Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is taking heat from some Republicans for suggesting that there has been some racial “code language” during the presidential campaign, and that race “may be a factor for some people.” Christian Morgan, the executive director of the Kansas GOP, responded that Sebelius was “off her rocker” and was “playing one of the most tired and divisive political games ever.” But former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently told USA Today that the race issue is very real and is everywhere: “There’s an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man,” he said.
Sarah Palin said during her ABC News interview last week that if Georgia joined NATO (which she supports) and Moscow attacked again, America might have to fight the Russians. “In other words,” columnist Trudy Rubin wrote, “the world’s two biggest nuclear powers would engage in battle, after avoiding such a catastrophe for the whole Cold War.”
“Are we really ready to go to war over Tbilisi?” Rubin asked.
She also asked for clarification from John McCain about what his views are. She noted that McCain has described himself as a “realist idealist” on foreign policy, but it is unclear whether he is more of a realist (in the mold of former Secretary of State James Baker) or more of an idealist (such as the neoconservatives who wanted to remake the Middle East).
Americans and Iraqis owe a debt of gratitude to Gen. David Petraeus for the fact that Iraq has gone from bad to far better over the past year and a half. Petraeus, who is becoming commander of U.S. Central Command based in Florida, put the brilliant counterinsurgency strategy he’d helped author during his command of Fort Leavenworth into practice in Iraq. And with the key assistance of Iraqis, he oversaw a dramatic reduction in violence and tremendous weakening of terrorists and extremist militias. It was largely because of Petraeus’ own leadership that he was able to thank troops Tuesday for having “turned ‘hard but not hopeless’ into still hard but hopeful.” Now the task of further securing Iraq belongs to Gen. Ray Odierno.
Several mainstream conservative columnists are turning on the McCain-Palin ticket, both for Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications to be president and John McCain’s cynical strategy of smears and lies. There is always some shading of truth in a campaign, on both sides. But we might have reached a tipping point at which there is bipartisan agreement that McCain has violated some basic standards of truth and fairness.
Every time the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stages a major raid to arrest illegal immigrants, it causes a stir among those who say the federal agents are hurting businesses and breaking up families. The most recent example happened in Laurel, Miss., where agents raided a factory and took 595 suspected illegal immigrants into custody. It was the biggest workplace raid in U.S. history. Some workers at the plant where the raid took place applauded as the suspected illegal workers were taken away. Employees had long complained about illegal workers being allowed to work more overtime and being promoted over legal workers. So what are federal agents to do? Ignore the problem, and let illegal immigrants continue to take jobs away from U.S. citizens? No. We suggest they be allowed to continue to do their job.
— Minot (N.D.) Daily News editorial
On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I call upon the Department of Homeland Security and President Bush to re-examine the use of work-site enforcement raids as an immigration enforcement tool. The humanitarian costs of these raids are immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society. For more than a year now, the department has targeted employers that hire unauthorized workers by using force to enter work sites and arrest immigrant workers. During the process of these raids, U.S.-citizen children have been separated from their parents for days, if not longer; immigrants arrested have not been afforded the rights of due process; and local communities, including legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens, have been disrupted and dislocated. As our government confronts the challenges of immigration, let it not forget one of its core duties: protecting the family unit as the fundamental institution upon which society and government itself depends.
— Bishop John C. Wester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is taking heat from some Republicans for suggesting that there has been some racial “code language” during the presidential campaign, and that race “may be a factor for some people.” Christian Morgan, the executive director of the Kansas GOP, responded that Sebelius was “off her rocker” and was “playing one of the most tired and divisive political games ever.” But former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently told USA Today that the race issue is very real and is everywhere: “There’s an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man,” he said.
