OK, so Huck is flopping around on immigration because the hard core wingnut base of the GOP doesn’t like his stance on giving kids that were born in the country some protections because they are US citizens. And he said that if all illegal immigrants were deported. the American economy would collapse.
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Huckabee: In all due respect, we’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We’re a better country than that.
What a nice position to have. Fooled ya! After that debate he came out with a new plan that calls for sending all illegal immigrants home—including their children that in his words—would “collapse” our economy. But if the children are American citizens, how can he do that? Wouldn’t that be terribly destructive to them? Ahhh, compassionate conservatism. Is this how a Christian warrior treats “children?” Timmeh calls him on it pretty good….
RUSSERT: “Don’t punish those kids.” A week later, you said, “No, no, no, send the parents home,” and what happens to the kids?
HUCKABEE: They go with their parents. I mean, I can’t imagine a parent not taking their children…
RUSSERT: But they’re American citizens. Why do they have to leave the country?
HUCKABEE: Because they’re–first, before they’re American citizens, they’re the children of their parents.
RUSSERT: But aren’t we a “better country,” to quote someone, than that?
HUCKABEE: No, I did not send them home. They will go home within 120-day window, and then they have the process of starting to return.
RUSSERT: But that’s 15 million people. You’re saying to do that would collapse the American economy, and now that’s exactly what you’re proposing.
HUCKABEE: No, I don’t think it would collapse the American economy if people went back and did their process of becoming legal. And all of them aren’t going to go back on the same day. There’s going to be a window of time. How long it’s going to take for them to come back, I don’t know
Huckabee still says we’re a better country than that! He then says he’s not sending them home, but he is…Right? Oh, they get a chance to come back some day. But he doesn’t have any kind of time frame, just ship 12-15 million people out of the country at an astronomical cost that would probably take years to accomplish and as he said earlier—collapse our economy. He does manage to get a “God” reference into the discussion too….I’m just baffled…(transcript below the fold)
GOV. HUCKABEE: In all due respect, we’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We’re a better country than that.
MR. RUSSERT: “We’re a better country than punishing children for what their”…
GOV. HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: …”parents did.”
GOV. HUCKABEE: I still believe that, yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: But a week later, after that comment, you came out with this: “The Secure America Plan.”
GOV. HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: “Propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Bureau of Citizenship” “Immigration Services and leave the country. Those who register” “return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply,” “those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from future re-entry for a period of 10 years.” Children born here are American citizens.
GOV. HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: And you were saying that.
GOV. HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: “Don’t punish those kids.” A week later, you said, “No, no, no, send the parents home,” and what happens to the kids?
GOV. HUCKABEE: They go with their parents. I mean, I can’t imagine a parent not taking their children…
MR. RUSSERT: But they’re American citizens. Why do they have to leave the country?
GOV. HUCKABEE: Because they’re–first, before they’re American citizens, they’re the children of their parents.
MR. RUSSERT: But aren’t we a “better country,” to quote someone, than that?
GOV. HUCKABEE: Let me be very clear. I stand beside my statement, but here’s what we have to do to fix the immigration problem. We’ve got to seal our border, something our government has been dysfunctional and failed to do. It’s also very clear the American people are not going to tolerate people who have gotten here illegally to get in the front of the line. The only way they can get into the back of the line is to go back to the point of origin, to get behind that line, and then modernize that line so it shouldn’t take eight years to process a piece of paper to get people the necessary paperwork to be able to do that.
MR. RUSSERT: But, Governor, this is, this is important, because this is what you said back in 2005. “Responding to a question about illegal aliens, Huckabee said `our economy would collapse’ without them.”
GOV. HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that?
GOV. HUCKABEE: I think it would be very, very difficult to do construction and agriculture without them. That’s why we need a policy that puts everyone in this country in a legal position. And, Tim, let me, let me go further.
MR. RUSSERT: But, this, this is…
GOV. HUCKABEE: Let me explain why.
MR. RUSSERT: …important, because your plan says send them all home.
GOV. HUCKABEE: No, I did not send them home. They will go home within 120-day window, and then they have the process of starting to return.
MR. RUSSERT: But that’s 15 million people. You’re saying to do that would collapse the American economy, and now that’s exactly what you’re proposing.
GOV. HUCKABEE: No, I don’t think it would collapse the American economy if people went back and did their process of becoming legal. And all of them aren’t going to go back on the same day. There’s going to be a window of time. How long it’s going to take for them to come back, I don’t know. But part of the process, the first process, if you read my entire plan, is seal the border. Seal the border. If you don’t do that, then you don’t have any control of who’s here, why they’re here and what they’re doing. This process has to be modernized. It’s our government that’s been dysfunctional.
Tim, I stand by many of the state–all of the statements I’ve made, and one of them has been, let’s thank God we live in a country people are trying to break into, not one they’re trying to break out of. But let’s have a rule of law. Let’s make everyone live by it. And let me tell you why I believe my plan is not only a plan that respects the rule of law, but I think it’s the most humane plan. Because nobody living in this country ought to live with his head down, ought to live in the shadows, ought to live in fear, ought to live every day looking if there’s a police car or a border patrol, running and hiding. I want people to live in this country with their heads up. I want them to be able to, if they’re going to work here, to work legally. I want them to be able to pay the same taxes, live under the same laws, and also to be able to have the kind of sense of liberty that this country is bound by. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. Let’s not forget that our federal government has made a mess of this. As a governor, I had to deal with their mess, and I believe, as president, one of the highest priorities is to fix the problem.
Filed Under: Election 08, Immigration, Mike Huckabee
Tags: Immigration, Mike Huckabee
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A fiip or a flop. His supporters will follow him blindly over the edge.
flipit de flop………God talked to him and told him to send them home…..so they can come back.
there has been at least one instance of a town getting what it wished for by driving out all of the immigrants, illegal and legal. Their economy did collapse, because with the immigrants come businesses that provide goods and services to those people and not to mention the fact that they are willing to do jobs that American’s are not willing to do. Mexicans aren’t pushing anyone out of the way to pluck chickens or pick fruit.
This is just another hateful republican issue. The mexicans are the new blacks. Use them to stir up the hatred of white people, (because that is what republicans do) to get votes.
I think Huckabee would rather take the children out into a field in Iowa and hunt them down. Nothing would inspire the GOP base more than hunting Chicanos for Jesus.
Yeah, it all sounds righteous and tough until you start working out the logistics of it, don’t it Mike?
Huckleberry: “Let’s thank God we live in a country people are trying to break into, not one they’re trying to break out of.”
Not if the Republicans have their way.
Oh, and somewhere in Germantown, MD, Michelle Malkin’s head just popped…again.
Huck didn’t flip-flop; that would imply that he had some idea what he was saying in the first place. You can’t change a mind you don’t have.
If a president of the United States claimed he guided the country based on the voice of God he heard through his hairdryer it would be a national emergency. I fail to see how removing the hairdryer makes it any less so.
This guy is a mess. He will say anything to get a single vote.
foolme1ns @ 3:
Mexicans are not the new blacks. They were not forced to come here, they pay smugglers to sneak them in here. If Mexicans don’t like white Americans, they should go back to Mexico. Your last phrase is very telling, “the hatred of white people.”
How are Mexicans going to live in the U. S. if they think all white people are hateful? I’ll tell you how, they think they are going to take over the United States because they are really the racist bigots, they don’t like Americans or American culture.
BTW: There aren’t any jobs Americans won’t do. That’s just a stupid framing technique perfected by La Raza.
“I mean, I can’t imagine a parent not taking their children…”
cute. presidential candidates who presume absolutes. what about the dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands or more, who DON’T go home with their parents Mike?
what about the children who don’t want to go back to Mexico, Mike, but the parents attempt to force them?
he really hasn’t thought this one through, has he. Mike Huckabee’s a damn moron. short sighted moron, with no backup strategy.
is he seriously suggesting people have 120 days, to leave the country, then re-enter the country, with 100% of them taking children who all willingly want to temporarily turn their backs on their US citizenships and educations?
moron.
“Let’s not forget that our federal government has made a mess of this.”
Excuse me, WHO’S federal government made a mess of this? You mean, the REPUBLICAN federal government? Oh, that’s what I thought you said.
I hope Huckleberry gets the nomination. He won’t carry one blue state Kerry carried in the last election plus he’d scare off a couple of the red states putting the election out of reach of the anti-democratic conservative activist judges on the supreme court.
who in the hell cares what this moron has to say????? havent we heard enough of him to already know for a FACT that hes not the guy to be trusted to lead this country?
RichStraightWhiteAmericanMale @ 13:
It’s the Republican/Norquist doctrine. Gut government down to the size to “drown it in the bathtub” and then when the cuts you made cause the government not to function you use the ineffectiveness you caused as an excuse to blame the government for not functioning allowing you to justify further cuts.
These sinister bastards know exactly what they’re doing.
thawed out cavemanist Huck always has the deer in the headlights look
the huckster has signed on bush foreign policy disaster john bolton to his campaign, looks like another neocon in sheeps clothing…well, at least now it’s out in the open.
For more background on Mike Huckabee the dangerous extremist and radical reactionary, see:
- “Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee’s Extremism.”
- “10 More Moments in Mike Huckabee’s Extremism.”
The greatest commandment from the Good Book. From the Gospels of Mark (12:28–34) and of Matthew (22:34-40):
1.One should love God with one’s entire heart, soul, mind, and strength.
AND
2. One should love one’s neighbor as one would love oneself.
Maybe Huckabee never finished reading.
This Moron is leading in the polls on the GOPig side. ROTFLMAO. The insanity shall still reigh supreme in republican party. I hadn’t really realized how many imbeciles and ingnoramuses lived in my country. The inmates are running the asylums.
I think Huckabee
is starting to collapse
heh…
This man is a caricature of Bush… like he’s had too much sugar.
kaT @ 11:
“There aren’t any jobs Americans won’t do???? How many Americans do you see lined up in front of the chicken plucking plants to get less than minimum wage? Hell, teenagers think they are too good to work at McDonalds, you think they are going to pluck chickens, or slaughter pigs on slave wages? Yes there are jobs Americans won’t do.
Well it’s happened. The bar has been set so low by CheneyBushCo, Huckabee thinks he has enough grey matter to be Preznit.
All Huckabee has to do is deny the holocaust and he’ll be the next president.
I seig Huckabee.
huckabee has no chance. never has and never will.
the only GOPer with a chance is hillary.
that is why ruppert murdoch is helping her fund raise.
iowa is going to hillary as we speak, thanks to her al-cia-duh buddy bin laden.
just like with g.w., bin laden tapes give the establishment candidate the surge they need.
somehow C&L bloggers haven’t picked up on it.
The funny thing is Huckleberry will get the nod before RP does……which is a good thing….either way it would be easy to rip them up in the general election….but Huckleberry seems easier to me.
Huckabee should go back to being a preacher. Most Baptists never question what their preachers tell them. It’s a much easier job.
The only reason Tim was so hard on Huckabee, is because he isn’t one of them. The very fact that he believes he is a true Christian scares the bejeesus out of the monied republicans who have just been using christians to get votes all these years. They knew it was just a ruse, but Huckabee is dangerous to them because he really believes that jesus crap. He won’t be there just to look after business interests. He is unpredictable, unlike Romney and Guiliani. He just might upset the apple cart.
I used to actually believe there could be no-one less qualified and more simple-minded than George W. Bush to run your country. I was wrong.
craig @ 27:
That’s why I won’t vote for Hillary. She is just more of the same and that is exactly what we don’t need right now. Edwards is on top of the economic collapse that is coming. He has been watching it and speaking about it for years. He and Dodd would make a good team. Dodd to restore the Constitution and Edwards to start repairing the economy.
I wonder what his little imaginary friend Jesus thinks about his lack of compassion.
Huckleberry wants to criminalize abortion and penalize doctors……….ok….uhuh!
foolme1ns @ 24:
Ummm…not so much anymore. I know many young adults with college educations who have not been able to move up from a Starbuck’s job. It’s very different today from a generation ago where, even if you weren’t able to have the career of your dreams, you could often depend on getting a job with a company that would allow for promotions within that company.
mudshark @ 28:
I agree with you totally. I want Huckabee to get the nomination as he has a preacher’s chance in hell to win the presidency. WTF happened to separation of church and state!? Thanks to people like him, Bush admin, and their skullduggery, I no longer believe there is a God. Religion is for the weak, the weak-minded, those with low self-esteem. They don’t and won’t take responsibility for their own actions and direct their own lives. If ill befalls, its the will of God. Not that they are responsible for their own undoing. If it was up to Hucksters, the earth would still be flat, computers would not exist, and we would have to kill our own supper.
Huckabee don’t know What The F**kabee he thinks!
Canuknotusa @ 30:
Don’t be so smug my friend. It is easy to stand on the banks and throw stones. Whoever leads our country, your leaders will be licking his (or her) butt. We are all at risk here.
Lack of respect for the rule of law vastly increases the possibility of tragedy. That axiom was proven on a fateful day in October after one American family’s tragic encounter with an immigrant who had made a mockery of the rule of law by coming to America illegally. Because of that choice to evade the law, lives were shattered.
In a letter in the editorial section of the Times-Republican, Mona Kilborn of Marshalltown, Iowa described the tragedy her family suffered. In her own words:
Looking for a better life? By Mona Kilborn
Many of us have heard the often repeated phrase, “They are just looking for a better life” referring to the illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. That may be true for some — we don’t know — but for some it is absolutely false. Case in point — our family’s experience with an illegal
The date: October 7, 2007. Place: 18th Ave. and Anson St., Marshalltown. Event: An illegal alien with a fake driver’s license ran 2 stop signs, crossed 3 lanes, and broadsided us at a high rate of speed and rolled our van over. My Mother: Dead. My husband: Broken back, broken hand, 4 broken ribs, many lacerations including glass still embedded in his face. My Dad: Eight crushed ribs, abdominal injuries and surgery, dead spouse. Myself: Dead Mother, lacerations, broken ribs. Another passenger with us — lacerations.
Now for the consequences. For the illegal alien driving — a stop sign violation. The fine — $0. Apparently when one is looking for a better life there is no money for fines! For the owner of the vehicle allowing someone to drive without a license — fines and court costs totaling $182. Apparently ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) took the driver and we assume she was deported. We have no closure as we don’t even know what happened to the woman who killed my mother. The court record states that she no longer requires supervised probation (for a prior charge) since she is out of the country. We do wonder if she is back in the US with new fake papers. We probably will never know. When others have been deported we hear wailing about families being separated. Our family was broken. In our case the illegal alien was into family disruption — our family. So we are left holding the bag — medically, emotionally and financially.
The consequences for our family have been somewhat higher! Already the medical costs are approaching a half million dollars. The amount of pain, both physical and emotional is beyond description. Family and friends have to deal with the loss of my mother — a very vibrant and active woman. My Dad has lost his soul mate and now lives with us as he recovers. Dad spent 2 weeks at the University of Iowa and endured surgery, ICU and unbelievable pain. My husband had surgery for his broken back, spent 2 weeks in the hospital and now 2 months after surgery is still working hard to recover. The lifelong implications are still unknown. I took a month off work and still provide care for my Dad and husband. As for the teen with us — who knows what the psychological consequences are? Plus the amount of paperwork for insurance is nearly a full-time job. Another hidden cost is the disability that my husband’s employer pays while he can’t work.
So the next time you hear the phrase “they’re just looking for a better life,” you might just wonder at whose expense. We accessed the Iowa Court online public information. What a list of charges we found for the driver and the owner of the vehicle that hit us. There was a long list including but not limited to methamphetamine, OWI twice, assault causing bodily injury, child endangerment — multiple charges, passing a stopped school bus, disorderly conduct, failure to have a valid license — the driver of the vehicle (to solve that she got a fake license), failure to have a valid license (multiple charges for the owner of the vehicle), serious assault, no insurance, failure to have vehicle registration, etc. When illegal aliens br
6. 12/30/2007 11:41:12 AM, enforcemnt, tulsa
I would be very concerned as many think they can keep a low proffile here in a state with many small out of the way towns and lots of rual unchecked jobs. In addition to the floods of illegals leaving Arizona becasue of its new employer laws which every state in this nation need to adopt. . Just imagine how many good legal citizens are being pushed to unemployment becasue illigals work for a lower wage and dont complain about insurance and like to be paid under-the-table as employers then dont have to report all of their earnings or payments. We as a state need to follow Arizonas example and put into place simuliar laws for operating license revocation for illigals bei