Thursday, January 17, 2008
HUCKABEE: SLAP ILLEGALS OUTA HERE
Elections piece by
Grant Swank
Illegals go home!
Mike Huckabee gets slaphappy now that he’s facing South Carolina voters. It’s illegals exit. They’re breaking the law. America has to act. No more pussyfooting around. Enough is enough.
He’s got a nine points plan to do it, per The Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan. Nine points!
“’Some would say it’s a tough plan. It is, but it’s also fair and reasonable,’ Mr. Huckabee said.”
Who says compassionate Christian Huckabee can’t put his foot down once he stands tall in that Oval Office? So here goes, South Carolina. Get the point and put your ballot where you know it counts—with strength.
Huckabee knows he’s now got to go after John McCain. McCain’s wrestling with Common Sense Issues group and Vietnam Veterans Against McCain. Huckabee has to ride those waves now on the immigration press and he’s doing it. Nine points!
Common Sense is going after McCain on some abortion issues. Vietnam Veterans is going against McCain in saying he “turned his back on fellow prisoners of war in order to receive special treatment while in captivity in Vietnam.”
On immigration, McCain’s being cut up by “many voters saying he supports amnesty for illegal aliens and they point to his partnership with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, to try to pass a bill to legalize illegal aliens.”
So there you have it: abortion, Vietnam and illegals. Huckabee is charging into the vacuum, especially concerning those who are in this country against the law—illegal aliens.
“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday continued to move to the right on immigration during this year’s presidential campaign, signing a pledge to enforce immigration laws and to make all illegal aliens go home.
“The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement — something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan.”
If Huckabee is going to resurrect his Huckaboom, he’s got to move out from the middle of the pack. He’s got to get front center as he did weeks ago. So it’s on to South Carolina with gusto.
Huckabee thought he could count on all born again Baptists there to back him up. Or did he? Within the Southern Baptist Convention there are cliques against Huckabee because of this and that within the Convention. There is not a solid block of evangelicals backing Huckabee.
The Southern Baptist Convention has its own political tangles. And Huckabee is caught up in those twists and turns. To outsiders, it may look like Baptists are all standing as a mass for anything biblically fundamental. But when it comes to their own politics wrangling, they can stand at the front of the line. That includes Huckabee and his being a former Baptist pastor.
So go the complexities of denominationalism and politics.
“Mr. Huckabee has faced some of the same questions (on immigration), and yesterday’s pledge — signed at a press conference with Numbers USA Executive Director Roy Beck — was an effort to provide answers.
“It’s a major reversal from less than two months ago, when Mr. Beck told The Washington Times that Mr. Huckabee was ‘an absolute disaster’ on immigration during his time as governor. Americans for Better Immigration, another group Mr. Beck runs, has rated Mr. Huckabee’s record as ‘poor.’
“Mr. Huckabee fought for tuition breaks for illegal-alien college students, failed to complete an agreement to let state police enforce federal immigration law and criticized enforcement efforts both at the federal and state level.
“But Mr. Beck yesterday said Mr. Huckabee has made a number of key promises going forward, including to not grant illegal aliens long-term legal status; to reject a guaranteed right of return for those who go home voluntarily under his nine-point plan; and to not increase green cards as a way of allowing them to come back more quickly.
“’Probably, this is the strongest no-amnesty, attrition plan of any of the candidates,’ Mr. Beck said.”
Now the question is this: Can the public get this latest U-turn of Huckabee in time to vote in South Carolina for the “compassionate Christian”? And can Baptists pull together to cast their weight on the side of one who preaches the same Jesus they claim to serve?
“Numbers USA does not plan to endorse a candidate. The group has asked all of the candidates to sign the pledge, but Mr. Huckabee is the only one to do so.
“Mr. Beck said doing so will improve Mr. Huckabee’s rating on the issue, bringing him in line with Mr. Thompson, Mr. Romney and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California.”
Huckabee signed the pledge at a Christian campus—North Greenville University. There Huckabee exhorted his audience to do what was right, the latter including to scrutinize McCain on his immigration record so as to make Huckabee’s present-tense look powerful.
At the close of Huckabee’s presentation, those present held a prayer rally led by school President James B. Epting. The President made no fuzz about his support for Huckabee. In his prayer he prayed that God would be “’pleased that one who loves You is running for such an important position.’”
Time will tell if the rest of South Carolina gets the prayer.
HowardWasRight 
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