At Tea Party Convention, Lou Dobbs Avoids Immigration Issues

[pampango]

Source: The Nation

When Lou Dobbs stepped onto the stage as the closing keynote speaker of the Virginia Tea Party Patriot’s Convention in Richmond on Saturday, he was greeted by exuberant screams, the waving of American flags and declarations of love. Many were sympathetic to Dobbs’s plight – Dobbs has come out strongly against employers of illegal immigrants – and put the blame on the shoulders of the companies through which he subcontracted the work.

Following Isabel Macdonald’s investigative piece published last week in The Nation, outing the conservative pundit and political hopeful for relying on undocumented workers to maintain his estate and show jumping horses, Dobbs has certainly been doing a lot of talking. In the two days leading up to his appearance at the “Constitution Still Matters” themed convention, Dobbs has been defending himself against what he characterized as a “smear campaign” on his radio show, MSNBC and Good Morning America.

Those in the Tea Party movement who criticized Dobbs had been doing so long before Macdonald’s article appeared, mostly because they think Dobbs’ stance on immigration is too liberal. “It seems like they always get them this way, everybody who runs,” said William Buchanan, legislative director for the American Council for Immigrant Reforms (ANCIR) (an organization that not only opposes amnesty for undocumented workers but also advocates a decrease in legal immigration), referring to Dobbs and California’s Meg Whitman while manning his booth. “But I’m skeptical of the man anyway because Dobbs is for legal immigration… and from an environmental point of view, that’s just disastrous. And obviously there are cultural issues. Anybody can be an American, any race and culture, but you have to assimilate.”

When Congressman Virgil Goode entered the room mid-seminar – welcomed with a standing ovation – he gave an impromptu speech stating: “If we are going to secure, to take back America, we’re going to have to reduce legal and illegal immigration because if we don’t, as my father said, ‘we’re going to be in a hole so deep hope will be a stranger and mercy will never reach us.’”



Read more: http://www.thenation.com/article/155310/tea-party-convention-lou-dobbs-avoids-immigration-issues

[alp227]

1. Evasive just to hide the truth from the sheep n/t