Monday, February 04, 2008

Medved's Misleads on McCain (and Immigration)

Below is a list of misleading and false statements which Michael Medved has made regarding John McCain and immigration.



1) McCain doesn't undertsand economics: Regarding McCain and his forgettfulness of the fact that he doesn't understand the economy quote Medved said the following responding to a caller (1/30/08): "Do you understand the context about that quote? That was a quote where he was with Phil Gramm, who taught economics for 12 years at Texas A & M"...and then he said that McCain was deferring to someone else regarding economic policies, NOT that he doesn't understand economics (he also said that McCain did the same thing when he was on Michael's show with Lindsey Grahamnesty). FALSE. Below is the exact line from the article:

He is refreshingly blunt when he tell me: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." Source: WSJ 11/26/2005

Note no deference to Phil Gramm. Yes, later in the piece it says "OK, so who does he turn to for advice?.....His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm" But McCain admits "I still need to be educated". How is there any way to interpret that other than as someone who isn't familiar with economics, NOT as someone who is, but just defers to those more educated?


2) The Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) Bill:

a) According to Michael on 1/28/08 (I believe) he explained that the CIR bill was a "compromise bill". Oh really? The Dems/Liberals got amnesty (or "earned citizenship") for 12 million illegal immigrants. What "compromise" did Republicans get?

b) Michael has also claimed that McCain NEVER, EVER supported amnesty. This has already been thoroughly debunked due to his Tuscon citizen newspaper quotes and the fact that the bill would have allowed everyone who received a Z-visa to live, stay, and work in the US forever.

c) Michael has claimed on at least 5 occasions (back in Nov and Dec 07) that Huckabee's plan only applied to illegal immigrants who had been here since age 5 and enrolled in school since kindergarden. FALSE. As factcheck.org pointed out, this simply isn't true. And when called upon it (by myself), Michael refused to correct the record and tried to change the subject to Huckabee's signing of the no-amnesty pledge (which had only happened 1 day prior).

d) Michael said on 1/30/08 "Most people who are here illegally probably would not get citizenship. Uh, probably a minority would get it..."

FALSE. Completely false. Not only would it grant citizenship to every illegal immigrant who had committed 2 or fewer misdemeanors, it would have allowed anyone with a Z-visa to stay here forever.

e) Michael said on 1/30/08 "..and I know that Governor Romney has run ads saying that McCain supports social security benefits for illegals. He does not. He is opposed to it. He has never favored it."

Then why did McCain vote against a bill that would have prevented "former" illegal immigrants from receiving social security benefits for the time they worked illegally. It's true that McCain isn't for social security benefits for "current" illegal immigrants, because the illegal immigrants would then become "legal" immigrants under his bill.

f) Michael said on 1/30/08 "...Anyone who has actually read that bill or taken a look at what was actually talked about, rather than what was demagogued about; for people to pretend that this status quo is preferable to all of the positive changes that woul dhave been part of the immigration bill.."

First, the reason people were upset with it was because they did read the mammoth (1000+ page) bill and find all the hidden things in it (or lacking from it). Such as the following

1) the illegal immigrants received the Z-visa's before the "enforcement triggers" were in place. So while it is true that the citizenship process does not begin until the borders are supposedly secured, they still would have been allowed to stay here forever on a Z-visa regardless of the border being enforced.

2) The bill only barred criminals who had committed 1 felony or 3 misdameanors from getting citizenship. Thus, a criminal who committed 2 misdemeanors would still have been allowed to stay.

3) Illegal immigrants are not required to learn English for 10 years (including both the 1st and 2nd 4-year Z-visa applications).

4) Affidavit's from non-relatives will count as valid documents to prove an illegal immigrants validity to receive a Z-visa and eventually citizenship.

And there are many more listed here on Jeff Sessions website. (Note this is about the original bill introduced, not the Clay Pigeon amendment introduced late).

Second, Michael and others repeatedly talk about passing the bill vs doing nothing as the only two possibilities when it comes to immigration reform. This simply isn't true. The Border fence bill was already passed back in 2006. Members of the House of Reps introduced the S.A.V.E. act (summary here) which contains most of the same enforcement provisions without any of the amnesty provisions. So this argument about doing nothing vs doing CIR is a false one.

3) McCain's liberal tendencies: Medved said on 1/30/08: "On what issues is McCain a left-winger?"

a) Campaign-Finance (McCain-Feingold---he even supported the law when Wisconsin Right-to-Life challenged it to the Supreme Court)

b) Immigration (see the section above):

c) Guantanamo/Torture: McCain said he would close Guantanamo which would move enemy combatants to our criminal courts.

d) Global Warming: McCain said "I would reaffirm my commitment to address the issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important this is in Europe in particular." And don't forget about McCain-Leiberman

4) Primary Election Results: Michael said on 1/30/08 "Conservatives in this Florida primary supported McCain. They did. He won narrowly among so-called conservatives..."

FALSE. Read the headline of this article: "Exit polls: Conservatives choose Romney over McCain" or in more detail: "According to the exit polls, 62 percent of primary voters identified themselves as conservative and 37 percent of them voted for Mitt Romney, compared to the 29percent who went for McCain. "