Republicans got that dead cat bounce from the new law in AZ.  However, now they might be going back to the old adage about being careful what you wish for.  Now the movers and the shakers in the GOP are worried that there might be a negative impact from this law and that some new potential base might be lost.

According to Politico.com:

Arizona’s immigration law has been an immediate hit with the Republican base, but some of the party’s top strategists and rising stars worry that the harsh crackdown may do long-term damage to the GOP in the eyes of America’s Hispanic population.

 From Marco Rubio to Jeb Bush to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Republicans who represent heavily Hispanic states have been vocal in their criticism of the Arizona law, saying it overreaches. Even Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a conservative hero for his win last fall, has questioned the law.

 And the party’s long-term thinkers worry that the Arizona law is merely a quick political fix which may create a permanent rift with the fastest growing segment of the U.S. electorate.

Most of us were unaware the Governor McDonnell had weighed in on the AZ  issue. 
The question people need to be asking themselves is will the new legislation help alleviate AZ’s violence.  If the answer is no, then they need another strategy.  They are making a bad mistake if they are curbing lawn care workers entering the United States.  Meanwhile, London burns. 
Specifically, Rove, Jeb Bush, and Governor Perry had the following to say:
“I think there is going to be some constitutional problems with the bill,” top Bush strategist Karl Rove said during a stop on his book tour. “I wished they hadn’t passed it, in a way.”

Jeb Bush was also blunt: “I don’t think this is the proper approach.”
 

Regardless of what GOP heavy-weights say, the many folks in AZ are pleased with their legislation. It must be that RINO Karl Rove who just doesn’t have what it takes to be a conservative Republican. [Sarcasm key pressed.]

54 Thoughts to “GOP Worried that Az Legislation Might Hurt both Fall and Future Elections”

  1. Starryflights

    I think the stupid Arizona law, in addition to being unconstitutional and ineffective, will also serve to alienate Hispanic voters, to the long-term detriment of the GOP. They will continue losing elections if they keep this up.

    There is a way to argue for border enforcement without attacking all Hispanics. The GOP hasn’t found it yet.

  2. Emma

    So, just like our President, these “rising star” Republicans don’t want to see our laws enforced because that would make them unpopular with lawbreakers and the supporters and enablers of lawbreakers.

    So what else is new?

  3. Second-Alamo

    Wait a minute, Obama is the one who doesn’t want to address CIR now even though the illegals in the streets are ‘demanding’ it. So who are they going to support now? Besides that’s old news, we have much bigger issues than worrying about a bunch of law breakers bitching that we might want our laws enforced.

  4. hello

    Let’s face it, no matter what anyone does about illegal immigration the left will attack as (fill in the blank). Which is exactly why the left just takes the easy way out and does NOTHING! Nothing is so much easier to do these days than something, isn’t that what the left is always crying about…

    Over 1/3 of Obama’s presidency has gone by so far without him looking at immigration at all. It appears that Cap and Tax is now more important to him and the left than immigration reform. He is just kicking the problem down the road, again. Well, the good people of Arizona deserve better than that when they are being kidnapped, torchered and killed on a daily basis by Mexican drug cartels.

  5. Someone please explain how this new legislation fixes or even comes close to fixing the Mexican drug cartel problem?

  6. Starryflights

    The good people of Arizona are not being kidnapped, torchered and killed on a daily basis by Mexican drug cartels.

    hello :Over 1/3 of Obama’s presidency has gone by so far without him looking at immigration at all. It appears that Cap and Tax is now more important to him and the left than immigration reform. He is just kicking the problem down the road, again. Well.

    Well, if memory serves, you Republicans had eight years to deal with illegal immigration. The one time George W tried to deal with it, his own party pulled the rug out from underneath him. As a result, the country ended up with – well – nuthin’. Good job. You’re not one to talk.

  7. Starry brings up a good point. 8 years. What did you Republicans get done with immigration? I seem to remember a CIR bill in 2007. No one liked anything suggested. $5000 fines and all sorts of hoops became ‘amnesty.’ Let’s face it, anything that allows 1 currently illegal immigrant to stay here, regardless of how tough, is ‘amnesty.’

    ‘Amnesty’ is a buzz word for ‘I am politically stubborn and uncompromising.’

    Repeat:

    Someone please explain how this new legislation fixes or even comes close to fixing the Mexican drug cartel problem?

  8. TWINAD

    MH,

    To answer your last question…it doesn’t.

    This is a very scary trend, but we’e seen it before in America: the Irish, the Italians,, the Jews, Southeast Asians have all been punching bags for the desperately insecure and frightened, and yet we’ve “survived” their attempts to ruin “our” America. Not to be complacent about it, but in the end bigotry will not prevail.

  9. “merely a quick political fix which may create a permanent rift”

    Sounds like Stewart and Stirrup here in good old PWC.

  10. Poor Richard

    “If you don’t like what Arizona did, the answer isn’t to
    scream ‘facist!’. It’s to demand that the federal government
    do its job, so that we can have the immigration system that
    both Americans and immigrants deserve”

    Ross Douthat “The Border’s We Deserve” (NYT op/ed 5-2-2010)

  11. Elena

    The drug cartel issue is real, but is wholly seperate from what this law does. I would suggest, in fact, crime will worsen. Thugs aren’t afraid of the law, but the people here working and raising children will be.

  12. @Poor Richard
    I think I will scream “fascist” and then continue to scream at the Feds.

  13. What is ‘doing it’s job?’ There are something like 10,000 border crossing agents. There are fences up.

    What is it exactly that we want the federal government to do? It has all turned in to rhetoric rather than directive.

    Do we want them to turn gestapo and run people out on trains? Do we want to violate our own laws and not allow children of illegal immigrants in schools? Do we want to overthrow our own law from 1865 that says children born in America are Americans?

    Afraid I have heard so much, I am not sure what we are asking the feds to do here.

  14. Poor Richard

    We want the Federal government to enforce Federal law.
    Is that too much to ask?

  15. hello

    Well, considering that I’m not a Republican I’m not sure who your talking to…

    What I LOVE about you all on the far left is when ever Obama is questioned on ANYTHING it’s the same exact 100% predictable response of “What did you Republicans… (fill in blank here)”. It’s almost comical to tell you the truth.

    I’m glad Bush’s amnesty plan failed, it failed with record low unemployment back then, it will fail with 10% unemployment now! Which is exactly why Obama is kicking the issue down the road, he is hoping that unemployment will come down so that he can push amnesty in his reform. Good luck with that… 🙂

    If he continues to drag his feet the Arizona law could spread like wild fire. Not only do 70% of voters in Arizona agree with the law but now 65% of voters in Utah would support their state modeling a similar law after Arizona’s. Texas will be introducing something very similar in January. And so on and so on…

  16. Be specific. What part of federal law are they not enforcing? If we are going to change things, we have to be very specific about what we want changed.

    It hit me today that the rhetoric is just that…rhetoric. If there is something specific that the feds aren’t doing, then let’s call them out on it.

    The Bush amnesty plan belonged to McCain/Kennedy as I recall. It never made it that far. Too much squawking and too much rhetoric. The rhetoric is just BS. Something people say and they don’t know what they are talking about.

    And it doesn’t matter who agrees with what….the courts are going to get involved as well as people who know that the legislation just passed isn’t going to do a darn thing for the violence. It was feel good/bad legislation. Feel good if you are white. Feel bad if you aren’t white. The fact remains, it doesn’t do anything for the increasing spill-over violence.

    Ok Hello, then you are a Democrat. Whatever makes you happy.

  17. Starryflights

    hello :Well, considering that I’m not a Republican I’m not sure who your talking to…
    Which is exactly why Obama is kicking the issue down the road, he is hoping that unemployment will come down so that he can push amnesty in his reform. …

    I wish.

  18. Rick Bentley

    “There is a way to argue for border enforcement without attacking all Hispanics.” yes. Pretty much what Arizona is doing.

    “The GOP hasn’t found it yet.” the GOP isn’t trying. Localities whose way of life is threatened are, and now an entire state is.

  19. Rick Bentley

    “Someone please explain how this new legislation fixes or even comes close to fixing the Mexican drug cartel problem?”

    Step 1A in any such fix is to have actual border enforcement and to deport people who violate it.

    With your question, it’s as if you came upon an open fence and cattle stampeding out the door. Soemone says, we need to close the door. You say, what’s the point? There’s already cattle outside the fence. Even if we close the fence, they’re still outside of it.

  20. Mando

    Politics aside, anyone wonder why exactly the current wave of illegal immigrants are storming the border? Can’t be for work.

  21. Mando

    “Five men suspected of smuggling drugs across the border ambushed a Pinal County sheriff’s deputy Friday in a remote area south of Phoenix, underscoring the border-related violence that has catapulted Arizona and its new immigration law onto the national stage.”

    http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/04/30/20100430pinal-county-deputy-shot-immigrant30-ON.html

    If part of “Immigration Reform” was to militarize (secure) the border, the problem would be solved.

  22. Mando, many of us would not have one problem putting the military on the border where the violence has been the worst.

  23. @Rick Bentley

    Not at all. I don’t see how the AZ FAIR law addresses the violence. That is the question and so far no one has answered the question. Everyone deflects back to securing the border. I don’t have a problem with that.

    What would it take for AZ to put its national guard along the borders where the violence has been so extreme?

    We have to treat drug violence differently than we treat people sneaking across to wash dishes, pick crops and do lawn care.

    Rick, you and I both know that it would be impossible to deport everyone not here legally. That isn’t even an option. How do you deport 10 million people? That is beginning to sound like you know who and you know what’s.

  24. Rick Bentley

    You encourage self-deportation by not treating illegal people as if they were legal, to the point of them openly working jobs that Ameericans can do and the point of our politicval machine encouraging them to think of this as a bilingual country where they will eventually gain Amnesty.

  25. Rick Bentley

    I hear that many of the illegal immigrants in Arizona are thinking of leaving. And illegal immigrants are threatening to boycott and to shop less (less crowds speaking Spanish in K-Mart, in Wal-Mart, at Chinese buffets …)

    Wonder if this will make the law more or less popular in Arizona?

  26. If they are leaving they are going to California, New Mexico, Colorado, or utah is what I am hearing.

    Business people have a real problem with the 1070 law.

    No one has yet told me how it is going to cut down on the violence.

  27. Wolverine

    A couple of news updates:

    (1) During a May Day celebration on Saturday in Santa Cruz, California, immigrant workers went on a riot, damaging about 15 local businesses by breaking windows, setting fire to them with torches, and writing “anarchist graffiti” on the walls.

    (2) Student protesters from the El Rancho High School District and the Whittier Union High School District in Southern California marched to Montebello High School in Pico Rivera, took down the American flag, raised the Mexican flag in its place, and then re-raised the American flag under it upside down.

    Stand by for a “Tea Party” announcement denying that they had anything to do whatsoever with these violent protests.

  28. Rick Bentley

    You can hardly deny that it will cut down on the violence in Arizona, anyway.

    Let them go to California, the most insolvent state in the nation, and drag it further down. Suits me.

  29. Wolverine

    I recently heard someone say that the Arizona law in many ways mirrors the immigration laws in Mexico, although the Arizona thing is by comparison very much weaker. As I said somewhere else, try being an illegal immigrant in Mexico. Jail time, Senor. Try coming back into Mexico illegally after being kicked out. Mucho jail time, Senor.

  30. Rick Bentley

    And the sick part is that instead of tending to their own problems their government is slways eager to comment and to send emissaries here lecturing Americans on how we should accept their poor with open arms. A sick little cottage industry that markets itself to left-leaning bleeding hearts and gives them the sound bytes they crave.

  31. Captain Idiot-Face

    So let’s see, Tea Party rallies are always peaceful, and the May-Day Reconquista marches ended in widespread vandalism….figures. I’d say any Republican who strongly supports the AZ law will not have to lose a wink of sleep at night worrying about getting elected. People are waking up, and you can’t stop it!

  32. Captain Idiot-Face

    Rick Bentley :
    I hear that many of the illegal immigrants in Arizona are thinking of leaving. And illegal immigrants are threatening to boycott and to shop less (less crowds speaking Spanish in K-Mart, in Wal-Mart, at Chinese buffets …)
    Wonder if this will make the law more or less popular in Arizona?

    The problem, Rick, is that they usually don’t leave, because the temptation of staying and taking all the entitlements that our government greedily takes from us to hand over to them is too strong. Usually it’s just a lot of idle threats by “undocumented Democrats”.

  33. Second-Alamo

    Here’s how you deport 10 million people: 200,000 bus trips at 50 people per bus, OR 50 bus trips at 200,000 per bus. I mean, have you seen how many people they can pack into a house!

  34. SA, you don’t want to be saying that. That isn’t even a possibility.

    Why are some of you comparing May Day demonstrations to Tea Party demonstrations? I don’t see that there are any comparisons except large groups of people gathered.

    I am still waiting for my question to be answered.

    Repeat:

    Someone please explain how this new legislation fixes or even comes close to fixing the Mexican drug cartel problem?

    All I am hearing is the usual.

  35. Second-Alamo

    I T W A S A J O K E ! But based on wishful thinking.

    What’s the difference between an illegal crossing the border, and a drug cartel ’employee’ crossing the border? Forty pounds of pot!

  36. The cartels are causing the violence.

    There is no comparison between the evil that is going on with the drug trafficking and someone coming here to pick strawberries.

  37. Emma

    But how do you know they are just here to pick strawberries?

  38. When they go out every day and pick strawberries.

  39. Starryflights

    @Second-Alamo

    From George Will:

    “…healthy aversion to the measures that would be necessary to remove from the nation the nearly 11 million illegal immigrants, 60 percent of whom have been here for more than five years. It would take 200,000 buses in a bumper-to-bumper convoy 1,700 miles long to carry them back to the border. Americans are not going to seek and would not tolerate the police methods that would be needed to round up and deport the equivalent of the population of Ohio. ”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043001667.html

  40. Starryflights

    Emma :But how do you know they are just here to pick strawberries?

    How do you know they are here to sell drugs?

  41. Wolverine

    Moon, the comparison comes after months and months of claims from the Left that the “Tea Party” movement may inspire political violence. Every little allegation is followed up with unproven story after unproven story, warning after warning, insinuation after insinuation, blog comment after blog comment, guilt by alleged association after guilt by alleged association. But, when violence and/or untoward incidents actually do break out, as in Santa Cruz or Pico Rivera, where is MSNBC, where is dear Rachel, where is the Huff Post, where is Jon Stewart? Given that conservative commentators are constantly warned by their liberal opponents that their words may well incite violence, can we say then that the attacks on Arizona over that new law just might have inspired the violence in Santa Cruz?

  42. Starryflights

    Police cite unnamed anarchist group in Saturday violence: Cafe condemns capitalism but denies responsibility

    By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER and J.M. BROWN
    Posted: 05/03/2010 09:59:49 PM PDT
    Updated: 05/03/2010 10:09:16 PM PDT

    Co-owner Jennifer Charles is known for her work as spokeswoman for the group of tree sitters that occupied UCSC redwoods for 13 months, beginning in November 2007.

    Both Modes and Charles declined to comment for this story, aside from the SubRosa statement.

    Police said Monday they also are investigating whether the anarchist group responsible for Saturday night’s vandalism has a connection to the firebombings of UCSC animal researchers’ homes in 2008. One target on Saturday was locally owned Caffe Pergolesi, whose owner cooperated with police after the firebombing as they researched fliers left in his coffee shop.

    http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15010033?nclick_check=1

    The Santa Cruz riot apper to have been the work of some radical animal rights group, not illegal immigrants.

  43. Glenn Beck covered it more than adequately as did every other conservative show. Beck even covered events in Europe. Why is it that the May Day violence was associated with the ‘Left?’ Those people who were demonstrating, from what I could tell, were not representing themselves as mainstream America, like the Tea Party demonstrations were doing.

    I believe that is the difference. If you are going to set yourself up as mainstream America, it is best to get rid of all those walking around with AK-47s and other things that could be perceived as threats of violence.

    I get increasingly grumpy about everything being divided into a left and right paradigm as though every person in the world only fit into one little box….you are either a marxist or you are a member of the John Birch Society just doesn’t cut it with me.

    Actually Maddow was covering the oil gusher in the gulf tonight. That seems a lot more important to me than a demonstration. I find demonstrations so last century. They rarely accomplish much of anything other than arguing over how many folks were out there. Demonstrations are the ultimate bully pulpit. Generally people do get out of hand at demonstrations. It is the nature of the beast and also a reason I no longer attend, regardless of how passionate I feel about a subject.

  44. Wolverine

    No, Moon, it’s not that easy. There is no denying that, ever since the orginal Tea Party demonstration in Washington last year, there has been a long campaign of innuendo and insinuation trying to make a connection between the Tea Party movement and possible fringe violence. You and I both know there are extreme fringes at both ends of the spectrum. We can condemn them if they advocate violence or racism or whatever; but, alas, we have no power to “get rid” of them except when they actually violate the law and the justice system takes over. I have scolded and condemned such people myself right on this blog. They are not mine, whomever they may be. I have no personal power over them and no personal power to stop them. And, even if I did determine to “get rid” of them, there is no Tea Party mechanism to do so beyond verbal disavowals. Why then am I and others, as avowed Tea Party people who advocate peaceful and lawful dissent, still being held to account for these people? And why would the mere existence of such people invalidate my own right or the right of other honest folks all throughout the Tea Party movement to state an opinion that our political beliefs are becoming “mainstream” in America?

  45. Wolverine

    According to the PEW Hispanic Center, only about 3 to 4 % of illegal immigrants are currently involved in our agricultural sector. Within the agricultural sector itself, they appear to represent about 24-29% of the total work force. The USDA agrees that the overall percentage is very small compared to other economic sectors in which illegal immigrants are working, e.g. service industries, construction, etc. So, the “picking strawberries” or lettuce or apples or whatever really doesn’t play very well anymore.

  46. Starryflights

    I think the point that Moon was making was that the vast majority off illegal immigrants do not sell drugs but rather work in other low-skilled industries of which agriculture is but one example.

  47. Elena

    Starryflights :I think the point that Moon was making was that the vast majority off illegal immigrants do not sell drugs but rather work in other low-skilled industries of which agriculture is but one example.

    you are correct Starry.

  48. Wolverine

    If such is the case, then one must forego the traditional use of the “agricultural sector” and point to other occupations such as construction and the service industries. Because of the diminished numbers, agriculture has become the least effective sector to be used in any debate on this issue. It is also the one area of the economy where we have long been used to seeing seasonal immigrant labor or contract immigrant labor. And bless the late Cesar Chavez for making those jobs better for those who do them.

    Use of the larger sectors then gets us into an area where we can legitimately debate whether illegal immigrants are or are not taking jobs which Americans might want to have. The construction industries and allied trades especially have become a sore point; and the debate needs to center on such areas

  49. I just went to the Pew Institute. Something didn’t see correct about that 5% agricultural demographic. The link I saw has more illegal immigrants doing farm work than any other kind of work.

    Additionally, only 75% of illegal immigrants are from Hispanic countries.

    http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1190/portrait-unauthorized-immigrants-states

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