Obama, Howard Dean speak up against attacks on immigrants...Rahm says "move right to win"

[madfloridian]

On Thursday in Florida Barack Obama accused Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs of causing a rise in hate crimes against Hispanics. This was Rush's home territory, and it hurt his feelings.

But far more than that...it showed a real courage on Obama's part.

Obama accuses Dobbs and Limbaugh

More than 800 donors packed into a Westin Diplomat Hotel ballroom Thursday night to pad Barack Obama’s war chest by another $500,000, according to this pool report of the evening.

In a speech to the crowd, Obama sharpened his rhetoric against some of the most vocal voices against immigrant workers and migrant worker programs.

“A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There’s a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year,” Obama said. “If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it’s not surprising that would happen.

There was another Democrat who spoke up about the scapegoating of immigrants by the Republican party as early as 2004 and 2005. At that time he was one of the few speaking out on it, and it was not well received by many in the Democratic party. They called it making waves and rocking the boat.

2005: Dean: GOP to Scapegoat Immigrants in Next Election

EDINBURG, Texas — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean (search) argued on Friday that Republicans will try to make immigrants the "scapegoats" in the next election.

At a rally, Dean garnered the loudest applause when he said Republicans would make immigration a pivotal issue during upcoming elections, as they did gay marriage and affirmative action in previous elections.

"Do you know who the scapegoats are going to be? Immigrants," he said. "In Colorado, the chairman of the Republican Party endorsed Tom Tancredo (search) for re-election. That is morally reprehensible. The governor of California, a supposed moderate Republican, invited the Minutemen to visit California. We do not need vigilante justice."

Many Democrats do not hold these views. One example the NC's Heath Shuler who developed an enforcement only plan that was praised by Tancredo and Lindsay Graham.

Shuler's enforcement only plan

Patriotic Democrats, led by Rep Heath Shuler (NC,) are trying to secure our borders by introducing the SAVE (Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement) Act. In addition to getting Democratic support the SAVE Act has managed to secure endorsements from Labor and Business organizations.

...."Amnesty supporters always say that both parties must come together and create a “bi partisan immigration reform bill.” Last Summer, Lindsay Graham went as far as saying “my job to work with Democrats to do hard things. This is no longer about immigration. Can your Congress, can your Senate, come together to do things that one party can't do itself?

Well, now there is a bipartisan immigration bill that actually reforms our immigration system rather than just opening our borders and granting amnesty. We need to put the pressure on members of both parties to support this bill!

The worst part of trying to get anything done about immigration was Rahm Emanuel's urging to "move right" on immigration. I was shocked by that, but he was doing it to win elections. The old way of politics.

Daily Kos, Down with Tyranny, Fire Dog Lake on Rahm's training sessions with DCCC candidates.

Fire Dog Lake

Two weeks ago he sent a DCCC-connected candidate training a video of himself haranguing congressional candidates to “move right” on immigration or risk defeat at the hands of Republicans. This is similar to the terrible advice he shoved down candidates’ throats last year, although then he was demanding they move to the right on Iraq, dooming the candidacies of Lois Murphy, Francine Busby, Ken Lucas, Tammy Duckworth, Diane Farrell and several others who went along with his demands. Yesterday Markos asked a blaring question at DailyKos: Is Rahm racist, or merely scared?. While walking the picket line at the WGA strike at Fox today Jane and I came up with the idea of inviting Emanuel over to FDL to ask him why he thinks adopting Tom Tancredo’s immigration ideas is a good idea and why he’s unleashed Heath Shuler to do just that.

And from Daily Kos.

It's got to be one or the other, because Rahm Emanuel is behind efforts to build Democratic support for the Shuler/Tancredo "enforcement-only" bill currently winding its way through the House.

Think about it -- our House leadership is strong-arming Democrats into backing a bill which is the central agenda of the biggest racist xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

..."So we won, didn't we? Not according to Rahm and the either bigoted or scared contingent in the House that is ready to -- once again and demonstrably so -- be on the wrong side of the American public on this issue.

Americans don't want hate-based anti-immigration rhetoric and action, they want comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and provides a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country.

It took courage to speak out when your own party leaders are willing to go with the right wingers to win. And besides Rush was livid that Obama dared do this in his area of the state.

Politico's Jonathan Martin writes that Limbaugh addressed Obama's remarks on his radio show today and said that the remarks hurt his feelings.

"I actually don't believe this. Barack Obama, in my own state, raising money for his presidential campaign called me xenophobic at a fundraiser," Limbaugh said. "I thought this guy was the unity candidate? Calling me a Xenophobe? Responsible for hate crimes? My feelings are hurt here."

I admire courage in our Democrats. I am glad to see Obama speaking out. I miss Howard Dean speaking out as well.

I hope that whatever Dean does when his term ends the first of the year that it will be something in which he can freely speak out. He has been the target of my state, and that is too bad.

[rosesaylavee]

1. Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat RACIST Idiot

Al Franken was right.

[democracy1st]

2. Lou bashes the hell out of anything remotely left of center on a daily basis

He and Oreilly have figured out that they can get away with this BS by calling themselves Independents. I watched his BS show for about a month a while back,and it was blame the immigrants 101 not a mention about the sorry a.. Republicans that are benefiting from cheap labor. He's been on Obama like cheap suit that needs to goto the cleaners and all the email responses I've seen is Democrats saying their fed up and are now becoming Independents,can't remember one Repub email.

[WCGreen]

4. Lou is just a ratings hound...

I can't watch the man anymore.

If something doesn't go his way he claims there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans.

It's shocking that this man is handed a microphone every weeknight to blather on about this or that or, more than likely, how every issue somehow, someway is connected to illegal immagration.

[pnorman]

6. I don't think that's really accurate, and many of his comments have elicited much praise here on DU.

But whether for opportunist/hypocritical reasons or not, he's tapping into the Dark Side of our Nation --- "nativism" --- racism --- xenophobia. From the time of the "Know Nothing" movement, through the KKK, the Yellow Peril", the ant-Semitism of Ford, Father Coughlin, & the rest, to the present "anti-immigrant" movement, that has always "sold well" to a substantial segment of this country.

That Barack has mentioned the topic at all, let alone spoken directly on it, shows rare courage --- PARTICULARLY from a "mainstream" politician who is so eager to win. For that alone, he deserves great respect, if not your vote & support. He's certainly got mine, and few here could probably "out-left" me.

pnorman

[dantyrant]

7. Agreed....

While not perfect, Lou Dobbs is one of the smarter ones on CNN.

My problem with Dobbs in particular is that he rails against NAFTA, and rails against illegal immigration, yet he doesn't put them together and link the policy with the produced effect. NAFTA decimated Mexico's farmers due to unfair US subsidies, and the corporations moved in and kicked them out. Guess where they went? And then, at other times, Lou can be excellent. Let's not confuse him for a FOX mouthpiece; he has his schtick but he's not thoughtless.

OT, not to get overly conspiratorial, but doesn't it seem like ethnic and social divisions are being deliberately exploited? Berlusconi just got into power, and now there's pogroms in Italy. Coincidence? The media seems to be trying to inflame racial/social divisions here too, and I don't like it.

[Ice-9]

3. It is refreshing to see a politician call those kinds of people on their BS.

It is so easy for a politician to succumb to the temptation to score cheap points by beating up on the scapegoat du jour -- whether it's immigrants, the Jews, Communists, whoever. Not a lot of politicians can resist that temptation and just say what's right. It's refreshing to see that.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Obama did a great thing! He deserves our support at DU for speaking out!

These are some journals I wrote a while back that collect some of the atrocities of the anti-immigration movement.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/98
"Most of these bastards molest girls under age 12": Anti-Immigrations Dark Underbelly of Racism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2371537
When Does It Become Fascism

I thought that Democrats had wised up and realized that Republicans were shooting themselves in the foot with their anti-immigration craziness. McCain is not going to run on an anti-immigrant platform. He is going to try to court Latino voters. Some local Republicans may attempt to use the issue but on a national level it is sure death to the party that attempts it. Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the country. They will vote Democratic unless we do something to drive them away.

We can expect to see Freeper moles on progressive sites attempting to stir up anti-immigration sentiment as they were trying to do last year before they got booted off. Maybe I should write some journals like those above.

[justgamma]

8. When Rahm recruited our candidate for Congress

he tried to tell him that he must move to the right. Congressman Braley told him that he would run his campaign his way or not at all. He ran as a liberal and won handily.

[madfloridian]

9. You should read the DWT post about Rahm's efforts...

and you will admire your congressman more. He really put pressure on them.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/training-democratic-candidates-to-win.html

[sendero]

10. Something the Democratic party had better accept..

... is that illegal immigration is a hot button issue and it is going to get hotter as our economy tanks.

I simply disagree with those who seem to think that there should be no border. I also disagree with those who think we don't need ANY immigrant labor, we do (for now at least, that could change).

America has the right to enforce immigration rules, and the people are going to pressure Congress to do it. It would be nice if we'd do it by assessing meaningful penalties on their employers, but so far we're getting ridiculous boondoggles like a 700 mile fence instead.

The issue is not going away and it will be one of the top 3 issues deciding the presidential election.

[OregonBlue]

11. I was posting on DU a year ago that the Repukes were going to make Immigration THE

issue of the next campaign and all I got was a lot of flack from my fellow DUers. I wrote to every single DNC, DLC CBC, Hispanic Caucus leader on this issue for months and months. It was so obvious to me, given the amount of vitriol the subject produced here on DU, that this was THE BIG ISSUE the Repukes could use.

So now that it's here, what will the Dem Leadership actually do? Will they put together a rational policy that everyone can agree on. One that will give cover to Dems in states with big immigration problems and not scare the bejesus out of Hispanic voters?

It's time for our "leader" to sit down and come up with a real policy. Obama is right, we are not going to round them all up and deport them. On the other hand, some states are being heavily affected and wages have definitely been driven down due to huge increases in illegal immigration.

God, where are our leaders? I fear that once again, in an attempt to not piss anyone off, they may have handed the elections to the Bush crowd.

[marmar]

12. The Clinton/Emanuel/DLC era of the Democratic Party must end.....

.... The 90s are over.

[Jakes Progress]

13. Really nice post about an important issue

that is getting lost. Glad to see Obama stepping in here.

This is an issue the republicans should not get their way on. Their pandering to the xenophobic and frightened is symptomatic of their craven nature.

[Bette Noir]

14. It's your fault

I keep reading DU instead of going to bed and getting some sleep.

Seriously, I'm a lifelong Latina,and I'm sick of the racist hysteria that gets whipped up against us every five years, or so. I'm a natural born citizen, dammit. My family has been in this country for 160 years. On the other hand, I have relatives on both sides of the border, and we're all just as human as anyone else.

[Disturbed]

15. Blaming the folks that get into the US whatever way they can

is placing blame on the wrong people. The people that take advantage of them
are the ones that need to be scrutinized.

[annabanana]

16. Rahm is an ass... He is scrabbling to hold onto

his rapidly shrinking power base. He's kind of like Wiley Coyote over the cliff..

"Hey Rahm!! Don't look down!"