Iraq, Political wind

Dems vows same timetable, Bush vows second veto

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The Washington Times reported this morning that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would again include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in the bill they plan to send President Bush just before Memorial Day:

“Whether [the president] vetoes the bill or not is up to him,” said Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat. “We have a responsibility to the American people, and we’re going to live up to that every minute of the next week.”

Mr. Bush vetoed the $124 billion bill Congress sent him last month because it included a pullout timetable, and he has made it clear he will veto any measure that restricts funds or dictates military strategy.

“Whether waivable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries, to our allies and, most importantly, to the troops in the field,” Mr. Bolten said. “The president is the one who has the authority to act as commander in chief. He needs to be the one making those decisions.”

The Republican National Committee released internal poll … showed the majority of voters siding with Mr. Bush in the funding standoff … About 60 percent say war funds should not come with a pullout timetable, and 32 percent say Congress should withhold funds until the president agrees to a withdrawal schedule, according to the poll. It also showed that 56 percent of voters say that setting a withdrawal date lets the enemy know when they can win.

amnesty, Fort Dix 6, Political wind

Scrap this “comprehensive” immigration bill: Fred Thompson

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Congress is likely to approve the latest comprehensive immigration reform measure before the public even gets a chance to see it. Like all previous amnesty legislation, Congress is putting the cart ahead while the horse remains missing; illegal immigrants will get rewarded for breaking the law before our borders are secured. Former Senator Fred Thompson wrote this yesterday and offered an alternative:

No matter how much lipstick Washington tries to slap onto this legislative pig, it’s not going to win any beauty contests. In fact, given Congress’s track record, the bill will probably get a lot uglier — at least from the public’s point of view. And agreeing to policies before actually seeing what the policies are is a heck of a way to do business.

We should scrap this “comprehensive” immigration bill and the whole debate until the government can show the American people that we have secured the borders — or at least made great headway. That would give proponents of the bill a chance to explain why putting illegals in a more favorable position than those who play by the rules is not really amnesty.

Syndicated talk-radio host Mark Levin interviewed Senator Thompson last night. He said we do not have to choose between amnesty and the impossible task of rounding up and deporting 12 million illegal immigrants:

You can have attrition through enforcement. If we enforce the law with regard to employers — we have an eligibility verification system out there that’s voluntary and ought to be mandatory. If we made arrests. If we reduced the inducements, especially [what] some states give, some of which is against federal law and is not being enforced. If we talk a little straighter to Mexico and the fact their national policy is dependent upon the exportation of their own citizens… There’s plenty of things we can do to take care of this problem if we would do it.

You can hear the entire interview here.