Immigration patriots—meaning real Americans—can only view the top GOP politicians in the Old Dominion with pity and contempt.
Goodlatte is a Christian Scientist; Cantor is Jewish. So we have one man who believes in the 19th-century version of Scientology, and another whose coreligionists have arguably wrecked U.S. immigration policy and are now pushing hard for the 2013 Amnesty/ Immigration Surge bill, trying to give the Left a major gift: more Democrat voters.
But let’s take these one at a time. Why did the Cooch, as he is known, get out the Stalinist cyber-erasers and wipe his website clean of immigration talk? As The Washington Post noted, he was, to some degree, what the Left disparages as a “hardliner” on immigration. He supported Arizona’s law that permitted police to check the immigration status of those stopped lawfully by police, and then issued an opinion that Prince William County’s cops could indeed inquire about the immigration status of those they stop. He even wanted, at one time, to end birthright citizenship.
But now as James Hohmann recently reported in Politico, his “immigration tone varies with venue.” [July 25, 2013]
Perhaps Cuccinelli fears a backlash from the state’s Leftist Catholics and their bishops, who peddle the lie that Catholic social teaching dogmatically requires assent to their nutty position on immigration.
But another possibility is this: The pro-homosexual, pro-abortion Left and Main Stream Media (where distinguishable) have successfully painted Cuccinelli (along with E.W. Jackson, the surprise black candidate for lieutenant governor) as religious extremists. This has panicked “moderate” Republicans into thinking Cuccinelli cannot win the election against Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a renegade Catholic leftist. With typical cowardice, they are bolting. Thus Bill Bolling, who quit the governor’s race after Cuccinelli’s forces took control of the state party’s nominating process, has formed the Virginia Mainstream Project to convince Republicans that the only important issues for Virginians are jobs and the economy.
By retreating on immigration, Cuccinelli and his consultants probably think they are lowering his profile on what is in some sense a “social” issue, at least as the Left portrays it. For the Left, and the MSM, immigration has nothing to do with jobs, the economy or the law; it’s all about feelings and what’s good for Paco and Pancho.
By scrubbing his site, Cuccinelli is implicitly conceding that his position on immigration is extreme. By extension, so then are his other solidly conservative views.
Indeed, Democrat McAuliffe now feels so little pressure on the immigration issue that he has just launched a “Latinos Con Terry” campaign aiming at Hispanics (and business donors) by supporting the DREAM Act and denouncing of Rep. Steve King—even though as Democratic Committee Chairman he advocated a much harder line. (Terry McAuliffe’s tough immigration talk in ’07, by Katie Glueck, POLITICO, July 29 2013). A Democrat hit group has just run an ad linking Cuccinelli to King; the new Cuccinelli, needless to say, appears to have ducked. [Democrats try to tar Ken Cuccinelli with Steve King’s brush, by Beny Sarlin, MSNBC.com, July 26 2013]
So that’s one solid win for the Treason Lobby Left.
On to Goodlatte. After years of toiling as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and fretting about the prices of corn and milk, Goodlatte now has a power job: chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. These guys matter. Ask Richard Nixon.
Thus, Goodlatte has the power to stop the Amnesty/ Immigration Surge juggernaut. But alas, no sooner was the Yankee Christian Scientist elected chairman than he announced that illegal aliens need to be “legalized.” Appropriately, Goodlatte broke the news at The Christian Science Monitor’s famous breakfast meeting for reporters. “There’s a broad spectrum between deportation and easy, special pathway to citizenship,” he said. Goodlatte proclaimed he wanted “to find a way to bring people out of the shadows and give them a legal status that will allow them to be better able to participate in our society.”[Immigration reform: A GOP point man envisions (circuitous) path to citizenship, By David Grant, February 27, 2013]
The only thing immigration patriots could say after that announcement was: “Well, that didn’t take long.” About 60 days, it was.
And now, with Cantor’s help, it’s the Kiddie Dream Act, on which Goodlatte held one-sided hearings July 22. This is an insidious move toward legalization under the cloak of GOP denunciations of the Senate’s full-blown Amnesty:
Goodlatte noted that it was part of the House Republicans’ “step-by-step” strategy on immigration reform. So far, his committee has passed four bills that overhaul some section of the nation’s immigration laws. And the House Homeland Security Committee has passed a bill on border security.
[Eric Cantor, Bob Goodlatte eye bill for undocumented children, By Seung Min Kim, July 11, 2013]
On C-SPAN’s Newsmakers, Goodlatte offered this plea for amnesty, albeit after the usual weasel words about border security:
I and other members are open-minded to the idea that they should have a way to come out of the shadows, to be able to work, to have their own businesses, to pay their taxes, to travel back and forth to their home country and elsewhere.[ Video] Key GOP House chairman open to citizenship path, by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY, July 11, 2013
“Out of the shadows”? These illegal aliens are out of the shadows—they’re in the New York Times, addressing the Democratic Convention, and visiting the President of the United States.
For Cantor’s part, Politico pointed to his speech in February at The American Enterprise Institute about his “Making Life Work” project: “It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home,” Cantor said. [Remarks by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, February 5, 2013]
So the fix is in. Amnesty for everyone who was knee high to a taco when they waded across the Rio Grande. Then forcing through Amnesty for the parents will be that much easier. Cantor and Goodlatte will lead the way. If you don’t think so, you don’t know the modern GOP.
Which, finally, brings up Obenshain. He, too, seems to have lost his marbles. He apparently thinks Muslims might vote Republican. Thus he issued this statement commemorating Ramadan on July 9:
I would like to wish all of those observing Ramadan in Virginia a blessed holiday. In the Commonwealth, the Muslim community has performed remarkable acts of service to their neighbors and those in need, particularly during this holy month. Faith and service to others above oneself are principles that have guided us in Virginia since our founding fathers. To all Muslim families who live, work, and worship in Virginia, I wish you Ramadan Mubarak.
Is Obenshain kidding? Does he really think “our founding fathers” motivate Muslims to service? An intern doped up on diversity at James Madison University may well have penned this nonsense, but it might seem early, as the Roanoke Times’ Blue Ridge Politics blog suggested, to start pandering to Muslims—they are a mere 1.2 million (0.8 percent) of the 146 million Americans registered to vote.
Obenshain even went to the Pakistani Business Association’s barbecue. We can assume they did not serve Virginia ham.
But Goodlatte’s main opponent in 2008 was a Muslim, Sam Rasoul. Virginia Democrats also ran a jihadist, Esam Omeish, for delegate in 2008, even after then Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine kicked the loon off a state immigration panel after his anti-Israel rants appeared on (Preview) YouTube. And Muslims pump huge amounts of money into Democrat candidates. Such is their influence in Northern Virginia that opponents of the expansion of a Saudi jihadist madrassa in Alexandria could not stop it. One Democrat who received the money told those opponents they were “bigots.” The jihadist academy’s valedictorian in 1999, by the way, was subsequently convicted of trying to assassinate President George W. Bush.
Obenshain, a Republican down to his DNA, just had to kowtow to this new group. Big tent, and all that. He sent the mash note to the state’s Muslims for one reason and one reason only: to prove he’s a different sort of conservative, the kind who loves “diversity”—even if, in the bargain, he reveals himself ignorant of that Muslims are unassimilable and will have his daughter wearing a burqa if they get their way.
Current conventional wisdom, with Barack Hussein Obama taking Virginia’s 13 electoral votes in 2008 and 2012, and Virginians’ sending two leftists to the Senate, is that the state is no longer Red—it is purple at best, and turning blue, thanks to the leftist megalopolis of Northern Virginia, and black enclaves of Richmond and Tidewater.
But in fact Mitt Romney lost the state only 47%-51% and got only 61% of Virginia whites, barely above his average nationally and far below his white share in other southern states. However, the Republicans in Virginia, morally routed by the Left, are doing nothing to alter that.
My guess: Obenshain will still likely win the race for Attorney General. But the Democrats and their leftist janissaries in the MSM probably have successfully painted Cuccinelli as a nutcase, with the help of “moderate” Republicans. [Three former Republican legislators endorse McAuliffe, by Julian Walker, PilotOnline.com, March 13, 2013]
Nor would there be much hope for stopping America’s immigration disaster if it were up the two top Virginia Republicans in the House—the Judiciary Chairman and Majority Leader.
Virginia gave birth to this nation. As goes The Old Dominion, so goes the United States.
When the U.S. dies, men like these Republicans will be the reason.
A.W. Morgan [Email him] is fully recovered from prolonged contact with the Beltway Right. He now lives in America.
