48 Hours After Debate, Republicans Have Abandoned Moderate Tone
It took less than 48 hours for the Republican Party's presidential candidates to run away from the moderate tone on immigration they had tried to use at the Univision Republican candidates debate on Sunday in Miami.
At a "hastily arranged" press conference today, Mike Huckabee "brought out Minuteman head Jim Gilchrist" to tout his endorsement. Gilchrist failed to ride his anti-immigrant campaign and Minuteman notoriety to Congress, when voters handed the polarizing figure a third place defeat in a special election for California's 48th Congressional District in 2005. The endorsement followed the launch of a new ad, in which Huckabee vows "to make it clear that we will say no to amnesty and no to sanctuary cities." Gilchrist told press that Huckabee's recently released immigration plan, "was a plan I myself could have written." [washingtonpost.com, 12/11/07; Washington Post, 12/11/07]
Not to be outdone, Mitt Romney launched an attack ad on Huckabee today claiming the former Arkansas governor helped the children of illegal immigrants go to college, while Romney "vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens" and "opposed driver's licenses for illegals," according to his ad. [LA Times, 12/11/07]
Rudy Giuliani stepped up to the challenge from his Republican rivals, telling the Washington Examiner in an interview published today that "he wanted to deport all 400,000 illegal immigrants from New York City" and adding that if the INS had the capacity, he "would have turned all the people over." [Washington Examiner, 12/11/07] The change in tone was drastic, given that Giuliani told the Univision audience on Sunday that "when we have control of our borders... we can then turn to the people that are here...The people that come forward can sign up. They can pay taxes...the people who want to come forward should be allowed to come forward." [Univision debate transcript, 12/9/07]
Fresh from skipping the Univision debate, Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo continue his anti-immigrant rhetoric with a new low, asserting that Spanish-speaking immigrants may not even want to become Americans. During an interview with CNN's Rick Sanchez last night, Tancredo attacked the use of Spanish stating that "what is happening to us is that we are looking at a whole... new set of immigrants here who, really, I question whether they do want to be Americans." [CNN, 12/10/07]
"The Republican presidential candidates have erased any doubt about the sincerity of their tone at Sunday's debate," said DNC Spokesman Luis Miranda. "The tone on Sunday wasn't sincere, and the ugly rhetoric we've seen in the 48 hours since the debate makes that perfectly clear. Immigration shouldn't be a wedge issue, and immigrants shouldn't be scapegoats for political purposes."
The DNC launched an online resource center last week highlighting the Republican Party's pattern of using immigration as a wedge issue and scapegoating immigrants to win elections at democrats.org/immigration.
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