Staunch anticommunist Richard Nixon meets Marxist revolutionary Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972, launching a four-decade metaphor spree to describe unexpected political acts.
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich‘s staying power as a top-tier candidate will be tested by the less-than-hardline stance on illegal immigration he articulated in Tuesday night’s CNN debate.
Republican strategist Alex Castellanos called it a “Nixon-goes-to-China” moment.
Or will it be a Rick Perry-goes-to-Orlando moment in which a candidate plummets after running afoul of the GOP base on the immigration issue?
Former Florida Sen. Mel Martinez is endorsing Mitt Romney in the crowded GOP presidential race.
As a sitting U.S. Senator four years ago, Martinez’ endorsement of John McCain a few days before the 2008 Florida primary helped McCain edge Romney and effectively clinch the Republican nomination. Martinez and McCain were cosponsors of immigration reform legislation that many in the GOP criticized as “amnesty.” Romney has emphasized a tough-on-illegals immigration stance in his 2012 campaign and blasted rival Rick Perry for supporting in-state tuition benefits in Texas for the children of illegal immigrants.
Says Martinez in a statement released by the Romney campaign this morning: “I have great confidence that Mitt Romney is the candidate to get our country back on track. Unemployment remains a pressing issue both in Florida and across the nation. Now more than ever, we need a leader who will get our country’s fiscal house in order. From his experience in the private sector, Mitt Romney understands how the real economy works and how jobs are created. As Governor of Massachusetts, he balanced the budget without raising taxes. I am proud to support him.”
Talking tough on illegal immigration helped Rick Scott score an upset Republican primary win in last year’s Florida governor’s race. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is betting the issue will sour GOP primary voters in Florida and elsewhere on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who supports granting in-state college tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants in Texas.
A new web video from the Romney campaign associates Perry’s position with President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and features a clip of former Mexican President Vicente Fox praising Perry for the Texas policy.
There’s also a clip of Perry from last week’s GOP debate in Orlando saying opponents of the program “don’t have a heart” — a statement that angered many conservatives as much as the program itself.
Gov. Rick Scott drew cheers from Presidency 5 delegates Saturday, saying he expected the winner of the Florida Republican primary to emerge as the party’s nominee — with a key first step on that path being the upcoming straw poll.
“You will send a very strong signal about who will be America’s choice,” Scott told the 3,000 delegates. ”As Florida goes, so goes the nation. And as you go, so goes Florida.”
Scott pointed out that victories in straw polls at earlier installments of the party convention gave an important push to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. Later though, speaking to reporters, the governor conceded that Saturday’s outcome may not prove so decisive.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is close to Scott. is narrowly leading in Florida over second-place Mitt Romney, according to a poll this week. But Perry stumbled in Thursday night’s nationally televised debate, and his struggle to explain his stance on illegal immigration seems to have cost him support among at least a portion of P-5 atttendees.
“There’s all these expectations games, I didn’t have to deal with that in my race,” Scott said. “If he doesn’t win, he’ll be frustrated. But I think the positives are that whoever wins, it shows what people in this state are thinking about. If you want people to be active in your campaign, these are the issues you need to focus on, and have a message.
“I personally believe that the most important message is going to be jobs,” Scott added. “But we’ll see….this is the real group of activists, the people who care about this race today.”
While Florida delegates may not send as clear a message as they have in past conventions, Scott drew cheers from the crowd with a direct attack on President Obama. He recalled the 2000 presidential election, marked by hanging-chad and voter confusion.
“There were all those Palm Beach voters who couldn’t believe they voted for Pat Buchanan,” Scott remembered. “Well, since 2008, I’ve met people all over the country who can’t believe they’ve voted for Barack Obama. I’m absolutely convinced, they’ll get it right next year.”
Scott described Saturday’s speech as among the three biggest of his short political career. His inaugural address, his State of the State speech to open this year’s Legislature also are up there, the governor said.
For Scott, the speech also placed the one-time political outsider firmly within Florida’s Republican establishment.
Scott also brought many in the crowd to their feet by boasting that he had not wavered from his stance that “businesses create new jobs, not government and for “sticking to my principles.”
“I did not run to be voted most popular, I ran so that Florida could be most likely to succeed,” Scott said.
ORLANDO — In asking a question about abortion at a Republican Senate candidates forum today, conservative Tampa radio host Bill Bunkley veered from the usual moral arguments into a discussion of the U.S. labor force, illegal immigration, the future solvency of Social Security and the changing demographics of Europe.
Here’s Bunkley’s preamble:
“Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, most estimates put the number of aborted unborn children in America around 50 million. Arguably, that loss has been one of the contributing factors leading to an ongoing shortage of available domestic workers, and practically speaking, workers who would have filled the gap of jobs held by illegal aliens and by workers who would have been contributing to provide financial resources for the future Social Security and Medicaid payments. In Europe we are witnessing the impact of long-term declining growth rates that will soon change the face of many of their countries.”
Then Bunkley asked the candidates’ positions on abortion and the recent vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
In their answers, Adam Hasner, George LeMieux, Mike McCalister and Craig Miller all proclaimed themselves opposed to abortion and steered clear of matters like immigration and Social Security
Immigration is at the top of Gov. Rick Scott’s legislative priorities when lawmakers reconvene in January, the first-term governor told Northwest Florida conservative radio talk show host Burnie Thompson today.
Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on any immigration proposals during the session that ended in May.
“We should have done an immigration bill. The federal government should be securing our borders. They should have a logical, national immigration policy, a good work visa program policy. But if people are in our state illegally we should be able to ask them if they’re legal or not if they’re doing something wrong and violating our laws. That’s one thing we ought to be doing,” Scott told Thompson, a talk show host on Panama City Beach’s WYOO 101.1 FM.
Other Scott priorities include property and auto insurance reform and restricting how school districts spend money, he said.
Scott, who spends part of his days reaching out to corporate leaders and encouraging them to set up shop in the Sunshine State, challenged all Floridians to follow his lead. Scott has pledged to create 700,000 in seven years.
“I want everybody in this state to call somebody and say, ‘Look why don’t you move your company here?’ Any feelers they get give my office a call because I’ll make the phone call with them to make it happen. We have 19 million people in our state. If all of us get active on economic development, everybody in this state will have an opportunity for a job,” he said.
Read what Scott said about insurance and education after the jump. (more…)
Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein weighs in on The Palm Beach Post’s opinion page today with a column that highlights the the GOP’s internal division on illegal immigration.
Dinerstein laments the GOP-controlled Florida legislature’s failure to pass an “E-Verify” bill requiring businesses to use a federal database to check on in the immigration status of workers. While Dinerstein is part of a large contingent of Republicans who favor E-Verify as a way to crack down on illegal immigrants, others in the party view the system as a government intrusion that raises costs and enlists businesses as immigration police.
The latter sentiment had enough supporters among Republican legislators to thwart the bill Dinerstein and other Republicans favored. Says Dinerstein: “From my vantage point as a Republican Party official I can truly say that our recent performance in Tallahassee on this issue did not make me proud.”
As the Senate began debating the budget in anticipation of a vote late this evening, President Mike Haridopolos dropped into the press gallery to chat with reporters at the close of the 60-day legislative session.
Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, boasted that he’s achieved the goals he set out at the onset of the 60-day legislative session: a balanced budget, no new taxes, Medicaid reform, and passing “Smart Cap,” the proposed constitutional amendment limiting how much government can spend he’s championed for 11 years.
The result is “hopefully that people will be able to see Florida as a business-friendly state,” he said. “That was my goal and I’m happy to report on the final day of session we met those goals.”
But cutting $3.6 billion from the state budget without raising taxes and creating sweeping new policies on Medicaid, education and pensions wasn’t easy, Haridopolos said, .
“This was a very difficult year, a very trying year in many cases,” he said.
The biggest – if not only – issue left undone is immigration, Haridopolos said. The Senate passed its measure but House Speaker Dean Cannon said the proposal is dead because it doesn’t go far enough for the super-majority of his 120 members needed to take it up.
Haridopolos said he hoped the House would consider what he called solid, common-sense legislation that would deport criminals after their sentences are served and would have required anyone receiving state or federal benefits be a legal resident of the state.
“Too often politicians operate through bumper stickers,” Haridopolos said. “This is what the legislative process is about…
It’s not just a public opinion poll that says do this. We’ll come back next year with more information.”
Asked how much influence Gov. Rick Scott – who Senate budget chief JD Alexander said earlier should take a “victory lap” – had on the session, Haridopolos said: “He was a rock” because “you knew he was not going to raise taxes” and would veto any measures that did.
The Senate president, also running for U.S. Senate in the GOP primary, took a couple of campaign-related questions as well.
Democrats are using a coloring book based on the single-copy book Haridopolos wrote and was paid more than $150K for as a fundraising tool on the last day of session.
Haridopolos shrugged it off and even signed a copy for Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo.
“Welcome to the NFL. I guess I’m in the NFL now and I’m playing on the field. Look, it says something if they’re constantly attacking me. So I must be doing something they don’t like if they spend so much time and attention on me,” Haridopolos said.
Then came a little bashing of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
“I think the contrast is pretty darn clear between me and Bill Nelson. Bill Nelson’s been in office since I was two years old.
And other than getting a ride on the shuttle, name me something major in this building, in Washington, D.C., that he has accomplished since I was two years old,” the 41-year-old said. “I like to think I get things done. He’s a person who holds a press conference….a press conference is not legislation.”
UPDATE: Rep. William Snyder insisted late Wednesday night the Senate plan is a no-go in the House. “I think it’s thoroughly impossible,” Snyder said. Even if he had the two-thirds votes to take up the measure – which he said he does not – he likely wouldn’t because it’s nowhere near the comprehensive change he supports.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos urged the Florida House to take up and pass his chamber’s immigration proposal despite House GOP leaders’ insistence that the issue is off the table.
“This is an issue we’ve talked about for almost a decade. I would trust the House to take up that bill,” the Merritt Island Republican who is running for U.S. Senate told reporters late this evening. “I think it’s the right thing to do…I’d like to see them do it. These are common-sense items I think everybody would agree with.”
The Senate plan is too weak for conservative Republicans in the House and too strident for Democrats to get the two-thirds votes needed to consider the measure, according to Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, the House plan’s sponsor.
With no debate, the Florida Senate quickly and quietly approved an immigration measure, keeping alive for now the issue the GOP-dominated legislature is unlikely to ultimately agree on.
The Senate measure, finalized yesterday after an emotional floor debate, would require work force boards to use E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential workers before referring them to employers and prohibit undocumented residents from receiving state or federal benefits. It would also allow nonviolent criminals to serve shorter sentences if they agree to be deported. And it would require law enforcement officers to make a “reasonable effort” to ascertain immigration status after someone has been arrested and detained.
The Senate approved the bill (SB 2040) by a 23-16 vote as dozens of immigrants and their children sat in the public gallery overlooking the chamber. The immigrants, a continuous presence in the Capitol who have stepped up pressure on lawmakers to abandon the issue over the past two weeks, left singing a song about freedom.
Despite the Senate’s action today, chances of the two chambers reaching agreement on the thorny issue remain close to nil.
House GOP leaders said they do not believe they have the votes to take up the Senate’s much weaker version of their proposal (HB 7089) that would require businesses to use E-Verify and give sheriffs, deputies and police officers the authority to ask for immigration documentation when they are pursuing a criminal investigation.
“I want to remind everyone in here that 10 of the 19 terrorists who attacked our country, directed by Osama bin Laden in doing that, lived in the state of Florida. I wish we would have had the E-Verify system … we might have saved the lives of 3,000 Americans,” Thrasher, a St. Petersburg Republican and one-time House speaker who recently served as the Republican Party of Florida chairman.
Thrasher prefaced his comments by asserting he wasn’t being “overly dramatic” but was he?
“Hijackers did live in Florida and obtain Florida driver’s licenses. But in order to potentially be flagged by the E-Verify system, they would have had to work in the state. There is no record that any of them ever tried to get jobs here. And as such, E-Verify — had it been used by Florida employers as Thrasher wanted — wouldn’t have found them or stopped their plotting. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!”
Thrasher’s plan would have fined businesses that hired workers in the country illegally but would not have required business owners to use the federal E-Verify system.
Trying to convince senators to support his amendment, Thrasher implied that the 9/11 terrorist attacks might not have happened nearly a decade ago if Florida had the E-Verify system in place.
“I will remind everybody in here that 10 of the 19 terrorists that attacked our country that were directed by Osama bin Laden to do that lived in the state of Florida. I wish we had had an E-Verify system because some of them were working. We might have saved the lives of 3,000 Americans,” said Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, a former House Speaker who also recently served as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
The Senate killed the amendment by a 23-16 vote after more than an hour, including a heartfelt speech by JD Alexander, the Senate’s immigration reform architect.
Alexander, a citrus farmer who also raises blueberries, crafted a measure that, among other things, would essentially exempt agricultural businesses like his from having to verify workers’ immigration status.
But he objected to Thrasher’s amendment after saying he could not find enough legal immigrants – or other workers – to pick his blueberry crop during the season that ended this week and expressing frustration that the federal government’s inaction on the issue was forcing state lawmakers to acting because of political pressure from tea party activists.
“Quit all these one-sided political arguments,” said Alexander, who is term-limited out of office next year. “I don’t believe it’s the right thing to do. The federal government should stop it tomorrow without a doubt. But we’re not talking about that…This is not our problem and we’re having this problem put on our shoulders and I resent it. And I resent it because we’re asked to choose between hard-working people and somebody’s uninformed knowledge” of illegal immigration.
Senate Rule Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, filed an amendment to the immigration bill (SB 2040) that would fine businesses up to $1,500 for each unauthorized worker hired after July 1, 2012.
Thrasher’s amendment would not force business owners to use the federal E-Verify system – which could cost up to $60 per hiree for small businesses – but would fine those who hire undocumented workers $500 for the first offense, $1,000 for the second and $1,500 after that.
Thrasher’s amendment also would force state agencies to use E-Verify before hiring new employees, something Gov. Rick Scott has done for current state workers.
Meanwhile, national groups are threatening to boycott Florida as they did Arizona if lawmakers approve legislation they deem would be a vehicle for racial profiling. The legislature’s Hispanic caucus also came out in opposition to the reforms today.
Left-leaning organizers, moveon.org, held a telephone conference this morning warning they are mobilizing boycotts and voter registration drives. They said the Arizona boycotts cost that state hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Our members in Florida and around the country are watching the legislature very closely today,” said Moveon.org executive director Justin Ruben. “Our members will take their business and their tourism dollars elsewhere.”
The Senate is slated to take up Senate budget chief JD Alexander’s proposed immigration reform today as Friday’s end to the legislative session approaches. Alexander, a farmer, filed a proposal that would essentially exempt the agricultural industry from the reforms but includes a variety of other measures that would make it easier to deport criminals who are in the country illegally after their sentences are complete. They could also serve reduced sentences if they agree not to fight deportation.
The House’s version, sponsored by Stuart Republican William Snyder, goes much farther and would allow law enforcement officials to request documentation if the individual is the subject of a criminal investigation. Snyder’s proposal (HB 7089) would also require that all businesses use E-Verify.
Senate budget chief-turned-immigration reformer JD Alexander filed a strike-all amendment this morning that would require work boards to check the immigration status of applicants but lacks any requirement that businesses use the federal E-Verify system to ensure hirees are in the country legally.
Alexander, a Republican farmer from Lake Wales, crafted the amendment to essentially leave the agricultural community out of the reforms because the vast majority of farm workers do not use the work centers to seek jobs.
The absence of the E-Verify requirement is a victory for the business community but puts the two chambers at odds: The House plan (HB 7089) includes E-Verify and the ability for law enforcement to request documentation of immigration status during criminal investigations.
In contrast, Alexander’s amendment, expected to be offered today, would require law enforcement officials to “make a reasonable effort” to ascertain immigration status after someone has been arrested.
Immigration advocates, who’ve thronged the Capitol for months and held daily press conferences pleading with lawmakers to
drop the reforms, had pushed for post-conviction rather than post-arrest checks of immigration. They contend the post-arrest component is problematic because driving without a drivers license, which some undocumented immigrants do, is a vehicle for racial profiling.
Pintado appears before a Martin County judge in February.
Manuel Pintado — the self-described “political activist” charged with sending an e-mail threat to state Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, because he disagreed with Snyder’s Arizona-style immigration bill — is expected to plead no contest today to a pair of felony charges and be sentenced to five years probation, TCPalm reports.
On Jan. 8 — shortly after the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in which six others were killed — Snyder received an unsigned e-mail that said: “You better just stop that ridiculous law if you value you rand your familie’s lives (expletive).”
Police say they traced the e-mail to Pintado, who was charged with felony counts of corruption by threat and written threat to kill or do bodily injury.
In Massachusetts, where the 47-year-old Pintado is a student at the University of Massachusetts, the Daily Collegian reported in February that friends and family describe Pintado as a pacifist who’s passionate about immigrant rights.
Hundreds of immigrants continued their protests inside the Capitol on Monday as Senate GOP leaders craft reforms that would ease up on the House’s penalties against businesses that don’t use the E-verify system.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos said this afternoon that the Senate will take up and vote on its bill (SB 2040) tomorrow.
Before and after the Senate’s lunch break, immigrants – many of them children – and knelt in prayer outside the hallway leading into the back entrance to the chamber.
During the recess, they swarmed senators’ offices – including Palm Beach County’s Lizbeth Benacquisto’s – pleading with them to abandon their effots.
Senate budget chief JD Alexander, in charge of the chamber’s immigration package, has yet to release his proposal. During the lunch break, U.S. Sugar – one of the many agricultural businesses opposed to the reforms – lobbyist Robert Coker was inside Alexander’s office as immigrants lined the walls outside.
Alexander’s proposal is likely to include a modification of the House’s plan that would require businesses to use E-verify when hiring new employees and punishing those who do not use the federal system by yanking their licenses to do business in Florida. His plan include a fine for businesses that don’t comply with E-verify and take out the licensing provision, said Senate GOP leaders and business lobbyists working on the deal.
Senate budget chief JD Alexander, a citrus farmer who’s now shepherding a developing immigration reform package, expressed his reservations about the push to deport illegal immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades picking fruit and vegetables for his colleagues.
Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said he’s concerned about the fallout from the federal E-Verify program to check on potential employees, something Gov. Rick Scott has already initiated for state government workers and a component tea party activists are pushing lawmakers to pass.
“My personal struggle with E-Verify is that many of these folks have been here for decades for good or for bad,” he said.
In “a perfect world” the federal government would control the borders but instead has given tacit permission for illegal workers to remain in the country, Alexander said.
“It seems challenging to suddenly ask them to not be able to be here. I personally believe we need a federal guest program to allow for some sort of normalization of these folks status where they can be protected by our laws without fear of deportation,” he said. “Because some of these things have been going on for so long, I’m personally troubled by the broad net that could be cast.”
Alexander said he’s having a hard time balancing his duties as budget chief and agricultural baron as he tries to get his blueberry crop harvested.
“I’m probably short about 100 people to get my blueberries picked,” he said, adding that he and other blueberry farmers can find less than half the workers they need to get their crops in.
“For all the unemployment there just aren’t folks who want to pick blueberries,” he said.
The Senate is slated to take up its immigration package on Monday. Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, had pledged that each bill would pass through at least three committees before being sent to the floor for a vote. But he reversed himself on the contentious immigration measure (SB 2040), which was heard in a single committee. Haridopolos also took the bill away from its sponsor, Sen. Anitere Flores, and gave it to Alexander this week. Flores, a Cuban-American Republican from Miami, refused to go along with the Arizona-style bill proposed by the House, sponsored by William Snyder, R-Stuart.
Hundreds of immigrants, including undocumented workers, and children whose parents have been deported have swarmed the Capitol over the past several weeks demanding that lawmakers abandon the immigration package.
The Florida Senate scrubbed a rare Saturday meeting scheduled to take up a Medicaid overhaul and possibly immigration reform.
Before breaking for lunch after the morning floor session, Senate President Mike Haridopolos said told his members that he is “going to give you a little bit of a break before you come back to work on Monday.”
That puts off until at least Monday the Senate’s discussion of immigration reform as Senate budget chief JD Alexander grapples with crafting a proposal he can sell to a chamber divided on the issue, let alone to the Florida House that wants an Arizona-style package. Yesterday, Haridpolos, R-Merritt Island, assured reporters that the Senate would vote on the issue before the session ends on May 6.
Sen. Anitere Flores, the Cuban-American Republican from Miami initially shepherding the Senate’s immigration plan until Haridopolos gave it to Alexander this week, summed up the difficulty.
“This is a severely complicated, complex issue where there are hundreds of different people that have hundreds of different opinions,” she said. “There are employment provisions. There are law enforcement provisions. There are business owner provisions. And there are just individual human emotions. There are political considerations. All those considerations are all there. To try and make that into a bill that you can get a majority of votes on in the House and the Senate is a problem.”
As budget talks on health and human services appropriations stalled, the Senate is moving forward with its Medicaid overhaul. Senate GOP leaders have not scheduled the immigration bill for Saturday, although only two hours of notice are required to add it to the agenda.
The Senate will take up its proposal (SB 1972) on Saturday along with dozens of local bills and Senate confirmations of Gov. Rick Scott’s appointees. But no word yet on whether the chamber will address immigration reform, still in flux as Senate Budget Chief J.D. Alexander, now shepherding the bill (SB 2040), weighs his options.
The House and Senate are both looking to put most of the state’s 2.9 million Medicaid patients into HMO-style plans. But differences abound between the two approaches. The Senate would divide the state into 19 regions, based on state court circuits; the House proposes eight.
The chambers are far apart on immigration reform as well. The House’s Arizona-style plan is on hold as the Senate considers a more moderate approach. (more…)
The city commission this week reaffirmed its opposition to any Arizona-style bill like the one proposed by the Florida House (HB 7089).
McVoy said the local officials object to the bill for humanitarian and financial reasons as well as concerns about public safety.
An Arizona-style bill could have a devastating economic impact because Lake Worth has so many Hispanic residents, McVoy said.
“These folks work. They spend money in the community. They pay taxes in the community,” said McVoy, who was elected in November.
The House package would allow law enforcement officials to request proof of immigration status during routine traffic stops, something that could be a huge financial burden to the city, McVoy said. And it could threaten the relationship police officers have with the Latino community whose members would be more disinclined to report crimes if the measure becomes law, he said.
McVoy and others said they want the bill to include a pathway to citizenship similar to the guestworker program recently adopted in Utah.
A fiscal analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress found the immigration reforms could cost up the state and businesses up to $45 billion, including $1 billion in implementation costs. (more…)
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