California Conservative

According to this Washington Times article, President Bush has committed to building the border fence.

President Bush yesterday pledged to follow through on building 698 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border but said that the Department of Homeland Security will decide where and that he wants sensors and cameras to watch the border. “We’re going to do both,” Mr. Bush said at a press conference yesterday. “We’re just going to make sure that we build it in a spot where it works.”

Alot of bloggers, especially Michelle Malkin, have believed that President Bush would attempt to thwart the Secure Fence Act’s intentions. While I’ve been disappointed with President Bush on a number of things, I still take him at his word. This quote tells me that he’ll definitely build the 698 miles of border fence after signing the Secure Fence Act into law.

Captain Ed said that President Bush would sign the Secure Fence Act “somewhere between October 24th and November 1st.” Captain Ed also observes:

The White House considers this bill a front-and-center accomplishment and wants the boost to last all the way through Election Day. Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress (especially Bill Frist, I’m told) want this to get as much coverage as possible. After the signing ceremony, expect to see this bill get trumpeted in the final advertising push for all Republican incumbents running for re-election.

I’d be foolish to argue that this White House has been a picture of a movement conservative’s White House. It hasn’t been. It’s done too many things that have upset ‘the base’ to qualify as a truly conservative administration. One thing that I’d argue, though, is that Rove understands when ‘the base’ has to be paid attention to. Immigration is that time. Rove also knows that the immigration issue is something that separates the GOP from the Democrats. Furthermore, if there’s anything that Mr. Rove enjoys, it’s pitting a clear conservative message vs. the Democrats focus-grouped, incoherent message.

As Captain Ed said, this provides the GOP with a great burst of energy at just the right time in the election cycle.

Mr. Bush’s pledge of support for the fence bill drew praise from House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, (R-IL), who said illegal immigration is “a clear threat to our safety.” House Republicans consider passage of the fence bill a major victory in their push for an enforcement-first policy and are campaigning across the country on the accomplishment. “It should concern the American people that 131 Democrats voted against creating this security fence along our southern border,” Mr. Hastert said yesterday. “They don’t want border security; instead, they would rather jeopardize our national security and put Americans at risk.”

Don’t you just love Mr. Hastert throwing that shiv in at the right moment? “It should concern the American people that 131 Democrats voted against creating this security fence along our southern border,” Mr. Hastert said yesterday. “They don’t want border security; instead, they would rather jeopardize our national security and put Americans at risk.” OUCH!!! That’ll hurt right through Election Day.

Technorati Tags: Election 2006, Illegal Immigration, National Security, Karl Rove

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Domestic Policies, Elections, Homeland Security, Immigration, Liberals, 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.