by digby
We all remember when Ann Romney said that Democrats had handed her an early birthday present by saying she had never worked a day in her life at that fundraiser, but Mitt said a lot of things at that fundraiser too. One of them was this:
Predicting that immigration would become a much larger issue in the fall campaign, Romney told his audience, “We have to get Hispanic voters to vote for our party,” warning that recent polling showing Hispanics breaking in huge percentages for President Obama “spells doom for us.”
Romney said the GOP must offer its own policies to woo Hispanics, including a “Republican DREAM Act,” referring to the legislative proposal favored by Democrats that would offer illegal immigrants a limited path to citizenship, to give Hispanic voters a real choice between parties.
And guess what’s suddenly being talked up?
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has thrust himself into the raging illegal immigration debate, proposing a plan that would create a path to legal status for children of illegal immigrants — putting him at odds with an immoveable wing of the Republican Party on this issue.
It’s a risky move for a potential vice presidential candidate, and it puts presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in a pickle as he may have to decide whether to back an immigration plan rolled out by one of the party’s rising Hispanic stars, or stick to the strident anti-illegal immigrant positions he staked out during the Republican primary.
Rubio understands full well he’s swimming in turbulent waters. He invited reporters to his office on Thursday to talk about his own version of the Democratic DREAM Act, which would allow some children of illegal immigrants to obtain legal status in the United States. Rubio’s version does not have a citizenship option, as Democrats propose, but it would open the door for children of illegal immigrants who have completed high school to be awarded “non-immigrant visas” before obtaining a more permanent status.
The Romney camp is closely watching Rubio’s moves on immigration, and campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the former Massachusetts governor would “study and consider” Rubio’s proposal when he eventually unveils it.
Leave it to Politico to flog this story as if Rubio bravely set forth this risky piece of legislation without regard to his future as a “rising star,” despite the fact that it is obviously part of the GOP plan to lure Hispanics in November. They beat his sweet so very nicely.
The bill itself is a hoax and Rubio isn’t brave for putting it forth. It’s his job to be the designated Republican Hispanic doing phony “outreach” to the community. The problem for them is that the community isn’t dumb enough to fall for this. Indeed, the community is in a terrible position, caught between a Democratic administration that ostensibly supports the Dream Act but has deported more undocumented workers than the last Republican administration and a GOP base that would like to see everyone who even looks Latino deported immediately. It’s a dilemma.
But this does signal that Romney’s indeed going to try to thread this needle. And it’s not going to be easy. The real question is why the Democrats have allowed themselves to be compromised in any way with the Hispanic community with their cruel deportation policy? I doubt it’s bought them even one vote and it may have just given the GOP an opening they don’t deserve. It’s just another one of many political decisions that only make sense if they simply believe that the policy is the correct one and they are pursuing it without regard to the electoral consequences.
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