I’ve been one of the few bloggers to defend Emanuel over time. Sure there were things to be critical of, but I never found him to be nearly as bad as the general consensus on blogs has had it and, in fact, his being an asshole routine works often times.
However, he’s lost me:
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and champion of Democratic prospects for maintaining their House majority in 2008, said, “for the American people, and therefore all of us, [immigration has] emerged as the third rail of American politics,” Emanuel said. “And anyone who doesn’t realize that isn’t with the American people.”
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% | ||||
War in Iraq |
26 | |||
Health care |
25 | |||
Economy/Jobs |
11 | |||
Immigration |
6 | |||
Education |
3 | |||
Environment |
2 | |||
Social Security |
2 | |||
Defense/Military |
2 | |||
Terrorism (general) |
2 | |||
Abortion |
1 | |||
Other |
12 | |||
Unsure |
8 |
CBS News Poll. Sept. 14-16, 2007. N=706 adults nationwide. MoE ± 4. |
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. |
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“What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Open-ended |
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. |
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% | ||||
War in Iraq |
28 | |||
Economy/Jobs |
16 | |||
Health care |
8 | |||
Terrorism (general) |
6 | |||
Immigration |
5 | |||
Foreign policy |
4 | |||
Poverty/Homelessness |
3 | |||
Defense/Military |
3 | |||
Misc. social issues |
3 | |||
Misc. government issues |
3 | |||
Other |
16 | |||
Unsure |
5 |
ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Sept. 4-7, 2007. N=1,002 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. Fieldwork by TNS. |
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. |
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“Thinking ahead to the November 2008 presidential election, what is the single most important issue in your choice for president?” Open-ended |
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. |
||||
% | ||||
War in Iraq |
35 | |||
Health care |
13 | |||
Economy/Jobs |
11 | |||
Terrorism/National security |
6 | |||
Ethics/Corruption in government |
6 | |||
Immigration/Illegal immigration |
5 | |||
Morals/Family values |
2 | |||
Other |
13 | |||
Unsure |
9 |
When it comes to [see below], which party do you think would do a better job — the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or both about the same? If you think that neither would do a good job, please just say so.” |
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. |
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Democratic Party |
Republican Party |
Both About The Same |
Neither | Unsure | ||
% | % | % | % | % |
ealing with immigration | ||||||
7/27-30/07 |
29 | 19 | 19 | 26 | 7 |
So, he has everything exactly wrong. Democrats do better on immigration largely because it’s a two sided issue with all of the those Latinos more and more voting for Democrats because the Republicans are horrible on the issue. Let them run the ads against Democrats–it will cost them as many votes as they get.
Immigration isn’t a salient issue other than in some very specific communities. One of those communities nationwide happens to be Latinos who voted more Democratic this last cycle because the Democrats were right on the issue with them and helped bring about a great election.
Rahm is now just pissing on key allies.
Illegal immigration is a Republican base issue that excites their base. It happens to excite our base as well. It isn’t what swing voters are fought over. You middle group of voters don’t think it’s an important issue. In terms of only illegal immigration, only a small group of conservatives are up in arms about it as the polling shows.
It’s a perfect opportunity to exploit the rightward pull of the Republican base by taking positions like Durbin and Obama do that work to find comprehensive reform that celebrates our diversity.
===And anyone who doesn’t realize that isn’t with the American people.”
The polls say differently as did the 2006 election. Don’t try and sell this to our candidates.
Welcome to the club. I’ll show you the secret handshake later…
AP,
I’m of the “he’s an asshole but he’s [often] our asshole” school when it comes to Rahm.
Here’s my baseless theory on Rahm and the immigration issue: The 06 race for the 6th Congressional district was very important to Rahm. It was his gal versus Denny’s guy. In that race, the wedge issue of choice for the GOP was immigration. Rahm’s candidate lost the 6th District race. That loss was very painful for Rahm.
Now it seems that Rahm believes that the toxicity of immigration as an issue for Democrats is proportional to the pain of the 6th District loss. But I believe that he has fallen for the logical fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc, i.e. he has mistaken correlation for causation.
Just because the GOP effectively used the immigration issue in the 6th Dist, that doesn’t mean that it will work for them elsewhere — or even that it would work again in the 6th.
Or maybe I’m just full of crap.
— SCAM
I had to revise the “I am in receipt of your invitation to raise $______ for _____ (acronym for a Democratic Party committee). At this time, however, I will donate only to Democratic candidates with balls. When the Party grows some balls, I will again donate to the Party.” emails to include a preference also for brains.
I am sick to death of hearing the fake opposition Dems in Congress moan about not having enough votes to end the war in Iraq. They give lip service to the myth that the only way to end the war is to write a bill saying “the war is now over” and send it to Bush for a prompt veto, then override the veto. They then throw up their hands, saying “Well, as you can see, we don’t have the votes to override any veto, so there’s no way to end the war. Sorry folks.”
This is disingenious and vividly illustrates who the Dems are really serving: the establishment, not their constituents.
Here’s how to end the war: No bill specifically ending the war is even necessary. Remember those supplemental funding bills the Cheney regime has to constantly ask for, to continue funding the Iraq war piecemeal instead of in yearly lump sums attached to the actual defense budget? That’s the achilles’ heel of their war effort. The next time Bush asks for another $80 billion or whatever to keep the Iraq bloodbath going, all the Democrats have to do to end the war is to say: NO. To say “We won’t allocate one more penny for your illegal war”. Last I checked the Dems have a wafer-thin majority in both houses. With no Dems voting for the next spending bill it won’t be passed and thus it won’t make it to Bush’s desk for signing. Bush (and especially his puppetmaster Cheney) may have concentrated an inordinate amount of power in the hands of the executive branch, but even they can’t send spending bills to their own desk. That necessarily has to come from Congress. If it never reaches his desk he can’t sign it, and will have 2 choices: 1.pull the troops out while there is still enough money left in the pipeline so to speak to allow an orderly withdrawl (and anyone who has five or more brain cells knows that the money isn’t going to run out the next day, that’s a non-issue that the right wing tries to use as a scare tactic but it is ridiculously dumbed down and simply not true; they don’t wait until they have $5 left before asking for another supplemental OK?); or 2.don’t pull them out right away, and leave them to wither on the vine in Iraq until the money DOES completely run out and they have to withdraw from Iraq chaotically, burning their supplies and vehicles. Either way the war will end pretty soon if the Dems refuse to vote on supplementals. They don’t have to write a bill saying they are cutting off funding; this is only a fig leaf so they can pretend to be doing something to end the war when all they are doing is purposely spinning their wheels. All they have to do is to NOT VOTE ON SUPPLEMENTALS. Pretty effing simple. The people NOW need to DEMAND in so many words that if the Democrats are a genuine opposition party that they will carry out the will of the people and NOT VOTE on supplementals. If they are a fake opposition party as I feel they are, and are acting not in the people’s interest but playing for the same team as the Republicans, then continue with more of the same hand-wringing and impotent nonbinding resolutions that resolve nothing. Decision time Democrats. Which are you? Genuine? Or fake opposition? I think I already know the answer to that one but why don’t you surprise me?
What SCAM said. When I heatd ‘immigration’ and Rahm, I immediately thought back to IL-06 in ’06. Maybe he’s thinking of districts with similar characteristic.
Or maybe I’m just full of crap.
Sorry: “When I _heard_ ‘immigration’ and Rahm…”
Or maybe I’m just full of mis-spellings.