They just can’t help themselves… Nativism may be a long-term loser for the GOP but in the short term it’s nearly irresistable to Republican primary candidates looking for a leg up over their rivals. Mitt Romney came out with a double dose of it this week, attacking his two most threatening rivals for their failure to be sufficiently mean to immigrants.
First it was Mike Huckabee, who is beginning to look like a genuine threat to win Iowa. Romney took advantage of a question raised on Fox News on Wednesday, about a bill Huckabee had supported that would have included children of illegal immigrants in a tuition-break program for Arkansas residents:
Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who is still leading in Iowa, has decided that it’s time to take the gloves off with regard to Huckabee, who is nipping at his heels. Campaigning in Iowa this week, the AP reported that Romney told reporters: “Giving a better deal to the children of illegal aliens than we give to US citizens from surrounding states is simply not fair and not right.”
But what’s good for the goose, etc:
On Fox News, Huckabee responded with a dig at prior reports that Romney had employed groundskeepers who were illegal: “I guess Mitt Romney would rather keep people out of college so they can keep working on his lawn, since he had illegals there.”
Yesterday, Romney made another effort to tie Rudy Giuliani to The Great Brown Menace, blaming Rudy’s policies as mayor of NYC for contributing to the growth of the undocumented population in America:
As mayor of the nation’s most populous city for eight years, Giuliani created an environment that lured illegal workers by sheltering them from legal risk, Romney said.
“He welcomed illegal aliens to the city,” Romney told reporters after appearing before about 200 supporters at a hotel. “That sanctuary state of mind is one of the reasons we have so many illegal immigrants in our country today.”
Did Giuliani defend those policies? Or did he try to out-nativist the nativists? No surprise:
“Under Gov. Mitt Romney the number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed, while he recommended millions of dollars in state aid to numerous sanctuary cities and to companies employing illegal immigrants, not to mention the illegals working on his own lawn,” Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said in a statement.
One thing we’ve learned from the rhetoric of the race for the GOP nomination: whoever is to blame for illegal immigration in America, it’s apparently a Republican.
Something to say?
