Bush Ensures Legacy With Speech

Unfortunately, visitors to a Bush '43' Library may have to cross the border into Mexico to take it all in. In a speech which was as much a eulogy for the so-called Reagan Revolution, as it was an unfortunate beginning to a pending political battle on immigration, President Bush all but declared himself irrelevant to the conversation. In essence, the sitting President of the United States threw up his hands and declared, "No mas."

Sure to be a tremendous disappointment to the majority of center right and conservative Americans, they could easily come to see themselves as leaderless on domestic issues for the next two years. And perhaps they are.

Over-riding the timely struggle over immigration, conservative Republicans and Reagan Democrats also have to contend with a Republican majority in the Senate which seems just as out of touch.

Without an overwhelming majority of Republicans in the Senate, and many of those now appearing to be far from conservative, it is quite possible that Democrats will be able to hide from any responsibility for our current government's failures, saddling Republicans with most of the blame, possibly leading to electoral victory for the Democrats in the Fall. It's unclear if even political pressure will be able to effect anything like a genuine solution on immigration this year. Certainly the President offered nothing in terms of a serious solution. And the details behind the Senate version of an immigration bill only serve to make it worse.

Conservative Republicans and center-right democrats and independents will have to start asking themselves if it is worth fighting to try and take the Republican party back, or perhaps break off in a different direction. Certainly, that would mean a fall from any perception of power for a time. But President Bush's Oval Office speech this evening put conservatives on notice that any perception of power they may have had up until now, was only that - a perception, at best.

I have always been a tremendous Bush supporter. I imagine I would still very much like the man. Also, I will always support him as our Commander in Chief. Beyond that, I'm afraid there isn't much else to say. I found the entire experience rather sad.

Update: I should be clear on something. I am not a "no amnesty" type. I don't care if we never send anyone already here back unless they have broken other laws, or won't assimilate. I want border security. What Bush offered won't come close to providing that. It is an empty gesture which will still disappear within a year leaving us right where we are and with millions more illegals coming in in the future. Read the link above.

5/16 text edit graph 1 (through threw) - To big a hurry to watch 24, I guess. ; )

Comments

[CARRY NATION]

Dan, I hear ya

[Robert]

I never thought I would see the day when the President of the United States offered sweets to those who break the law.

[tracker]

It was nothing less than surrender to vincente fox and the 'mexican government.' By his own words, he acknowledged 85% of the border crossers are illegals. He tried to maintain the fiction that they are honest, hard-working, people who only wish to become 'americans.' HOGWASH! In my state, 909 illegal aliens are incarcerated for felony crimes in our Corrections system. 90% + of those are....mexicans!
Surprise? NOT! The crimes are, mostly, drug violations (meth, heroin, coke), hard core, and Rape 1. Worthy to become citizens? NO!

[SinCerely]

The latest government study on immigrants incarcerated both legal and illegal was in 2003, from what I could find.

147,000 jailed most for their second, third and fourth time. 65% of them being mexican.

What really gets me is the lack of documented statistics on immigrants. Law enforcement is no longer allowed to ask if one is legal or illegal. Records are not allowed to be kept by anyone in law enforcement other than the prison system. And the only way we know if an immigrant is Mexican or another nationality is based on the honesty of the ones incarcerated.

While I will not resort to name calling of our "President", my faith in democracy and the voice of the American people being ignored has left me extremely angry.

I will not abandon my belief in the importance of voting. I will go to the polls tomorrow and give a NO vote to some on the ballot. A NO vote comes about by showing you came to vote but choose not to vote for a candidate, which is different than voting for the opposite party. In my county it's a matter of not pulling a lever for either party. When the votes are counted it will show my decision not to cast a vote for some but voting for others. That sends a stronger message than not showing up at all.

[Stella]

That sends a stronger message than not showing up at all.
Posted by: SinCerely | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 10:13 PM

Very true; unfortunately, when you add up the number of potential voters who are now feeling demoralized, disheartened, disenfranchised, distraught, or simply disinterested - there are going to be a lot of levers that aren't pulled.

[ghk]

All George W. Bush had to do tonight was throw some "red meat" to the regular Republican voters.

These people are scared to death of an "invading horde" of Mexicans. They are heartbroken over America's tragic loss in Iraq. And it has become impossible for them to continue pretending that a gang of whoremongering felonious con-artists in Washington could give a damn about "conservative values."

With their adjustable mortgage payments skyrocketing and gasoline at more than $3 a gallon and good jobs completely out of reach, the beaten working class of Red State America just wanted their fake-Texan failure to come out and promise he would build a Great Wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico.

[Jake Jacobsen]

I voted for the president twice, used to think very highly of him. Not anymore. The reasons are very simple, the arrogance and lying and conflation our president has engaged in on this issue have been disgusting and shameful. The endless and dishonest attempts to sell us on an amnesty we don't want.

If he really believes in amnesty, fine, but for god's sake come out and say it like a man. On this issue he has used weasely Clinton words, changed the terminology on a consistent basis trying to find that magic word that wold make us accept amnesty.

But the American people said no, and he couldn't accept that. So what did he do tonight? Trot out the exact same speech he's given a dozen times before with all the same canards, conflations, half-truths and distortions that he's employed all along.

Which part of this am I supposed to respect?

[Cassandra]

Dan:

I am really perplexed.

I have a question for you, and Michelle Malkin, and all the other folks who want to hold a hard line on this issue.

Have you given up on representative government? Last time I checked (and I have been checking for at least ten years) no one else has had the guts to take on this issue. I have watched this President try to take on this, and Social Security, and a host of other issues.

We do not live in a dictatorship. We live in a country with a 2 party system. That means if you want a snowball's chance in hell of seeing a bill pass, you have to do a little thing called COMPROMISE.

I very much doubt this is the bill Bush would put up if he had his druthers. It isn't the bill I'd like to see. But it is the bill that has a chance of passing. And once again, I am watching my own party shoot itself in the foot. It's enough to make me want to renounce my party membership and become an f-ing Libertarian.

We certainly have no more sense. I am thoroughly disgusted with conservatives and their salt the earth mentality.

[Rick]

Have you given up on representative government?
Posted by: Cassandra

Only in America...........Just give me a viable third party...in reality, an actual second party rather that the elephant headed ass we have.

[IMHERE]

Are we truly a Nation of Laws? Who abides by what laws?

[You don't know much about history...]

ghk said

"These people are scared to death of an "invading horde" of Mexicans. They are heartbroken over America's tragic loss in Iraq. And it has become impossible for them to continue pretending that a gang of whoremongering felonious con-artists in Washington could give a damn about "conservative values."

With their adjustable mortgage payments skyrocketing and gasoline at more than $3 a gallon and good jobs completely out of reach, the beaten working class of Red State America just wanted their fake-Texan failure to come out and promise he would build a Great Wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico."

ghk - Are you unaware that LSD is no longer the drug of choice?

[Rick]

"ghk - Are you unaware that LSD is no longer the drug of choice?

Posted by: You don't know much about history..."

That's funny, esp backed up with your screen name.
Let's see: Invading horde of Mexicans? A large number of these are from other Central and South American countries. And peple are generally concerned about ILLEGAL invaders. Of ocurse folks like ghk will not mind waking up to find that a family has moved into their house. Surely they have more room than they need.
America's tragic loss in Iraq? Actually that whole thing is ongoing. It will become a loss 6-12 months AFTER we leave.

gang of whoremongering felonious con-artists in Washington could give a damn about "conservative values? I assume this is as opposed to the previous administration. Or as they say; "the pot calling the kettle black"

With their adjustable mortgage payments skyrocketing? If ten years of low interest rates has not been long enough to refinance, these people dont deserve homes.

gasoline at more than $3 a gallon? Wonder where it would be if we had more refineries, let alone the broken ones from two hurricanes. Ride through the west and check out the capped off wells.

good jobs completely out of reach? You forgot about lazy ass Americans who wouldnt hit a lick at a snake for fifty bucks. The uneducable victims of "public education" and the fact that YOU insit that Wallyworld buy their junk from China. Gots to have that $7 t-shirt made by Chinese slaves rather than one from Georgia that costs $12.

The beaten working class of Red State America? That's pretty much the second stupiist reference I've heard to the "red states". The first was that fool, bob bechtel saying the south should seceed again.......Seems as mad as he was he'd have ONLY seen red.

[DoorMart]

It is quite obvious now, that, the most foolish people in America are people who claim to be "conservative" and still vote GOP...especially in Senate and Presidential elections.

Hopefully the House will keep the Senate's Anti-American bill from ever seeing the light of day. No GOP House member will survive re-election if they allow this treasonous Senate bill pass

Call me one Conservatve who will no longer waste his vote on the GOP

[Rick]

Another voter looking for a 3rd party doormat?

[You don't know much about history...]

Hey, Rick,

Thanks for the help with ghk. I've been looking all day for this link, which shows gas prices, collected by a fellow who kept data from 1023 fill-ups from the halcyon days of the Carter administration, until now, during the BushReich. His data has been adjusted to "April 1979 dollars" so that we know how much gas really costs today. Looks like I can't do html here, so I'll type the link, you paste it into your browser.

http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html

[You don't know much about history...]

Hey, look at that! It became a link all by itself!

[Patrick]

"I have a question for you, and Michelle Malkin, and all the other folks who want to hold a hard line on this issue. Have you given up on representative government? Last time I checked (and I have been checking for at least ten years) no one else has had the guts to take on this issue."

Au contraire, the House had the guts to take up immigration last year with HR4437.

"I very much doubt this is the bill Bush would put up if he had his druthers. It isn't the bill I'd like to see. But it is the bill that has a chance of passing."

Excuse me, but HR4437 not only had a chance of passing .... IT PASSED THE HOUSE.
Bush has nobody to boss him around and make him support anything other than what he wants.

All Bush needed to say was "Pass HR4437 and send it to me and I will sign."
He could have thrown in support for guest workers, so long as he understood the KEY issues are border security and interior immigration law enfrocement, ie at the workplace.

but his BIG MISTAKE was the lie that immigration system is 'broken' because of a lack of a legalization path for 10 million illegal aliens. That is bunk. What he supports does not make it better, it makes it worse. the Hagel-Martinez bill undoes any possibility of serious immigration law enforcement and is a dreadful bill that may lead to 100 + million immigrants in 20 years and completely guts our ability to actually deport anyone.

The system is broken because we do not in any way enforce the immigration laws. You have the immigration lawyer lobby infecting the Dems and the cheap-labor-lobby infecting the Republicans, and the conspiracy of dunces to sell out the nation for cheap labor and welfare-state votes continues apace. This is signified by the Senate voting against (Dems and RINOs mostly against) the common-sense proposal by Sen Sessions to secure the border prior to implementation of any amnesty.) They are desperate to avoid the actuality of us ENFORCING the law, not because it wont work, but because it WOULD.

The secret to REAL immigration reform is this:

"You cannot reform immigration until you control immigration"
And you cannot control immigration without enforcing immigration law.
And you cannot enforce immigration law without punishing those who violate it, through deportation.
SO NO SOLUTION TO IMMIGRATION IS "COMPREHENSIVE" WITHOUT HAVING A COMPONENT THAT DEPORTS
SOME NUMBER OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Now a question: Under Hagel-Martinez or similar bills, how many illegals can we project will come into the US? How many will be deported back? Zero?

So a 3rd worlder finds out that deportation will be near-impossible, what will they do? What would YOU do?

[David]

Bush has decared himself to be Vicente Fox's puppy.

And he lied to the American people on several points, and if he didn't know he did, he's as stupid as the Democrappic Underpants folks have said for years. Almost the entirety of the rest of the speech was disingenuous at best and blatantly decpetive as a norm.