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Opinion
Dec. 09, 2007
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JOHN BRUMMETT: Gomer Pyle and the GOP

JOHN BRUMMETT
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There is, in fact, a dime's worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Why, on immigration, the difference can get into real money.

The Democratic candidates were sitting around a big table in a radio studio the other day participating in an altogether civil and restrained debate on National Public Radio. There were no rallying supporters in the room to rile partisan passions and agitate competitive energy.

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    • The long-form format by which only three topics were discussed, those being Iran, China and immigration, served thoughtfulness over rancor.

    The moderator asked the hopefuls if they believed they should personally turn in an illegal immigrant to the authorities if they came upon one.

    All the candidates said no, sagely. Barack Obama gets credit for taking the question first and nailing it. Dennis Kucinich, as always, disposed of the matter most simply, saying we're not vigilantes in America.

    Actually, though, I liked Hillary Clinton's answer a tad better than the rest. That's only because Clinton gently chided the moderator for asking a "clever" question, but one not really all that substantive when you got right down to it.

    She's always had a way of dismissing questions as somehow beneath her.

    In this case, the manner served her well.

    Seriously, it's up to federal authorities to control our borders. We can't honestly be suggesting that everyday people start scurrying around like Mayberry's Gomer Pyle shouting "citizen's array-ust, citizen's array-ust."

    (For the young and uninitiated: Gomer Pyle was a charmingly innocent bucolic character on the classic television sitcom of the 1960s, the "Andy Griffith Show." Gomer looked a little in the face like the newly svelte Mike Huckabee, actually.)

    But the Democratic exercise put me in mind of the responses we might have received from the Republican presidential candidates to the same question.

    Mitt Romney might have said "yes," he would turn in illegal aliens, but only after he had prevailed on them to clean his lawn.

    Rudy Giuliani might have said "yes," unless the illegal immigrants were in New York City, where they were essential for menial work, but not as cabdrivers, because they must not be given driver's licenses.

    Huckabee might have said he would have them arrested, but only after determining whether they had any children, in which case he'd offer the kids in-state college tuition and scholarships.

    Fred Thompson might have said to repeat the question because he'd been a little groggy ever since the Thanksgiving turkey.

    Ron Paul might have said we deserved illegal invaders because we're illegal invaders ourselves all over the globe.

    Tom Tancredo might have said, yes, absolutely, he'd turn them in, and, what's more, he's for waterboarding anybody whom he might suspect of being an illegal alien.

    Have I missed anyone? Oh, yes, John McCain. He's hard to spoof on this issue, having behaved responsibly on it.

    He took the Republican lead in the Senate on a bipartisan plan to set up a guest worker program and citizenship path for illegal immigrants working here and otherwise behaving themselves, combining that with provisions seeking to fortify employment regulation and border security measures.

    It's the only practical solution to the problem, but it could happen only with a robust Democratic majority or a McCain presidency, or as far from an election as possible.

    But in the current Republican culture, McCain is only now beginning to show slight signs of recovery from such sanity and decency.

    John Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@ arkansasnews.com.



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    LonewackoDotCom wrote on December 09, 2007 12:42 PM: What the author fails to understand is that the NPR question was like one from a Soviet debate: the answers were known in advance and were designed to make the candidates look reasonable.

    He's not the only idiot however; in fact, here's an NYT columnist doing the same thing:
    http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007305.html


    A.K. Smith wrote on December 09, 2007 12:10 PM: What a lousy editorial. Award winning writer? Hardly worth reading, ever.

    Frankly, I think the answer is exactly what Ron Paul REALLY says about illegal immigration. Remove the welfare state incentives and it will wither and die. Then, when he, and he alone, ends the income tax and the economy is booming beyond its current anemic growth, we will be asking people to come here and become new Americans. Legally. Being educated in what it means to become an American. Not brining the failed collectivist policies of their homelands with them and trying to impose them on us.
    In the meantime, no vigilantism, no biometric ID card for Americans, and no more big government answers to everything.
    ronpaul2008.com Hope For America.


    tim wrote on December 09, 2007 10:48 AM: a clever question billary says, thats what you call a question for her that takes two answers, you know one for illegals and one against depending on who shes talking to. what a crock.


    Joe C wrote on December 09, 2007 08:24 AM: It’s nice that John Brummett can applaud McCain’s amnesty bill that would of failed miserably.
    Congress’s own budget office stated at best it would only of stopped 25% of illegals from entering and allowed in over 250 thousand in legally as guest workers every year, with pretty much no way to truly find or get them to leave after their time is up.
    Actually putting us in a worse situation than we have now, basically opening the border up only legally.

    Gomer Pyle isn’t the vigilante citizen but our federal government that deliberately failed our constitutional right to enforce the law. Instead favoring greedy business and using a phony excuse we need to compete with a global market.
    Please someone tell me how we compete with slave and subjugated labor from oppressive governments, unless we do the same, thus the illegal alien problem.

    Mr. Brummett with what he feels in witty intelligent name-calling actually supports the subjugating our less educated, as God forbid someone without a degree earn almost as much as him, for doing work he would never do. (manufacturing, factory)

    Our government pawns working for big business used illegal immigration as their weapon to destroy fair wages. Brummett the humanitarian, what a hypocrite!


    Steve wrote on December 09, 2007 07:50 AM: Imagine that. John Brummett, a Bill Clinton boy-toy, falling all over absolutely ANY answer (or non-answer) that Billary gives. What totally useless dribble from a completely inept individual. FYI Brummett, McCain is a RINO and will NEVER be president. His lack of ILLEGAL ALIEN reform is the key to his failure. Any presidential candidate who won't turn in any ILLEGAL they find is an accessory to a crime and should be jailed and fined. The borders MUST be secured FIRST!!! 100% of the ILLEGALS MUST be deported NEXT!!! Any business that hires even 1 ILLEGAL should have their business license revoked and 100% of their assets and funds confiscated and used to pay for border security and their owners imprisoned or deported with the ILLEGALS.


    Alan Srout wrote on December 09, 2007 05:13 AM: Senator Fred Thompson is the only candidate that gets it. He makes decisions based on principles. Principles don’t change. You have to stand for something and not change who you are based on the polls. That is what Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani have done and all of the Democrats do it. Give me a leader that will stand by his principles anyday versus someone that stands for everything.

    I know many Republicans and conservatives that will stay home if Rudy Giuliani is the candidate. He does not represent our values as conservatives, and never will. Mitt Romney is a Republican-in-name-only (RINO) that simply has everything else and nothing to do. “I guess I’ll just try to buy the presidency”. The White House isn’t for sale! Huckabee is pro-amnesty for illegals! NO THANKS! Conservatives will simply stay home and the Democrats will pick up additional seats in the House and probably get the 60 seats in the Senate they need to completely destroy our country. Nice picture, huh?

    However, I think Fred can bring America back together, if that’s even possible. America needs a rebirth of patriotism and honor. Republicans also need a rebirth. President Reagan was our last rebirth and he can never be duplicated. Fred Thompson will bring his own down-to-earth common sense to this country.. A little of the good old days of faith, federalism and family would do well for this country. If a conservative runs as a conservative, he will win!

    Think of it this way: Eight years of another Clinton White House? Now if that is not a sufficient enough reason to pull together as a nation, and fight this socialist liberal takeover of our government, what is?

    http://www.Fred08.com