Chris Matthews has a lengthy debate with his panel on the decision by the Democrats and the Obama administration to push forward with immigration reform and Chris Matthews doesn't understand why the Democrats would choose to push this issue before the mid-term elections. His Matthews Meter question is "Immigration a Smart Issue for Obama This Year?" and ten of his regulars say no and two say yes.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line gave his take on this:
The move comes amid signs that Dem leaders are moving forward more rapidly than expected with immigration reform, upending the political calculus of both parties heading into the midterms. By moving forward, Dems risk exacerbating the anger of the Tea Party brigade and alienating white swing voters, but they also energize a key portion of their base. The move also forces Republicans to choose between angering the Tea Partiers and alienating Latinos.
Obama has now pushed the Arizona issue to the front burner, perhaps forcing a more serious national conversation over it. Interesting.
Andrew Sullivan is the one person on the panel that thinks this is a good move on the part of Democrats. After what we just saw come out of Arizona with their new "show me your papers" law, I think he may be right. By moving the debate to immigration the Obama administration is going to force them to defend this over reach. I would hope that what Arizona is doing would be seen as offensive to anyone but the far right. There's nothing that's going to happen to get these teabaggers any more worked up than they are now already. The Republicans are upping the crazy and as Sullivan pointed out being their own worst enemies by siding with the extremists in their party and Obama is putting them a box with this move.
I'm waiting to see if they make the situation even worse if we get another Supreme Court nominee who is a minority and they act as badly as they did with Sotomayor before the midterm elections. The GOP cannot afford to lose every minority voter in this country but they look like they don't mind with the way they've been acting for the last year. I guess we'll find out shortly as we see how the politics play out in this debate.
We have seen the depth's that the GOP will go to get votes and make the big bucks. They have sold a bill of goods to 40 million Americans that don't have the morals or the intelligence to make decisions that involve others. For thirty years now I have wondered how many more things are the republicans going to do to hurt America before the republican voter understands and quits voting for lying greedy republican scumbags?
Maybe this will finaly be their waterloo! Maybe this will push their insanity over the top and the people will put them out.
I could not believe it when bush got appointed. I never thought he would get in for a second swipe at killing the country. I could not believe that there was one person in America stupid enough or filled with enough hate for the American people to vote for bush.
I guess I gave them to much credit, I underestimated how stupid and immoral these people really are. The last eight years brought me to the conclusion that republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
Same here. Once, appointed. But twice, WTF.. My rethug cousin told me he and his wife voted for the shrub because "he would keep us safe". Stupid is as stupid does with these people. They are still spewing the Freedom Fries line.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
Well it is dicey.
On an election year
It may lead to a heavy turn out of republicans and anti-immigration voters
And to huge turnouts of Hispanic-American voters, and immigration reformers
But the HA probably has many recent new citizens who traditionally are slow to exercise their franchise, as well as sub-groups like Cubans and Puerto Ricans who might agree with the anti-immigrationists.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Emanuel has Obama to push citizenship for illegal's is the same reason he had Clinton to do the same...
It is all About Emanuel getting votes for Obama and the democrats..
Personally I do not believe in giving citizenship to illegal's..
We HAVE become a nation of no laws..
Obama/Emanuel and the democrats no longer believe in our laws , than Bush/Cheney and the republicans have in the previous 8 years.
You do not see Obama/Emanuel and the democrats are not prosecuting Bush/Cheney and other criminals of the previous 8 years of criminal activity..
While what used to be American corporations have sent our manufacturing plants to Mexico , the citizens of Mexico which did not get those jobs have come to our country (illegally) to take the ones left..
Just try to go "illegally" to Mexico , Britain , Germany , Japan , France , Russia and ohhh yea CHINA and take their jobs...
None
...Arizona just made immigration the next big issue. I think regardless of what Dems or Repubs think they had on the burner next after bank reform, but my guess is it will now have to be immigration. It's about time in my opinion, no other issue is responsible for more conflict and crime in this country than illegal immigration and the drug-smuggling associated with it. Arizona is basically a war zone and unless we secure our borders and show our loyalty to those immigrants who choose to contribute to our society and economy, the problem will just spread to other states. Congress needs to take a humanistic and practical approach to illegal immigration in order to bring our country together and keep it safe.
Check out my blog Young Politics for more on immigration and other issues!
That was worse than all caps.
I'll have what he's having...
Why was Matthews referencing Glenn Beck as some kind of authority?
Yeah, I guess Obama is taking on immigration reform because he wants effective government. What a maroon, huh?
Seems a little off message for the "get the government out of my life" folks to demand the government grows and does more?
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
ideologically consistent. theyre just angry. emotions tend not to promote consistent behavior/thinking. sheesh.
The Republican Governor of Arizona just signed a bill instituting definitive Nazi/Fascist rule in her state and virtually everyone on the most popular cable "news" channel is championing it.
Obama and the Dems have no choice but to address the issue now. Their hand was forced by profound political and ethical considerations.
Oh noes! What will the teabaggers think about it? Mustn't make them angry or upset their delicate sensibilities! What ARE the Democrats thinking?
It doesn't matter whether they do, or not, they'll be raked over the coals by the Regressive Teabaggers. If they do, then they'll catch hell for expanding the role of the Federal Government into what should be a State's Rights issue. (see the People's Republic of Arizona). If they don't, then they get it for not securing our borders and preventing Terrorism, not protecting citizens from illegals causing traffic accidents on purpose, (isn't that right, McCain?) and allowing illegal aliens to take our jobs and go on welfare (oxymoron courtesy of the Tea Party), plus, according to rabid righwing politicians, use up all of our free emergency medical services. It's a lose/lose situation for the Democrats, so, let it alone and allow the fallout from Arizona to cause a truckload of trouble for the right.
The Chris Matthews Panel has no credibility as far as I'm concerned except they are paid an exorbitant amount of money to pretend to be today's journalists.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
They are SERIOUS journalists! You just don't understand. They have ACCESS damnit!
/sarcasm (just not funny sarcasm)
Immigration reform will make health care reform look like national single payer. He's going to get a bill passed that does next to nothing. My guess, some watered-down higher standard imposed on employers, and that's it. He'll call it comprehensive immigration reform and move on to incrementalizing the next issue. It's not a terrible strategy.
.
R E M E M B E R:
These people who bloviate so on Sunday Talk Shows, get paid to do so.
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
.
WHEN will it be a good year to tackle immigration reform?
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
The Mexican-American War never ended for Mexicans, or Americans.
The American Civil War never ended ended - for either side.
World War One never ended for the Palestinians, Iraqis, Armenians.
World War Two never ended either - US bases all over the world.
The Korean War never ended - just watch the news.
And now "we" are busy fighting new wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
.. and then there's the "War On Drugs" ..
War War War
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTBPdVpdMc
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
neither party has the political stones to get sensible immigration reform passed. instead it will be used for political strategy. i'm a proud democrat that would like to see/hear real practical solutions to this growing concern/problem. i still say the corporatists/lobbyists want government failure and continued dualism from both parties so business can be performed as usual more "cheap labor"...more destruction of unions....destroying/redefining the "middleclass"....more u.s. imperialism....level the playing field for economic globalization.
There is a good side to this action in Arizona, Tom Tancredo will really have to look over his shoulder now when he backs out of his drive-way!
A short, brown, foriegn-looking man in fancy clothes, he's bound to be profiled sooner, rather than later!
now is stupid for Democrats. If you think people were easily misled and demagogued on health care, you ain't seen immigration yet.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
...the Obama Administration should just go back to January 21, 2009 and start over. What is the problem? Is everyone afraid the Republicans will hurt themselves by having to obstruct so much legislation?
My guess is Obama thinks the congressional picture looks a lot better now than it will after next January.
Ignatius is a joke. Obama is going to make people mad at him? Give me a break. The Wingers who are mad at him are not going to be appeased by anything but his removal from office.
and a moron to boot. If anyone listens to the guy, they should nearly always go out and do the opposite of what he says.
me-oww!
I'm going with Andrew Sullivan on this one. I think Obama's hand was forced by Arizona's passage of the new law--and maybe that was their intent. In the end, it will rebound to the Democrats' advantage. It's an important issue that needs to be addressed seriously and a fair resolution needs to be found. Obama is trying to carve out a center-left realignment, so addressing this issue under him is a good thing.
However, there is a lot of wisdom in the comment that the public wants more intense focus on jobs and this could be a distraction from that. So maybe the best way forward is for the adminsitration to sue Arizona over this Papers Please thing now and the appointment of a bipartisan commission to craft a bill for December/January. In the meantime, focus on Wall Street reform and a BIG new jobs bill for August.
Congress and the WH had already announced they were pushing immigration back to next year in order to complete Wall Street reform and address climate change.
Then the Republicans decided to put immigration back on the front burner by passing a law that clearly is ethnically descriminatory and certainly unConstutional.
Since it is a problem that will be dealt with this year legally politically and in the media, the Democrats may just as well put it has their prime concentration.
But that's the Democrat's and Obama's fault. Of course.
A fortunate PR coup, for the RepoTaliban, was gained by Arizona preempting the oil leak in the Gulf and the effect that could have had on the public's involvement during climate change debate.
It seems like the same media talking heads who say the new Arizona racist ID law arose because of the failure of the federal government to deal with immigration law are also saying Obama's overreaching by trying to deal with it now. They really have a problem understanding that issues are complex. Like complaining about Obama's tackling health care when we're in a recession -- how can you not recognize that health care costs are a huge part of the economy, and the US-system of employer paid coverage makes them less competitive with foreign companies (so we should have single payer)? Why can't our huge government deal with multiple issues? Most of us multitask at work. Maybe if the republicans skipped a few tea parties, they might be able to read two bills in a single congressional session.
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