California Conservative

That’s my initial response to hearing Ted Kennedy’s gloating statement after the first cloture vote passed. Here’s what he said:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., an architect of the bill, said he was proud of the vote, calling it “a major step forward for our national security, for our economy, and for our humanity.”

“We did the right thing today because we know the American people sent us here to act on our most urgent problems. We know they will not stand for small political factions getting in the way,” Kennedy said in a statement following the vote.

This debate is typical of Sen. Kennedy’s complete willingness to throw the truth under the proverbial bus if it gets in the way of his agenda. He’s been so corrupt for so long that he wouldn’t know the truth if it hit him flush in the face. Calling this morning’s vote “a major step forward for our national security, for our economy, and for our humanity” isn’t just laughable, it’s utterly pathetic.

Calling this legislation a “major step forward for our national security” is a bald-faced lie. Sen. Kennedy knows that this legislation doesn’t mean a thing because he knows that President Bush isn’t serious about enforcing the borders. In fact, it isn’t a stretch to say that President Bush hasn’t been any more serious about enforcing the borders than President Clinton was about fighting jihadists.

The truth is that this legislation wouldn’t be a blip on the radar if President Bush and President Clinton had enforced the border. I’ve quoted Fred Thompson about this before but I’ll repeat his quote again here: “A piece of paper won’t protect our borders…”

He’s exactly right. President Bush signed a bill last October to build the fence. Thus far, they’ve built 13 miles of the mandated 870 miles of it. That document hasn’t protected our borders yet, Neither has the Bush administration. If he’d accelerated the process, I’d be inclined to trust him with border security. Right now, I don’t.

The other thing that makes Sen. Kennedy’s quotes so laughable is the role NCLR played throughout this process:

Controversial Latino groups, including the National Council of La Raza, were granted virtual veto power over the immigration bill hammered out yesterday by Senate Republicans, Democrats and the White House, the Washington Post reported.

The Post said the Latino groups “were practically in the room” as Democratic and Republican senators negotiated the bill, which would grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, create a temporary worker program and increase border security.

As I’ve pointed out before, here’s NCLR’s highest political priority:

The primary focus of these activities is to encourage immigration policies that are fair and nondiscriminatory, to encourage family reunification, and to enact necessary reforms to the current immigration system.

When they say that family reunification is their priority, that says that they not only want the 12-20 million illegal immigrants made legal; they also want close relatives to be legalized.

I’m betting that my good friend King would say that we should be cautious anytime fair is used in a policymaking situation because it’s such a subjective term. I couldn’t agree more. Furthermore, I don’t know what nondiscriminatory means in this context. I suspect it’s a weasel word, too.

James Inhofe has been a true leader in fighting this legislation. He’s been instrumental in the creation of a new website called Secure Borders Now. One of the website’s features is a blog, complete with a post about action alerts.

After I signed the petition, I got an email with suggestions on how we can most effectively lobby our senators and representatives. Here are some of the practical things that we should do to make our voices heard:

I’m sharing four steps we must take now to defeat this bill.

Some Senators who voted to reconsider the immigration bill have indicated they may still vote against cloture to end debate. Their explanation is they want to see how the bill looks after amendments. It is up to us to show them that this bill, in spite of almost any amendments that are tacked on to it, is unacceptable to the American people!

Step One: Amendments
Learn about the amendments that anti-amnesty and pro-border security Senators will be introducing that force security before path to legalization. Click here to be brought to the Secure Borders Now blog on amendments that will help defeat this bill. We will continue to keep it up to date with the latest information.

Step Two: Call Senators Who Voted For Cloture
After learning about the amendments, call the Senators who voted to limit debate and proceed to a final vote. We will keep the list of Senators we can influence up to date on the Secure Borders Now blog as well. Click here to learn whose minds we can change and how to reach them.

Step Three: More Voices = More Power
Senator Inhofe will continue to present updates to the petition to his fellow Senators. Spread the word about the Secure Borders Now petition to your family, your friends, and people in your community. We’ve already prepared a forward to friends invitation e-mail and form. Click here to forward the petition to up to five of your friends.

Step Four: Positive Reinforcement
All Senators are under tremendous pressure from the Senate’s Democrat Leadership and the White House to vote in favor of the amnesty bill. Click here to see the Senators who voted against the reintroduction of the immigration bill.

Call them and thank them for their vote and encourage them to continue holding strong against this bill.

I strongly encourage everyone to follow this link to sign the petition. (Remember to include your zip code when you sign the petition.) The Secure Borders Now staff will break the signatures down by House district, then they’ll deliver the signatures to each House member so they know how determined we are to get serious about border enforcement.

There’s alot more battles to be fought on this issue so it’s important that we stay engaged in the fight. Yesterday’s successful cloture vote was a major disappointment for the activists that have fought this battle. It’s ok to be disappointed or angry with the outcome of the vote. That’s natural. There’s too much at stake here to leave the battlefield now, though. It’s now time to redouble our efforts, though. It’s time that we reminded legislators like Ted Kennedy that the Preamble starts with “We The People”, not “We The Senators”.

It’s time that we sent them the message that voting for bad national security legislation isn’t just unacceptable. It’s time that we said that voting for bad national security legislation will cut their political careers short.

Voting against cloture the only acceptable vote.

Technorati Tags: Ted Kennedy, President Bush, Illegal Immigration, NCLR, Cloture, James Inhofe, Activism, National Security, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 1:59 am and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Blogging, Corruption, Election 2008, Homeland Security, Immigration, Special Interests, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.