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Stephen Colbert took on the Heritage Foundation and Jason Richwine, the author of their racist so-called "immigration study" -- which made the claim that "the average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations" -- as only he can on his show this Tuesday evening.

As Stephen noted, Heritage is attempting to put some distance between themselves and Richwine now that he's resigned. Case in point being their VP of communications, Mike Gonzales, who put up a blog post stating:

Dr. Richwine did not shape the methodology or the policy recommendations in the Heritage paper... The dissertation was written while Dr. Richwine was a student at Harvard, supervised and approved by a committee of respected scholars... Its findings do not reflect the positions of The Heritage Foundation or the conclusions of our study...

Colbert wrapped things up by explaining how they're attempting to have it both ways with that ridiculous statement:

COLBERT: Now, Heritage is saying they find no credence in Richwine's dissertation, which they are careful to point out was "supervised and approved by respected scholars" at Harvard. In other words, Richwine's paper, which says that today's Hispanic immigrants have low IQs and will for several generations, dooming them to failure is reprehensible.

And had no influence on this paper, co-written by the same guy, which says Hispanic immigrants are a burdensome underclass and will be for several generations, because they're doomed to failure.

Because this one is based on hard numbers, unlike this one, which is an offensive screed with no credibility, approved by Harvard, so it must be pretty good.

These two papers are totally different. It's like apple pickers and orange pickers... which by the way, we desperately need.

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Marco Rubio claims he doesn't like or want to be racially profiling anyone, but he might be willing to make an exception for Muslim students. Nothing like watching him buy into the fearmongering and Islamophobia that's gone into high gear over at Faux "News" since the bombing attack last week.

After Boston, Rubio Entertains The Idea Of Not Granting Visas To Muslim Students:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday suggested that, given the attack on Boston carried out by two immigrants, he would consider barring young foreign Muslims from getting student visas to come the United States.

Prompted by host Neil Cavuto to address how the attack by the Tsarnaev brothers — neither of whom came to the country on student visas — had influenced immigration reform, Rubio said that he was willing to consider Fox News Host Bob Beckel’s suggestion that anyone who observes Islam should not get a student visa:

CAVUTO: Senator, there are some getting leery of all the Muslim students in America. Bob Beckel is among those saying stop grants visas, others speaking about slowing down the number getting into the country. What do you think?

RUBIO: We need to be open to changes that provide more security. I don’t like profiling anybody or singling or generally leading, on the other hand student visas are something this country does because it’s in our national interest but you don’t have a right to a student visa. I’m not prepared to take a firm position on restriction. I want to learn about what might have worked to prevent past attacks.

Islamophobia has been pervasive in the responses to last week’s attack on Boston. Read on...

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.

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Jon Stewart called out the bipartisan "gang of eight" in the Senate and their recent efforts to "reform" our immigration laws.

Jon Stewart: Path to citizenship ‘a barrier that immigrants will not be able to get past’:

Stewart noted the bill provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But he mocked the lengthy and arduous process that undocumented immigrants would be required to endure to be allowed to apply for citizenship. Visa holders who can demonstrate regular employment could apply for permanent legal residency after ten years, but would have to wait another 3 years to apply for citizenship.

Stewart pointed out the bill also requires all employers to use the “E-verify” system before the path to citizenship is even implemented, something that would be completely out of the control of those seeking citizenship.

“Congratulations, Congress,” he remarked. “It sure as hell ain’t amnesty. But by creating this path to citizenship, you’ve finally built a barrier that immigrants will not be able to get past.”

Stewart and his "Senior Immigration Correspondent" Al Madrigal followed up with some additional examples of why the GOP's efforts at minority outreach aren't going so well these days.

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From ABC's This Week, Sen. Jeff Sessions was happy to do a little fearmongering over the effect of more legal immigration on our economy and cites a flawed study from a right-wing anti-immigration group while doing it. Republican Senator Blatantly Lies and Claims More Legal Immigration Is Bad for the Economy :

The conflict within the Republican Party on immigration was fully exposed when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) made the opposite point on Fox News Sunday, “When with we reform our legal immigration system, we get these people that are already here now paying their taxes and not taking anything out of the system, this will be a net positive for the country economically now and in the future.”

Rubio was making the argument to his fellow Republicans that they can get something for nothing by increasing legal immigration, but both liberal and conservative analysts agree that adding more legal immigrants will be good for the economy.

Sen. Sessions was relying on a paper from the anti-immigrant Center For Immigration Studies (CIS). The right wing group arrived at their conclusion that immigration reform would have a net negative impact by not counting the 11 million immigrants that already illegally in the country.

Republicans like Jeff Sessions are preaching to a vanishing choir. Read on...

As Sen. Chuck Schumer rightfully explained during the segment, what's driving down wages are those working in the shadows right now. Republicans like Sessions don't want a path to legalization for these immigrants because they don't want them voting and they like the cheap labor for business. I don't pretend to know what the legislation is going to look like that comes out of the Senate this week, but I do have no doubt that whatever their starting point is, Republicans will do their part to muck up the works and make it worse.

Full transcript below the fold.

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QOTD from Marco Rubio on this Sunday's Meet the Press:

And I think the best way to do that is for the Republican Party to prove, as I think we can, that we are the party of upward mobility. We are not the party of the people who have made it. Certainly we don't begrudge people who have made it. We celebrate what they've done. And in America, we've always celebrated success.

But we are the party that stands for the people who are trying to make it, the people who are trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home, who are trying to give their kids a better life.

Riiiigggghhht. I don't think you could say the majority of those in the Congress other than the Progressive Caucus in the House and a few I could count on one hand in the Senate are looking out for most of us these days, but Republicans have shown by their actions for a long time now just who they represent, and it's definitely those "who have made it" -- or in other words, the 1 percent.

Full transcript below the fold.

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I didn't think it was possible, but the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan contradicted herself in such an obvious, head-spinning manner on this Sunday's Meet the Press, that it was even too much for guest host Chuck Todd to stomach.

Here's what she said about gun control and why it didn't get through the Congress:

PEGGY NOONAN: I think a big part of this story is that people don't trust Congress. After Newtown, there was a great bubbling feeling of, "My goodness, there must be at least some things we can do legislatively to make this whole gun situation better." If the Congress, if the Senate had moved quickly on discrete, small bills, having to do with background checks, I mean quickly, in the weeks after Newtown--

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Despite Sen. Lindsey Graham's optimism regarding a deal on immigration being passed by Congress, now that labor and the Chamber of Commerce have resolved a dispute over a low-skilled worker program, I'll believe they're going to get something done when I see the House actually vote for it.

Graham: Immigration reform deal could be ‘rolled out next week’:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators working on an immigration-reform bill, said Sunday the group had agreed on a deal to be unveiled soon and that he was confident the bill would eventually be signed into law by President Obama.

“We’ve got a deal,” said Graham on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “2013 I hope will be the year we pass bipartisan immigration reform, signed into law.”

Graham said lawmakers still needed to finish writing the legislation.

“It has to be drafted, it will be rolled out next week,” he said.

The bipartisan group first unveiled their framework in January and has been negotiating over the details, including a path to citizenship and tougher border security measures.

There is growing momentum on Capitol Hill to pass immigration reform this year, with a bipartisan House group also working on unveiling their own proposal, which has already secured the general support of leaders from both parties. [...]

“I believe it will pass the House because it secures our borders and controls who gets a job,” Graham said Sunday of the forthcoming Senate plan. “I think it will pass both houses, we’re going to need the president’s support. I’m proud of the work product and look forward to rolling it out.” [...]

“Conceptually we have an agreement between business and labor and between ourselves,” Graham said. “As to the 11 million [existing illegal immigrants], they will have a pathway to citizenship but it will be earned, it will be long, it will be hard, but I think it is fair.”

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From this Thursday's opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference 2013, Texas Gov. Goodhair apparently decided that the "stupid party" could use a little more help with that Hispanic outreach program of theirs: Rick Perry: Immigrant Release Is A ‘Federally Sponsored Jailbreak’:

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry decried immigration authorities for releasing several hundred detainees in response to sequester cuts.

President Obama's handling of the sequster "would be laughable if he hadn't taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point," he said. "When you have a federally sponsored jailbreak, --and dont get confused that's exactly what this is, a federally sponsored jailbreak -- you cross the line from politics as spin to polics as craven form of cynicism where everything goes."

White House officials say the decision was made by ICE independently. Many detainees are not held on criminal grounds and Immigration officials say they only released low risk individuals, not anyone who was required to be held for serious charges.

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Heaven forbid we're ever going to see John McCain admit that there might just be a problem with the nativist base of his party -- that they've been whipping hatred in for years now over the immigration issue -- that McCain found himself confronted with at his recent series of town hall meetings.

McCain ‘Proud’ Of Debate At Town Hall Meeting:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Sunday defended a confrontation with an angry voter at a town hall meeting over immigration reform, saying, "that's what town halls are supposed to be about -- that's why they're always packed."

"We don't screen anyone who comes to our town hall meetings," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Now I didn't believe that person was correct with his facts so I fired back at him. And people said, 'Good, that's what we want to hear, this is a debate we want to hear.' So I'm proud of that, and if anybody doesn't like it, then you don't have to come to the town hall meeting."

The tensions in McCain's town hall meeting provoked speculation about whether opposition from the conservative base of the GOP would make it impossible for lawmakers to reach a deal on immigration reform. McCain denied Sunday that this was the case.

She didn't ask him if he was also proud of calling one of his constituents a jerk or not.

Sadly no amount of bad behavior with holding up cabinet appointments out of spite or their fake Benghazi outrage is going to keep Senator Hothead from being given another appearance on the Sunday shows.