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McCain to Amnesty Backers: You’re On Your Own

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  April 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Liberals had a lot of fun last year picking on John McCain for having a short temper. It’s poetic justice that he seems to hold a grudge:

John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year’s presidential contest. McCain’s raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration…

“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”

McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: Aftertwo bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”

McCain is already catching some flak for the behavior alleged in this account. Go to the link to read his press secretary’s denial that he did or said anything inappropriate. Note too that McCain’s temper (complete with such frightening displays as eye-rolling and looking at the ceiling) seems to have upset just two participants in the meeting.

In a broader sense though, this is nothing more than just desserts, right? McCain upset most conservatives with his pursuit of immigration reform. He certainly devoted more political capital to the goal than Barack Obama – whom many latinos fear is giving nothing more than lip service to the cause. Now that Obama has all the levers of power, the hispanic community can hold him accountable. And whatever effort he makes, it’ll likely be with no Republican help to speak of.

After all, he won.

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COMMENTS

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  • Dan McLaughlin

    that when Obama ran Spanish-language radio ads claiming that McCain’s position on immigration was the same as Rush Limbaugh’s, none of the people he went to bat for at great political risk lifted a finger to defend him.

    Yeah, I think he’s 100% justified in telling Latino leaders that elections have consequences.

    • http://brockwayfamily.spaces.live.com/ Erick Brockway

      Now I wish I had video of this event!
      Hopefully we’ll see McCain come to his senses when Obamagration hits DC.

    • icbm

      obama tried to scuttle it in deference to hardcore leftist groups (his favorite), but that didn’t stop him from bragging repeatedly during the presidential campaign that he both supported it and helped LEAD it.

      the man is nothing if not a brazen, deceitful opportunist. (unfortunately, he is also a highly successful brazen, deceitful opportunist.)

  • Tbone

    And he is surprised?

    Dude, they used you like a tool and then didn’t vote for you. Tell them to pound sand headed south.

  • JadedByPolitics

    KARMA is a monster and it’s come around to bite them in the butt. I agree with Dan these people did nothing to help McCain in the election and they expect him to still take on flack for their sorry butts…..he has a Senatorial election to win and he doesn’t need illegal immigraton hung around his neck.

  • tankertodd

    And interestingly, Obama hasn’t done anything for that interest group. NAFTA is under fire and jobs nativism is thriving. Perhaps there is an opportunity for a fresh start for our party with hispanics. After all, anyone who has the motivation to break laws and risk dying in the desert is our kind of people from a work ethic standpoint.

    • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

      Even the illegals are willing to endure danger, struggle, and privation and work their fingers to the bone to achieve something for their families. That’s the kind of character that conservatives celebrate! Tell me how again conservatives haven’t been able to communicate this!?!?

      • tankertodd

        This is the part of the party I dislike the most. It also may be a great opportunity.

        Entrepreneurs come in higher proportion from first and second generation immigrants. Meanwhile our kids go off to college for 12 years studying meso-American pottery on our dime. Then our kids get the jobs created by the immigrants’ kids. Sounds like we should be begging them to come over.

      • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

        They’re here illegally so they gravitate to the side most willing to give them cover, plus lots of freebies that the rest of us pay for.

        Heck, if we could just get to the point of equality in all areas of life, I wouldn’t care one way or the other. But I mean in all areas. I’m sick of this victimology crap.

        • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

          Why don’t the legal immigrants see that it’s the coyotes who smuggle in aliens illegally, run drugs, traffic in humans, murder people, and run kidnap for money operations that are ruining their neighborhoods? The conservatives are the ones who are their natural allies on this junk. Los Illegals are the bad guys’ wedge that splits conservatives from legal Mexican immigrants. And lefties don’t care because they want the country to fail. Like Bloody Bomber Bill Ayers they think they’ll take over if there is a revolution.

          • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

            Most Jews are liberal, which I believe was the subject of a diary on here not too long ago.

            Then again it could be for the same reason we bow down to political correctness. I have in-laws of Mexican descent who are against illegal immigration. Hubby, before he changed careers, worked with Americans of Mexican descent who are against it, too. I used to work with a cop’s wife of Mexican descent and she looked down on them and never really explained why.

            Now, those construction workers weren’t the least bit shy about why they were against it. They worked hard to obtain their citizenship and these other guys just walked across the border and got everything handed to them and don’t even appreciate it when they get here and they steal from other people to get it, too. That’s what they said about it.

  • Finrod

    Too bad it’s already after he lost us a presidential election.

  • mas1916

    McCain finally is getting out of the way on this. He is finally helping conservatives come together.

    We’ll see how he acts if Obama has to actually take action on the border to prevent the drug wars from spilling over.

    http://firstconservative.com/blog

    • randy streu

      Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that, just because he’s finally recognized he got burned, we can call him an ally. “Getting out of the way” is probably as good as we’ll get from him.

      But I’ll take it.

      • AHALgal

        Burn me twice, shame on me.

        John McCain will never get near this conservative with anything warm, much less on fire, again.

        He’s a liberal Democrat as far as I’m concerned.

  • AceInTX

    In a broader sense though, this is nothing more than just desserts, right?

    What happened to the great man of honor and integrity who did what he thought was right no matter what the consequences? Where is that great champion of the less fortunate among us we were all compelled to vote for?

    Could it be that he was never what he’s been sold to be…that deep down under the facade and propaganda about McCain and his great principles we have nothing more than a petty, pathetic vindictive man who cares about nothing more than his own self aggrandizement intent on feeding his enormous ego and damn enyone or anything that gets in his way?

    GOD forgive me but I loath this man and he has done nothing since the election to assuage my distrust and utter contempt with which I view him!

    • AceInTX

      before anyone lays into me for wanting unfettered immigration…I’m as hard core as anyone about sealing our borders….what I’m speaking about above is McCain’s meme that he is about country first. Sticking by his principles etc.

      In essence, I’m glad he’s stumbled on the right position finally…but for all the wrong reasons!

    • Ed54

      is also rather petty, pathetic, and vindictive.

      • AceInTX

        We’ve been told he’s a man of principle…and his supposed principles lead him to call us all racists for demanding we enforce our immigration laws and defy 70% of the voters who believed so…yet now…since the immigrant population didn’t flock to his side and voted Democrat like they always have…and those of us labeled as racists knew they always would…this so called man of principle decides to tell the to go screw themselves in a fit of temper and childish pique!

        I defy you to tell me what I’ve said here that isn’t true…maybe I could be more diplomatic…but I wouldn’t be true to who I am if I didn’t lay it all out there as I think it…McCain is a fraud and always has been…this just proves the point…and it will be proven again and again in the next 4 to 8 years!

    • mbecker908

      That guy retired from the Navy. Unfortunately he went into politics. He now has friends like John Kerry and the Congressjerk from PA whose name I refuse to type.

      McCain has one principle: do what makes McCain look good in the media.

      • AceInTX

        It’s always been that way…and I don’t have to pull punches for him any more!

  • leppard

    but Im tired of McCain. The media keeps bringing him up and its annoying.

  • thirteen28

    … for both parties.

    For McCain, for abandoning the principle of the rule of law, sticking it to the conservative movement for his own self-aggrandizement, and for futile ethnic pandering …

    and for the pro-amnesty/pro-illegal immigration lobby, who (predictably) despite McCain’s kissing of their collective a–, completely abandoned him at election time.

    Let this be a lesson to other Republicans – ethnic pandering doesn’t work. Sticking to your principles, while sometimes painful, DOES work in the long run.

    • jeffreywturner

      More like “ethnic pandering doesn’t work FOR REPUBLICANS”, because it works like a charm for Democrats, even when it was white people down south they were pandering to (ie: pre-1970′s).

      The reason ethinic pandering doesn’t work for us is the same reason class wafare doesn’t work for us; the media is not in our back pockets like it is for the Dems.

  • ATLconservative

    This story has nothing to do with McCain changing his position on amnesty.

    He’s effectively saying to those Hispanic business leaders, “I promised more to you than Obama, I stuck my neck out for you more than Obama, and you went and voted for Obama. Now you want me to stick my neck out further? Kiss my ass! McCain out!”

    Don’t get the wrong idea from this story. McCain is still for amnesty, and he’ll be on Obama’s side when the immigration issue comes back around.

    The only news here is that he’s pissed off it didn’t help him on Election Day.

    • raider

      Exactly right, ATL conservative.

      McCain is still for rewarding millions of illlegal aliens that have violated United States federal criminal immigration law with legal status and a path to citizenship.

  • semperfione

    Finally Senator McCain has been exposed. I would like to applaud the author for being brave enough to report this to the American People. McCain, as the leader of the “Cross The Isle Folks” got exactly what he deserved from those so-called Hispanic/Mexican Americans. I feel sorry for the young man. Maybe if he had watched TV he would have seen all the Mexico flags at the rally, two of them, and knew the fix was in. This is a great day for me, and I can’t wait until the Specter, Snowe, and Collins, have their “Temper Tantrum” when they find out the “Greens”, the Waxman (D-Calif), and the “Great One”, Nancy Pelosi, has stabbed them in the back. That would be some HOPE I could believe in, and that just may lead to some CHANGE I can believe in.

  • DavidSage

    McCain, Bush and the Republican establishment had this crazy idea that by supporting amnesty, Hispanics would suddenly become loyal Republicans.

    Instead, it ended up alienating a large part of our base in order to chase a small amount of potential voters that never really had any interest in the Republican Party at all.

    The amount of swing-voter Hispanics that wants amnesty is much smaller compared to the amount of Reagan Democrats that wants a secured border that enforces immigration laws.

    Had Obama been challenged on his immigration stances (like granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens) the Republican Party would have fared a lot better in 2008.

    At the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. We had a Republican that was as pro-amnesty as a politician can possibly be, and yet he still lost the Hispanic vote in overwhelmingly numbers.

    • raider

      Well said DavidSage.

      As a citizen of a state, Tennessee, that offered driver licences to illegal aliens from 2001 to approximately 2004, I can tell you that rewarding illegal aliens with the privilege of a driver license has terrible consequences. Further, opposition to driver licenses is a winning issue for Republicans.

  • Kayla

    Hopefully other RINOS will see it doesn’t pay to betray your base for people who will never support you.

    • WarEagle01

      He took a big gamble and expected some pay back, never expecting that most Hispanics would just give him the finger for his trouble.

  • Shaggy_DA

    Has nothing to do with Hispanics. They did not catch on to it then, and it should have come as no surprise to anyone that he acts as he does now.

  • jeffreywturner

    Bush did capitalize somewhat on immigration in 2004, as he was seen as soft on illegals and saw a larger improvement among hispanics than among any other major group (9% increase from 2000). However, that was before the issue actually came up, and since it did, the media was able to exploit GOP opposition to it as “racist” or “xenophopic” or whatever, so 4 short years later, when another pro-amnesty Republican is running for President and hoping to build on Bush’s gains among hispanics, the well is so poisoned for the entire GOP that he actually gets a lower portion of the hispanic vote than Bush ever got.

    I think it is a shame we couldn’t find a way around the immigration issue. It would be nice to not have to rely almost exclusively on the votes of white folks to win elections, and like many of the other commenters, I see these hard-working, God-fearing hispanics as Republicans waiting to happen.

  • Rapunzel46

    is up for re-election and he knows his position hurt him deeply here in Arizona… this is all about trying to get re-elected. It doesn’t look like anyone will run against him, which means our choice is McCain or the democrat.. I’ll reluctantly vote McCain.

  • Rod_Patrick

    Thank God that McCain is not the “bad” me.

    But the Hispanic vote is so simple to understand. Yes they want amnesty. BUT THEY LOVE NANNY STATE of Obama more than anything else.