Immigration Groups to Target House of Representatives GOP

With Congress headed into summer recess and GOP House members headed back to districts where they will pander to the racists and white supremacists in the GOP base - most of whom, of course, profess to be godly Christian despite the fact that they are filled with hate towards others - pro-immigration reform groups are planning to target these GOP Congress members and perhaps convince them that doing the right thing should trump pandering to horrible people.  A piece in Politico looks at the planned effort.  Here are excerpts:

Outside groups plan to target more than 100 House Republicans over the August recess with an aggressive ground game aimed at persuading lawmakers to embrace immigration reform.

Their goal: prove that it’s not just Washington insiders who want a comprehensive immigration overhaul, but that conservative voters in their districts support it as well.

The unusually coordinated effort to win the recess includes a major grass-tops initiative by pro-reform groups like American Action Network, the Partnership for a New American Economy, Republicans for Immigration Reform and others to connect local business leaders, mayors, pastors and activists with GOP lawmakers on their home turf.

“During the previous debate when President [George W.] Bush pushed for immigration reform, there was no grass-roots effort and a loud minority that opposes reform controlled the dialogue. This time, proponents of reform are not going to be caught off-guard.” 

Unions and other immigration activist groups like the SEIU, AFSCME, the National Council of La Raza and others are going to lay out their immigration reform summer plan Wednesday on Capitol Hill that includes holding hundreds of events in districts across the country in an effort to target key lawmakers while members are at home during August.

Of course, the reform groups won’t have the battlefield to themselves.  Groups like NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, who oppose the Senate’s immigration bill, have plans to gin up activists across the country to attend town halls and vocally oppose reform.

But reform advocates believe they’ve got the infrastructure in place to beat back those appeals.  Pro-reform outside groups have been coordinating in recent weeks in a nearly unprecedented way. Senior strategists from numerous groups are engaging in daily conference calls to ensure that they are targeting districts in a comprehensive way.

It will be an interesting spectacle to watch.

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Tea Party Mobilizes to Kill Immigration Reform

Besides hating gays - and modernity in general - few groups receive the wrath of the Tea Party crowd more than immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants and other non-white immigrants.  With the United States Senate having passed historic immigration reform this week, the Tea Party is virtually foaming at the mouth and the overt racism of the Tea Party is bubbling into open view.  With Congress in recess, the prime targets of their wrath will be members of the House of Representatives who they seek to intimidate and threaten into killing the any meaningful immigration reform.  Politico looks at the toxicity of the Tea Party and what the prospects are for passage of immigration reform.  Here are highlights:

Activists are promising to spend the congressional recess reminding lawmakers who support the Gang of Eight legislation what the base is capable of. Think loud town halls, jammed phone lines and primary challenges down the road — echoes of Obamacare three years ago.

“The anger is more intense now than it was in 2010,” said Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation. “They are more upset about the amnesty bill than they were about Obamacare.”

[T]he majority of conservative groups are looking to replicate protests of previous years driven by Obamacare, the 2008 financial bailout, the stimulus bill, cap-and-trade bill and other Obama administration policies, which propelled the Republican House takeover in 2010. But after seeing President Barack Obama win re-election last year and GOP senators negotiate with Democrats, part of what’s driving the tea party is disappointment with the result of their electoral efforts and disenchantment with the Washington crowd.

“Some of these people have been up there so long and have been insulated and live in this bubble and aren’t connected to to the real world,” said Amy Kremer, chairwoman of Tea Party Express. “It’s this attitude of: They know better.”

Former Rep. Allen West, who has hinted he might challenge Sen. Marco Rubio in 2016, pointed to hidden details in the Gang of Eight bill that could cause the conservative base to lose trust in their lawmakers.

Kremer predicted that Republican lawmakers will avoid public appearances and other opportunities that might lead to an earful from an angered conservative base when they go back home this summer. Taped town halls became a hallmark of politics in previous summers, as lawmakers were filmed facing angry crowds or uncomfortable questions on both policy and topics like Obama’s birth certificate.

Cindy Lucas, a coordinator with the tea party-affiliated Martin County 9/12 Committee in Florida, said she spent this week trying to sway Rubio from supporting the bill. Next week she expects his phone lines to be “melted” by conservative complains and his offices in Florida barnstormed by agitated constituents, but she’s already moved to the next step.

The issue of immigration now heads over to the House, where many conservatives, facing pressure from their base, have made it clear that they oppose any bill with a pathway to citizenship even with beefed up border security measures.

House Republicans and activists are pressing Speaker John Boehner to invoke the Hastert rule on any immigration legislation, which means he won’t bring the bill to the floor unless it is supported by the majority of Republicans.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who organized a six-hour press conference in opposition to the Gang of Eight bill last week, told POLITICO that conservatives who support a pathway to citizenship lose the right to be called conservatives.

“There are few times that are true litmus tests for conservatives. This is one of those times,” Phillips said.   At the top of everyone’s lists are two primary targets for the 2014 election: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham is a Gang of Eight member and Alexander is a sponsor of the border control surge. That list could also include Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Rubio in 2016.

It will be interesting to watch the Tea Party destroy Republicans and work to nominate utter nutcases akin to Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock who lost handily to sane Democrats.

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Lindsey Graham Warns GOP: ‘It Doesn’t Matter Who We Run In 2016′ If Immigration Reform Fails

The insanity and swamp fever that pervades the Republican Party base continues unabated and despite warnings that the Party needs to change course, the focus remains on pandering to the aging male, white supremacist elements of the GOP.  And when these folks aren't the ones being coddled, then it's the spittle flecked Christofascists who do not even grasp that they are slowly killing their own denominations not to mention the Christian brand as a whole.  The latest Cassandra is the Palmetto Queen, Lindsey Graham who is lamenting the GOP's future if immigration reform fails and the GOP retreats further into the racist world of the "real Americans" crowd.  Think Progress looks at Graham's warnings.  Here are excerpts:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — one of the Republican co-sponsors of an immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11.1 million undocumented immigrations — told fellow Republicans that the GOP will fail to exist if reform does not become law.

“If we don’t pass immigration reform , if we don’t get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who you run in 2016,” Graham warned during on appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press. “We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party, and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community, in my view, is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don’t do that, it really doesn’t matter who will run, in my view.”

[W]hile several GOP-sponsored autopsy reports have urged the party to adopt a more welcoming tone toward immigrants, conservatives are still comparing immigrants to bankrobbers, while voting to deport DREAM-eligible immigrants. 

During a separate appearance on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who also helped draft the Senate’s immigration reform measure and may run for president in 2016, would not commit to voting for his own bill.

Yes, you read that right. Congressman Steve King (R-IA) compared undocumented immigrants to bank robbers.   King, notorious for railing against any immigration reform efforts, used the comparison to argue that deporting people is “not a particularly draconian punishment.”

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