains.