So Republicans, how's that minority outreach program of yours going? It seems xenophobes like Kris Kobach haven't learned anything from his buddy Mitt Romney's loss in the presidential election.

Big Surprise: Kris Kobach Still Believes in Self-Deportation:

Remember how the Mitt Romney-espoused "self-deportation" rhetoric was supposed to end up in the dustbin of history following President Obama's huge margins among Latino voters back in November? Apparently no one told Kris Kobach.

The Kansas secretary of state and intellectual author of harsh laws in states like Arizona and Alabama was back at it again earlier today, this time at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on the Gang of Eight's immigration bill. In response to questions from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kobach said that "self-deportation is not some radical idea. It is simply the idea that people may comply with the law by their own choice."

GOP Immigration Guru Insists DREAMers Should Self-Deport:

Speaking at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, Kobach insisted that DREAM eligible applicants, many of whom have lived in the United States for most of their lives, should not be rewarded for the “sins of their parents.” Instead, DREAMers should go back to their parents’ country of origin, Kobach said, and “get in line with the rest of their countrymen.” “That just defies basic compassion,” Durbin shot back, pointing to to Gabby Pacheco, an undocumented immigrant brought to America at the age of eight from Ecuador, who was testifying alongside Kobach. “She’s never known any other country,” Durbin explained, “this is her home.” [...]

Kobach responded by reviving self-deportation, arguing that “if you ratchet up the penalties for violating the law, people choose to leave.”

But Durbin predicted that the momentum has shifted from deportation to reform after the 2012 election. “Ultimately the voters have the last word. The voters had the last word on self-deportation on Nov. 6, so we’re beyond that now,” he said.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Color me not shocked that the Republicans' xenophobia and constant demonizing of immigrants is coming back to bite John McCain in the rear end. McCain Jeered At Town Hall After Opposing Mass Deportation:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) got an earful from his constituents in his home state while defending his bipartisan immigration plan at a town hall.

According to the Associated Press, an "angry crowd" reacted negatively as McCain described his proposal to grant a path to citizenship for many of the country's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. From their writeup:

“There are 11 million people living here illegally,” he said. “We are not going to get enough buses to deport them.”

Some audience members shouted out their disapproval.

One man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.

McCain urged compassion. “We are a Judeo-Christian nation,” he said. McCain’s other town hall meeting took place in Green Valley, south of Tucson.

TPM has more here as well with some of the tweets from the local reporters who were covering the event: John McCain Questioned About Immigration In Arizona Townhall.

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After giving his viewers a little reminder of what the Republicans sounded like during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race and their blatant race baiting and fearmongering over "illegal immigrants" Jon Stewart took Sen. John McCain and his buddies to task for their "craven political calculation" to try to "squeeze out enough votes" to make states like Nevada competitive again with their flip-flop on passing some sort of immigration reform.

Stewart brought on his correspondent Al Madrigal for his input as to whether the Republicans are going to be successful in their endeavor and Madrigal wasn't too optimistic, given that they appear to be holding their noses while doing what's obviously just politically expedient rather than something they actually support and due to the length of time that "Latinos hold grudges" and who are not going to forget any time soon the way they've been treated by Republicans.

When Stewart asked if there was another demographic they might have any more luck with in the future, like African Americans or women, Madrigal's fellow correspondent Jessica Williams interrupted the segment and put in her two cents about the fact that Republicans aren't going to have any luck there either, especially after remarks like those from "legitimate rape" Todd Akin and the House Republicans deciding to hold their annual retreat -- where they were supposed to be focusing on minority outreach -- at a former slave plantation.

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Any time I hear Rep. Marsha Blackburn start talking about "adult conversations" and Republicans needing to pay attention to their tone on any topic, I'm reminded of this little hissy fit she threw on the floor of the House just after the health care bill passed. Blackburn appeared on MSNBC's The Cycle and was asked about the immigration proposal put forth by a group of Senators this Monday and the fact that Republicans have been losing Latino voters in droves over the last few election cycles.

Her response was that they need to do a better job of getting their message out to the voters and that "sometimes their messengers aren't as good" or maybe they just haven't repeated their message enough times to be getting through to the voters. If she thinks the GOP needs some better messengers, maybe she ought to take a good look in the mirror and start spending a little less time throwing flames in front of the cameras.

And note to Rep. Blackburn, as Susie pointed out this Monday... the problem is not your messaging. It's you. She was all smiles for this interview but repeating the same rhetoric we've been hearing out of her for years now. You'd better secure the border first, even though migration from Mexico is at zero or below. No amnesty. Fix ICE even though we've had record deportations over the last year.

She and her cohorts have lots of obstacles lined up against making any meaningful changes to our immigration policy, regardless of all of the rhetoric we're hearing out of them right now.

Rep. Blackburn weighs in on new immigration proposal:

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) who joined the show, said that along with other Republicans she is waiting to see what the exact details are and what other options are available. Rep. Blackburn said overall the “good thing is people are coming out and saying let’s get this problem solved and I like the fact that it has gone from being a back burner issue to a front burner issue.” However, when it comes to the bill there are certain “must haves” that she believes need to be included.

We need to make certain that we have a secure border, amnesty should not be included as it has not worked before and will not work again, those that are in our country need to pay and right their wrongs, she said. Rep. Blackburn continued to say, “Finally, you have to make certain that ICE is going to clean up their act, and that the immigration service is going to finally be a service that works. We all appreciate legal immigration, we want to encourage legal immigration and bring those individuals that want to come to America to seek a better life, we want to make certain they have the ability to be here legally.”

The eight senators do agree with Rep. Blackburn when it comes to borders; they said that before we can start creating permanent residents, we must first work on securing America’s borders and launch an employment verification system that actually works. As Rep. Blackburn said during the show, “This is a time to be very honest with the American people, just to say this is where we are, these are the facts, help us work through to a solution. I have to tell you I certainly hope that we do.”

Talk is cheap. I will be surprised if anything actually gets through the House, but we'll see. And I certainly don't underestimate the ability for any of them to come up with a really bad bill that doesn't have any labor protections in it.

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Ed Schultz spoke to Mike Papantonio and Goldie Taylor about the Republicans latest dive off of the right wing cliff with the inclusion of White Nationalist Peter Brimelow at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, otherwise known as CPAC.

As the panel noted, this is who the Republican Party has become. Forget trying to mask their racism and xenophobia, it's just right out in the open now for everyone to see and we have three of their presidential candidates refusing to denounce the inclusion of this man and attending the same event. There was a time when this would have been considered quite astounding, but not any more.

Here's more from Right Wing Watch on Brimelow -- CPAC Set to Host White Nationalist Leader:

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, along with several Republican senators and congressmen, are set to appear at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference, but the GOP brass aren’t the only ones set to be at CPAC. As we’ve previously reported, CPAC will play host to anti-gay groups such as the Family Research Council, the birther leader of WorldNetDaily, and the Apartheid-nostalgic Youth for Western Civilization.

But that isn’t all.

Following speeches from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Michele Bachmann, CPAC is hosting the panel “The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity” with Peter Brimelow, the founder and head of VDARE.com.

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Keith decided to come back in from vacation to weigh in on the Shirley Sherrod incident in tonight's Special Comment. I agree completely with what he said at the end about Ms. Sherrod.

Olbermann: Only one of us in all of this, from the mountebanks to the presidential advisers to the unchallenging reporters, only one of us in all this, has done her job correctly.

You, Ms. Sherrod, know what "decisive action" is… and "how to respond… in this atmosphere."

And thank God somebody does.

Ain't that the truth? The lady is a class act. I'm glad the administration has realized the error of their ways but they threw Vilsack under the bus instead of admitting they had something to do with the firing; not that it excuses him allowing it or that it excuses the actions of USAD official Cheryl Cook who was the one that made Sherrod resign over the phone from the side of the road.

Rather than worry too much about what the White House did or did not do though, I'm glad to see the tactics of Andrew Breitbart and Fox exposed for once and the rest of the media being forced to take a closer look at how they do business. It's really ugly. It really needs to stop and we really need to push back against their divisive tactics. The administration didn't respond well, but then neither did the NAACP. People make mistakes and I'm sure they're all fully aware now of just how badly they screwed this up. And as Karoli noted the rest of the media that jumped on this quickly owes her an apology as well. As Keith notes in this comment, there's lots of blame to go around on this one.

The bigger problem that needs to be addressed is what do we do to push back against the Breitbarts of the world and against Fox's propaganda machine? Because as Rachel reminded us last night, they will do this again as long as they believe their tactics are going to work. This should mean that Breitbart is completely discredited, but I have very little faith in our media organizations to do the right thing with him. I know Fox won't. They've already proven that, but will other media outlets quit bringing him on the next time he has one of these doctored tapes or will they pay more attention when the next Breitbart comes along?

Keith's comment below the fold.

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From Guanabee.com: Puerto Rican Man Almost Deported To Mexico:

This is why Arizona SB 1070 will backfire: Immigration authorities in Berwyn, Illinois arrested Puerto Rican Eduardo Caraballo in a stolen car case, but when his mother posted his bail, he was detained because authorities didn’t believe he was a legal citizen. His mother brought his birth certificate, but Eduardo was unable to answer some questions about the island because he’s lived all his life on the mainland. Eduardo was detained for more three days and threatened with deportation–to Mexico.

I don't have any sympathy for car thieves if the man is guilty of what officials are potentially charging him of, but I don't want to see anyone who is a legal citizen deported to a country they were never a citizen of either. Three days to figure out this man was a United States citizen and that he should be tried in a U.S. criminal court if charges are pressed and not deported even after they got his birth certificate?

As Laffy said, "From the Department of Bound to Happen". I guess even if you show your papers that isn't good enough in some parts of Illinois now. Thanks Arizona. Looks like your xenophobia is spreading.

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How's that pandering working out for you President Obama? Sen. Get-Off-My-Lawn McCain is never going to be happy even if he sent the 6000 troops he's demanding. As Digby pointed out "it's paranoid, wingnut crap that has no bearing on reality". I agree with her here as well:

Mean Old Man McCain says we need 6,000 troops on the border, so I'm guessing President Goldilocks will say his "compromise" on this is "just right." But hey, ratcheting up xenophobia is so good for everyone right now, why not just pretend there's a huge problem that doesn't really exist? We don't have enough real ones apparently. After all, there are some Democrats who apparently think they need to show how much they hate Mexicans in order to win, so it's all good.

(Oh, and remember that while there's a huge "appetite" for expensive, stupid bullshit like this, there's none for extending unemployment benefits to the lazy bums who want to live like kings on 250 bucks a week from government rather than get a non-existent job.)

That money would be better spent doing something about this disaster in the Gulf as well. Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard on the other hand seemed pleased with the decision and was critical of the tone of McCain's rhetoric. I'm sure he knows full well we wouldn't see McCain acting like this if he didn't have wingnut J.D. Hayworth for a primary challenger.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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