Monthly Archives: April 2015

22 Nice Try, Ted

Strange New Dissembling: One of Ted Cruz’s obstacles, when trying to appeal to the GOP base on immigration, is a September 2013 New York Times piece giving him a pat on the head** for staking out a “middle ground” on immigration. As the Times told the story, this middle ground involved giving current illegals work permits, but not citizenship. Here is the relevant passage:

Asked about what to do with the people here illegally, however, he stressed that he had never tried to undo the goal of allowing them to stay.

“The amendment that I introduced removed the path to citizenship, but it did not change the underlying work permit from the Gang of Eight,” he said during a recent visit to El Paso. …

Mr. Cruz said recent polling indicated that people outside Washington support some reform, including legal status without citizenship.

Now, in 2015, Cruz’s spokesman claims (to MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin) the Senator’s work permit amendment was merely a parliamentary device designed “to show that Dems won’t allow any reform without pathway to citizenship.”  It had “nothing to do” with actually supporting work permits for illegals.

This seems like transparent BS to me. Cruz was clearly basking in whatever warm feelings the Times and others would give to a pol who supports legalizing illegals with work permits — as an actual solution, not just a parliamentary trick. Yes, that doesn’t mean he would have supported the underlying Gang of Eight bill if the citizenship provisions had been removed. (There was a lot in the Gang of Eight bill.) It does mean he thought it was a significant policy initiative for him to propose legalization without citizenship — as if this would somehow reduce the incentive to come here illegally. (The Times‘ characterization: “He said he was against naturalization because it rewarded lawbreakers and was unfair to legal immigrants. It also perpetuates illegal crossings, he added.”) But, of course, the ability to work and raise your family here legally — which work permits provide — is the main incentive for border-crossers. Citizenship is just icing on the cake.

But you can read the New York Times piece and make up your own mind. …

P.S.: It’s also worth noting that, at the time, pushing a “non-citizenship” form of legalization (and making a big deal of that concession to appease the GOP base) was the amnesty lobby’s main strategy for getting a bill past Congress. That’s the main reason you’d put the option on the table — as part of a cynical plan to sneak through “Amnesty First.”

P.P.S.:  If Cruz now thinks the Times reporters gave his views a false spin — which has been known to happen! — did he object at the time?

P.P.P.S: Cruz’s actual position, underneath all the righteous muddling, seems to be a) unlike Scott Walker he is not skeptical about the effect of legal immigration on native wages, etc.; b) Like Marco Rubio, he would have an amnesty “once we demonstrate we can secure the borders,” whatever that means (and figuring out what it means is the crux of the issue) and c) Unlike Rubio, for Cruz citizenship wouldn’t be part of that amnesty. (That might please the base but risks creating an unsustainably huge cohort of mostly Latino second-class legal residents.) ***

P.P.P.P.S.: The really annoying thing about Cruz is the air he gives that he’s so smart, he’s figured it all out and everyone else hasn’t. He gave that impression to the NYT in 2013. His team gives that impression to Benjy Sarlin now.  But if you combine those two impressions you’re left with the sense that Cruz is hiding the ball, trying to please everyone at the expense of clarity, like any standard pol.

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** — “Strange New Respect,” in formal conservative terminology.

*** — Cruz’s campaign website doesn’t say much about immigration, as far as I can see, except for a call to “streamline our legal immigration system.” Weak!

7

Here’s @nytimes piece on Cruz’s “middle ground.” Does it seem like he’s embracing work permits to you? It does to me. nyti.ms/19MvQ6S

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Cruz spox now trying to distance him from NYT “middle ground” article saying he’s for work permits. Tough sell on.msnbc.com/1Er6SKH

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Fast track in trouble: Gee, after the “Fu_ket List” Congress doesn’t trust Obama. Who could have predicted? politico.com/story/2015/04/…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Cruz, still diggng-“I am a proponent of immigration reform.” Sometimes you finesse it & sometimes you’re just muddled newsmax.com/Newsfront/Ted-…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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How about “To Be Sure” button for Twitter–lets you store all the 2BS grafs off-tweet while you focus on trolling! slate.com/articles/techn…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Useful rundown of the various lawsuits against Obama’s amnesties/work permits bna.com/immigration-ro…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Narrowly targeted, demographically (but good): “When I Write My Master’s Thesis” John K. Samson youtube.com/watch?v=_S5UpG…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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“Are campaigns simply getting off to a later start now?” Not a @Slatepitch! 53eig.ht/1GC1h4Y

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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Interesting, but it’s a @ppp poll …. /// “Scott Walker up double digits in Iowa” wtim.es/1DUFph2

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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“Insiders: Common Core is Jeb Bush’s ‘No. 1 problem'” That’s the headline on Politico‘s latest survey of GOP “insiders” in Iowa and New Hampshire. The trouble is Politico doesn’t seem to even have asked the “insiders” about Jeb Bush’s position on immigration.** So Politico has no way of knowing which of Jeb’s problems insiders think is No. 1. … Moral: If you limit the choices, you get the answer you want! No surprises. Fashionably Kazakhstanish! … P.S.: Is the Establishment Consensus Machine already in pre-mortem mode, prophylactically steering blame for Jeb’s loss to Common Core and away from his embrace of the Gang of 8? [That’s a crude, paranoid and unsophisticated view of Washington–ed. So it could be right then!]

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** — Politico apparently doesn’t publish the full survey. At least I can’t find it. If you can, let me know! A Twitter query of author James Hohmann produced no response. ..

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I note that Lanny Davis’s denial re: Orgy Island is less than convincing breitbart.com/video/2015/04/… Raises as many questions as it answers!

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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I think my WHCD tweet was taken out of context. Wait, there was no context. Just ineptly written. Here’s full version kausfiles.com/2015/04/25/151…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

11

UNDERNEWS! Imus to Lanny Davis: “[D]id Bill ever take you to orgy island?”

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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.@WSJ sez economy helped “especially” by importing “skilled”? Does open-borders theory distinguish skilled/unskilled? on.wsj.com/1bqdSgP

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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“Indeed there’s no campaign drama at all … ” nym.ag/1HTVDy8

| 10 years ago on Twitter

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I’d forgotten how toxic Rubio aide’s gaffe was — in essence: ‘American workers aren’t star performers. Screw ’em.’ dailycaller.com/2013/06/17/rub…

| 10 years ago on Twitter

11

I wrote about Scott Walker and now Kohl’s ads are popping up on my computer.

| 10 years ago on Twitter

6

Remember how Gangof8 had all those press events “talking about how great” they were (Sen. Leahy’s words)? Good times! newyorker.com/magazine/2013/…

| 10 years ago on Twitter