McCain & BOR wax poetic on immigration and white Christian rule

Sorry about the poor audio quality of this footage, but stick with it - it seems to get a little better, and more importantly, Bill O'Reilly shows his true colors.

This is a pretty telling interview on both sides.

First, John McCain has to straddle the immigration issue very carefully (as do all presidential candidates, because Latinos and Hispanics are now America's largest minority; Read: there are lots of votes at stake here).

Believe it or not, I partially agree with McCain here - the thought of rounding up and deporting 12 million illegal immigrants is not only unrealistic and dumb, but it would be physically impossible to do anyway. And he's right that we have to secure our southern border. Hiring 20,000 new border agents would be a good start. Anyone who has followed this issue knows that the Bush administration has dragged its feet on this for years - Bush's answer was to use National Guard troops as a stop-gap measure for border patrol.

Where this footage gets really interesting is when O'Reilly, as he is so wont to do, starts fanning the flames of xenophobia and jingoism. If I understand him right, he is saying he fears that the white, Christian power structure in this country is being threatened, and he has a big problem with that. What's more, McCain seems to agree with him.

And Republicans have the audacity to whine that they are having a hard time courting the black and minority vote - this is Exhibit A why.

Video via PoliticsTV

Lou Hannity loses his cool over immigration

Lou Dobbs, a guy I used to respect a great deal, seems to be a little past his prime these days.

On a recent show, he was discussing the immigration problem with several guests, including Air America's Laura Flanders. When she has the temerity to bring up the use of the term "illegal aliens," Dobbs blows his stack.

I think Flanders makes a pretty important point here. Not all of the people at these protests are "illegal aliens," and it's patently unfair to paint them that way.

From the transcript:

DOBBS: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you, Joe. Laura Flanders, let's talk about Mitt Romney at ...

LAURA FLANDERS, AIR AMERICA: I wanted to come back for a minute to the L.A. story, the last two stories. I think if Dr. King were alive today, he would be talking about what happened on L.A. on May 1st. When you talk about abuse, 240 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas.

We've gone from legal punishment of illegal aliens to physical punishment, and it's not helped by language like yours, Lou, talking about these [marchers] as being illegal aliens...

DOBBS: Laura, Laura, Laura, that's ridiculous.

FLANDERS: They're not aliens, they're people. And the vast majority of people at these marches are utterly legal. They're not aliens, Lou. They're people, and you're dehumanizing them with that language.

DOBBS: And you're absurd to suggest such a thing.

FLANDERS: I don't think so.

DOBBS: You're being absolutely absurd.

Dave Neiwart has written an excellent and thought-provoking piece on the Dobbs dust-up.

I immediately thought of Sean Hannity when watching this clip - Dobbs behaves just like him (or BOR) by shouting over Flanders. It seems that CNN is leaning further and further right, by the hour. Dobbs' faux Fox grandstanding, as well as the ridiculous and absurd Glenn Beck are merely the latest examples. As the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Hat tip to C&L for the story

McCain drops Cheney bomb during immigration meeting

"#!$%&#!! you!" GOP Presidential Candidate John McCain is reported to have yelled at Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) during a meeting to discuss immigration legislation. "I know more about this than anyone else in the room," intoned McCain.

According to WaPo, Cornyn "started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources," when McCain got into a heated discussion with him.

Things really got heated when Cornyn admonished McCain for dropping in at the last minute from the campaign trail. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line." said Cornyn to McCain, according to the WaPo article.

That's when McCain dropped the bomb.

I haven't read enough about the immigration bill to offer up much commentary yet, but the political stakes are very high for both parties, so it has been fun watching everyone posture to get their thoughts and positions on the record.

McCain has so many things to be angry about these days, it's tough to know what's really bugging him - his lagging poll numbers, his sub-par fundraising, or the continued fallout over his Mission McComplished stroll through a Baghdad market.

I'm not going to try and hide my pleasure at McCain's meltdown.

What's even more telling than McCain's meltdown at someone who disagreed with him is this, and I can't believe it doesn't get more press (it's the last paragraph of the WaPo article):

After making a few comments, McCain left the Capitol to head to New York for presidential campaign events. Later that day, McCain missed his 43rd straight vote, this on the $2.9 trillion budget outline.

Of course, the profanity and confrontation is bigger news than McCain not doing the job that the people of Arizona sent him to Washington to do - participate in making law, and VOTING when the Senate has a vote.

Something had really ought to be done about this. Senators or House Reps. who are running for president should take a leave of absence or something - it stinks that they can criss-cross the country campaigning, leaving their constituents out in the cold on important matters like, oh, a $2.9 trillion budget, and the War in Iraq.