Schwarzenegger Praises “Vigilantes”
I like to think we can finally put to rest the Real RepublicansTM concerns that the Governator is a RINO. If you can judge a man by his enemies, here’s what Hispanic race-baiter Larry “Nativo” Lopez had to say about Schwarzenegger’s praise of the Minutemen:
“I think we’re seeing the real Arnold Schwarzenegger. The mask has now fallen,” said Nativo V. Lopez, state national president of the Mexican American Political Assn. “Those of immigrant stock should have no illusions about what his real sentiments and feelings are toward them.”
Uh-oh. I’m of immigrant stock myself. Worse, most of that stock is European - the same continent the Governator hated enough to leave himself. I guess I’d better watch my back.
Meanwhile, Heckle and Jeckle proved that old saying about stopped clocks, securing a promise from our non-RINO Governor that the President has some ’splainin’ to do:
Asked by the hosts of the “John and Ken Show” why Bush called the volunteers vigilantes, Schwarzenegger said: “I really cannot tell you exactly what his thinking is. I’m sure he’s trying to solve the problem as well as anyone can. And he maybe has more information than you and I have. Why he has a policy about the border the way he has, I don’t know. I’ve not had that conversation with him.
“But the next time I see him, I will have that conversation.”
UPDATE: True to form, Professor Bainbridge accuses the Governator of “pulling a Pete” by opposing illegal activity. Perhaps he forgot that Pete himself got handily re-elected that way. Banbridge also links approvingly to President Bush’s slander of the Minutemen as “vigilantes,” and calls everyone who supports secure borders a nativist (!), a racist and a nut. Yawn. But a courtesey heh for the unintentional irony in using a term like “nativist” to describe an individual who isn’t even a native.
UPDATE x2: The Puppyblender has a much more sensible take on legal vs. illegal immigration (hint: they’re not the same).
April 29th, 2005 at 7:30 am
Aren’t the 15-minute men over though?
April 29th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
[...] tion and border security policy. Update: The Washington Post weighs in here. Update #2 xrlq says the latest may assuage any RINO (Republican in Name Only) concerns that s [...]
April 29th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
More about Nativo here.
April 30th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
As Hewitt points out, this issue a third rail.
Yes, Wilson got re-elected this way, getting massive support in Southern California to overcome the SF vote. But at some cost: since then the Republican Party has taken lump after lump. Mainly at the hands of new American citizens of Mexican descent, who at one point (up to, say, 1994) trended Republican.
I happened to catch a bit of Fox today, on the Minutemen. Smack dab in the middle of the screen was a Confederate flag. Not the image I’d want associated with my election campaign.
Republicans should be very careful allying with nativists and worse. Ideally, we’d be for substantially increased immigration quotas for Mexico and Central America, and strenous efforts to eliminate, curtail and penalize illegal immigration. Massive deportation, seizure and incarceration for repeats, coupled with a paid(!) amnesty program might be a way out. As in, you can stay, but there’s a $20,000 fine.
I’m all for getting rid of illegals. But the massive influx ought to tell us that what we are doing cannot work. Maybe we should look for something that does. And folks who fly the Confederate battle flag on TV are not what I have in mind.
April 30th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
Oh come on.
Pete Wilson sucked too, and started the internecine war by running liberal Republicans in the primaries against sitting conservatives.
Actually wanting the nation’s immigration laws enforced does not a conservative make.
April 30th, 2005 at 10:53 pm
I’d be more impressed if Arnold fired every third person in Sacramento than engage in press-conference conservatism.
April 30th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
No, but it does make you more conservative than half the Republican Party, including the President.
May 1st, 2005 at 8:50 am
Don’t forget that most of us are “illegal drivers,” as we speed frequently, don’t come to a full stop at stop signs.
The immigration laws are made to be broken because they are incredibly inefficient and self-serving to one group of people at the expense of another.
To illegal immigrants, U.S. immigration policy is as absurd as the United Nation’s impossible, legalistic positions on the war on terror are to the U.S.
Each illegal immigrant is the moral equivalent of the U.S., at the beginning of Iraq War II, saying to the U.N. “yes, you say what I’m doing against the law, but morally, it’s better for the people I care about. Your law is stupid and self serving, and by breaking it I’m helping lots of people I care about, while only hurting your desperate desire to appear in control.”
Just as the U.S. wasn’t a common criminal for breaking the law in one particular case, illegal immigrants are oftn not common criminals, but hardworking people making a moral choice to disregard one particular law that does their loved ones more harm then good.
May 1st, 2005 at 12:35 pm
[...] om aborting a child. Outside the Beltway reports on the story of the Naked Nanny. XRLQ says we should all judge Schwarzenegger on the enemies he has made. [If you ha [...]
May 1st, 2005 at 10:45 pm
Hmmm … Clam may have a point — look at the sponsors of HJ Res 41, which would amend the Constitution to require one parent to be legally resident for a baby to be a native-born citizen: Christoper Shays is one of only 3.
More on Interocitor.
May 3rd, 2005 at 1:28 pm
[...] Times story about the emerging immigration deal in Congress. Xrlq may have said it best here: …If you can judge a man by his enemies….. True to form, Pro [...]
March 26th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Hello,
I am looking for the transcript of Arnold talking candidly to one of his aids regarding illegal immigration. He drops a couple of F bombs during the conversation and criticizes the amnesty lobby for distorting the various problems associated with illegals in the U.S. The transcript was published in Harpers magazine in Feb or Mar and reflects a conversation from May 2006. If you know of this transcript please email me a link. I would really appreciate it!
Best,
Fielding Greaves