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Campaign 2008 “Demagoguery” a Not-So-Distant Memory, Former Rivals Obama and McCain Discuss Immigration Reform
June 25, 2009 6:27 PM
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report: Sitting in the State Dining Room with a bipartisan group of 26 Members of Congress to discuss immigration reform this afternoon, President Obama stated the obvious on the vexing issue: “There is not by any means consensus across the table.”
The President said that he is encouraged that after all the “overheated rhetoric” and the “occasional demagoguery” on the issue he’s confident the “responsible set of leaders” sitting around the table will be able to get something done.
And he praised the man sitting to his left, former campaign rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his work in the past on immigration reform, which significantly cost him conservative support during the GOP primaries and afterwards.
“He has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing,” President Obama said of McCain, “I stand with him.”
Despite the president’s condemnation of the “occasional demagoguery” on the issue, and his praise of McCain’s political courage, nine months ago then-Sen. Obama ran a Spanish-language TV ad in which he disingenuously tied McCain to anti-Latino racism, ads that McCain believes hurt him significantly with Latino voters, one that the senator and his top advisers certainly considered demagogic.
ABC News microphones picked up a clause from President Obama whispering in McCain’s ear: “…in terms of sucking it up on some of these issues.”
A source later said that the president was referring to both sides of the aisle having to suck it up and be willing to make take on some of their supporters in order to get a bipartisan bill passed.
That, too, is interesting considering the fact that McCain last year thought Obama unwilling to do so.
As McCain explained it when he made his case to La Raza in July 2008, when he and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., joined together to cobble a bipartisan coalition on immigration reform, “I cast a lot of hard votes, as did the other Republicans and Democrats who joined our bipartisan effort. So did Senator Kennedy. I took my lumps for it without complaint. My campaign was written off as a lost cause. I did so not just because I believed it was the right thing to do for Hispanic Americans. It was the right thing to do for all Americans. Senator Obama declined to cast some of those tough votes. He voted for and even sponsored amendments that were intended to kill the legislation, amendments that Senator Kennedy and I voted against.”
Sources say that in the meeting today McCain told President Obama that he and Democrats are going to have to take their “political lumps” and stand up to unions on supporting a guest worker program.
After the meeting, McCain told reporters, “I can’t support any proposal that doesn’t have a legal temporary worker program and I would expect the President of the United States to put his influence on the unions in order to change their position. Then I think we can proceed with negotiations.”
The president said that “despite our inability to get this passed over the last several years, the American people still want to see a solution in which we are tightening up our borders, cracking down on employers who are using illegal workers in order to drive down wages -- and oftentimes mistreat those workers, and we need a effective way to recognize and legalize the status of undocumented workers who are here.”
Though some on Capitol Hill have suggested tacking each of those planks individually, White House officials said the president wants all three covered in one comprehensive bill. The White House has tasked Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to work with members of the House and the Senate to start systematically working through the complex issues.
Officials said that behind closed doors the president told the group that he would like to have an immigration reform bill passed and on his desk by the end of the year or early next year.
When asked about a possible floor date for legislative action, McCain was quick to react.
“We’re nowhere near that,” he said. “We’re nowhere near that.”
-Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller
June 25, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)
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The American people have just about had it with John McCain and his stupid Amnesty Bill. This could do him in for good if he votes for any type of amnesty for 12 MILLION illegal aliens. This President is in deep doo-doo also and will be voted OUT in 2012! Can't come soon enough for me. In fact there is a move to kick out ALL incumbents, on both sides of the aisle. Sounds like a plan!
Posted by: Sunnyr | Jun 27, 2009 12:03:21 AM
LOL foghorn....he will not stand up to the Unions, that in itself is a joke! He has even gone so far as to hand them a grandfather clause in the new health isurance reform bill whereby those who belong to unions will NOT be taxed on private health care but those who do not belong to unions will be. Also, he needs the illegals votes, so immigration reform will, if it does during this term, not go anywhere until right after the elections. If it does, they will move the illegals to Georgia where apparently ones does not need photo id or a SS card to prove they are who they say they are in order to vote.
Posted by: kmday | Jun 26, 2009 2:43:10 PM
Obama stand up to the unions? First time for everything I guess.
Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn | Jun 25, 2009 6:51:09 PM
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