Mehlman Invents A New Right

From GOP Official Urges Caution on Immigrants :

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urged his party Thursday to oppose rising anti-immigrant sentiments in the debate over border security and illegal immigration, suggesting that the GOP risks being on the wrong side of history and electoral politics alike if it embraces an exclusionary message....

"Throughout our history, there have always been Americans who believed that coming to these shores was a right reserved only for them and their ancestors, but not for others," Mehlman said. Citing Republicans and Democrats from earlier eras who had expressed anti-immigrant prejudice, he added: "Ladies and gentlemen, that was wrong then and those who argue that now are wrong today."

Many accounts suggest Mexican citizens believe they have that right, including their country's president. But under what theory of international law do foreigners have a right to enter the United States? Mehlman's speech, according to reporter Dan Balz's account, reveals how the Bush Administration's noise about tougher enforcement against illegal immigration is just for show.

Oh yeah--it's the illegal part that's driving most of us crazy, Mehlman, which is one reason we reject the latest Bush amnesty plan. Reporter Balz also falls into the same careless construction:

Bush long has resisted the most vociferous anti-immigration rhetoric in his party....

"America is a nation of immigrants and America is a nation of laws, and we must remember the 'and' between the two," Mehlman told the governors. Portraying most immigrants as hardworking and law-abiding, Mehlman said that Bush recognizes that "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande."

Illegal. Ilegal. Illegal.

At one time, the GOP was a party that promoted respect for the law. Seriously!