Graham Says Republicans Risk `Political Suicide' on Immigration

[deminks]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a8c5s6ESKKFc

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Lindsey Graham said his fellow Republicans will be committing ``political suicide'' if they push through Congress immigration legislation that focuses only on building walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting illegal immigrants.

``This is the defining moment for the Republican Party,'' Graham, of South Carolina, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. With Hispanics the fastest-growing group in the U.S., Republicans ``will lose our majority'' if Congress passes harsh penalties for illegal immigrants and fails to create a way of addressing the estimated 11 million undocumented workers already in the U.S., he said.

The immigration debate has split Republicans seven months before elections to decide control of Congress. Graham joined President George W. Bush in urging creation of a so-called guest worker program, while other members of the party, such as Representative James Sensenbrenner, say giving undocumented immigrants legal status amounts to rewarding law-breaking.

``If our answer to the fastest growing demographic in this country is that we want to make felons of your grandparents and we want to put people in jail who are helping your neighbors and people related to you, then we're going to suffer mightily,'' Graham said.

(end snip)

Face it, repuke, yours is a party of corruption, of hate, of abandonment, of fearmongering, and of extremism. Nothing, do you hear me, nothing is going to change your base overnight. You can't win without whipping the wingnuts into a frenzy of hate, racism, and death. So be proud, Sen. Graham, of your role in the downfall of America. Your name will be prominent among the executioners.

:rant:

[fooj]

1. If I had it my way...the rat bastard would be DISBARRED!

I want his ass on a platter...

[BootinUp]

2. I wish Graham would shut up and let them off themselves n/t

[allisonthegreat]

7. he is an embarrassment to the state of sc & the country...

i am a resident of south carolina and everytime he starts to speak on MSM i cringe...

[saltpoint]

3. They're not exactly running the table on Iraq, either.

I'm not sure the GOP has any issue at all that's really working for them. Foreign policy? Iraq generally and Abu Ghraib specifically put the screws on any moral leverage the president had there. Immigration is just one more issue the GOP is not leading on. Many of them are grandstanding on this pretty much the way they did on Terri Schiavo. They're out of focus and growing out of popularity on the issues.

And we're a half-year off from the 06 midterms. Hot dog.

[lovuian]

4. You have to chuckle you guys and be tickled pink

Bush open the borders and welcomed them all in... Corporations brought them in trunks and boat loads...

It was ok when they just worked for cheap wages but these people want to be citizens...

Bush created the problem which I agree with Graham this is the Republican nightmare which they created...I'm tickled to see them in such a quandry...

:rofl:

[Raine]

14. I know I am

I'm enjoying every minute of it. :rofl:

[wookie294]

5. The GOP's political suicide is happening in Iraq

Oh the JOY of it all!!

:bounce: :toast:

[David__77]

6. Lindsay says: "It's political thuithide."

He's such a queen! Born in Fruitville, South Carolina. Nothing wrong with being gay--I am. But this closet case is humorous.

[rigel434]

8. They are screwed either way ...

the Republican party is screwed no matter which way they choose on this. If they pass a guest worker bill, that will send the Freeper crowd up the wall, and they will not be at all motivated to vote in 2006. If they choose the harsh enforcement approach, then they lose the Hispanic vote like Graham said. They are screwed either way.

So who will be the House Majority leader in 2007- Pelosi?

[Lexingtonian]

10. on the McLaughlin Group on Friday

Pat Buchanan and Tony Snow both predicted that Republicans would withdraw the bills and give up on the matter for the year.

It's not just that passive and uninformed Hispanic voters will become active and align with Democrats to some unknown degree. The GOP is itself split between moderates and hardliners on both the border sealing and the guest worker program, and they can't afford the wedging among their own voters any bill creates.

But yes, internal wedge issue bills that are argued and then withdrawn are signs of a party that thinks it will lose control, but at the same time wierdly imagines it can still somehow defer that fate by clever manouvering. The 1994 conservative Democrats were the same way.

Pelosi has a winning hand in the House, there are simply too many Republicans in districts that are Blue or very close to tipping Blue whose moderate supporters are going to sit out November. The decisive numbers are in the Northeast and Great Lakes and Upper Midwest rather than the Southwest, but a bunch of districts in Southwestern suburbia are at the tipping point too.

The more intriguing question is control of the Senate. For that Democrats would need to win at least one seat, maybe two, in Nevada, Arizona, Virginia, or Tennessee.

[951-Riverside]

9. Wonderful!

but either way they are screwed thanks to Georgie Boy he's the one who started this. :)

[calimary]

11. HELL yeah! Oh, let's hope so!

Hey, graham, that sounds JUST fine to me.

ANYTHING that splits the republiCONS or leaves them in disarray or in confusion about where to stand on an issue (and I'm fairly sure lindsay graham is considering what, about this issue, will be good for his frickin' PARTY, not what might be good for immigrants and those who are involved with them) is good for the rest of us.

The more disarray and disruption and confusion among the ranks of the enemy, the better. DIVIDE AND CONQUER.

[AlinPA]

12. Well said. Thanks.

[VegasWolf]

13. Maybe Graham and Lieberman should switch sides. nt

[boobooday]

15. Suicide by the GOP would be a welcome relief

From several years of homicide.

[oscar111]

16. "republican party should wind up being banned" M Malloy?

did he really say that?

my raido's reception was poor, so i am not sure he did. anyone know?