Bluey Blog - Official Blog of Robert B. Bluey

Jon Kyl’s Other Blunder

As if Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) didn’t already have it bad enough for his brokering the immigration deal, he’s now taking heat for opposing a bill that would give the public greater access to government information.

After days of trying to figure out which senator was blocking the Open Government Act, the Society of Professional Journalists, of which I’m a member, today narrowed it down to Kyl. He acknowledged he was holding up the bill, citing concerns from the Justice Department. He said he would continue to block it until the Bush Administration and senators could work out a deal.

The fact that the legislation is sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.), a former state attorney general and state supreme court justice, has me quite confident that the bill takes into account the executive branch’s concerns. Even if there are problems with it, why has the Bush Administration waited until now — two years after the bill was introduced — to do anything about them?

Kyl’s willingness to go to bat for the administration on this bill won’t win him many fans in the blogosphere. Bloggers should be especially outraged at his blocking the bill because it makes much-needed improvements to the federal Freedom of Information law.

UPDATE — June 1, 8:24 a.m.: Mark Tapscott has more on this story on his Examiner blog.

Grassroots Revolt on Immigration Prompts RNC to Fire Staff

Robert Stacy McCain at the Washington Times shared with me an incredible story: “The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors’ rebellion over President Bush’s immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors.” Reporter Ralph Z. Hallow will have more details in tomorrow’s paper.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why this happened. The combination of President Bush’s amnesty bill with a pro-amnesty chairman of the Republican National Committee, Sen. Mel Martinez, is a major turnoff to many conservative donors. Even before Bush unveiled the immigration deal he negotiated with Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.), conservatives harbored ill feelings toward Martinez.

Immigration Bill = Bureaucratic Nightmare

At least that’s how my colleague Jim Carafano sees it. He writes about the tremendous impact the legislation would have on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that would be tasked with managing the millions of individuals who have applied to live and work in the United States.

The New IC View

My alma mater’s alumni magazine has a new name and a new look. It’s now called IC View and the first issue of 2007 arrived this week. The website looks great, too. Kudos to editor Maura Stephens and her team.

On My Radar: Thursday, May 31, 2007

I just got done helping my colleague Robert Rector tape a video debate with Cato’s Dan Griswold on the fiscal cost of low-skill immigrants. It should be posted on National Review Online in the next day or so.

• The Case for Conservatism - George F. Will, Washington Post
• Rising to a New Generation of Global Challenges - Mitt Romney, Foreign Affairs
• Global Jihadists and American Spiritual Rearmament - Ken Blackwell, Townhall
• Putin’s Excuses - Peter Brookes, New York Post
• Darfur Genocide Has ‘Made In China’ Label - Editorial, Investor’s Business Daily

• Rachel Carson’s deadly legacy - Angela Logomasini, Washington Times
• Health costs, retirement will bust budget - Stephen Nohlgren, St. Petersburg Times
• Mel Martinez Focuses On ‘Entitlement Reform’ - William March, Tampa Tribune
• Wrong RX: Obama doesn’t know what he’s talking about - Michael Tanner, National Review Online
• Want Successful Kids? Stay Married - The Editor, The Influence Peddler

• A Cloud Hangs Over Ellis Island - Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review Online
• Bush insults his most loyal supporters - Editorial, The Examiner
• Immigration Bill is Unfair to Skilled Migrants - Monisha Bansal, CNSNews.com
• Local liberals learning new lessons on ‘diversity’ - La Shawn Barber, The Examiner
• A REAL Problem: Dems are killing REAL ID - James Jay Carafano, National Review Online

Lurita Doan Won’t Go Down Without a Fight

Quin Hillyer has the story on the American Spectator blog about Rep. Henry Waxman’s latest witch hunt against General Services Administration Lurita Doan. You may recall that Doan has had to deal with the smarmy Waxman once before.

A Debate I’d Like to Watch

The editors of National Review have challenged the editors of the Wall Street Journal to a debate over the immigration bill. With the two stalwart publications have vastly different views on the issue.

Jeb Bush, Ken Mehlman: Illegal Aliens Will Vote Republican

The Wall Street Journal is at it again today, giving the White House free rein over its editorial page. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman do their best to sell the amnesty deal to a skeptical public and enraged conservative base.

With the latest Rasmussen poll showing that just 16% believe the bill will actually reduce illegal immigration, the White House is pulling out all everything at its disposal to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, Bush and Mehlman’s argument is the same rhetoric that we’re tired of hearing. They even have the gall to say the bill “reinforces the rule of law in a practical and fair way” (emphasis added). What’s wrong with just enforcing the law?

Just a few days ago, I wrote about the dangers of using public policy to achieve political ends. But today, Bush and Mehlman make exactly that case. They write:

Both of us have spent much of our professional lives working to help build the Republican Party. We believe this legislation will be good for the GOP. Hispanic Americans are natural Republicans.

Does that argument sound familiar? The White House told conservatives the same thing in 2003 when Karl Rove and President Bush strong-armed Republicans in Congress into supporting the largest entitlement program since the days of LBJ’s Great Society. The Medicare prescription drug bill, we were told, would guarantee Republicans the majority for decades. Three years later, the GOP was knocked out of power in Congress.

Bush and Mehlman must think we’re a bunch of fools.

UPDATE — 11:58 a.m.: Heather Mac Donald has a good piece on National Review Online countering what Bush and Mehlman had to say about Proposition 187 in California.

Romney: Optimistic About America

The following is one of a few clips from Mitt Romney’s townhall meeting in Iowa last night. Like him or not, you have to admire Romney’s optimistic attitude — a quality lacking in some of his competitors.

Bloggers Really Don’t Like the Amnesty Bill

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has done a survey of the conservative blogosphere on the immigration bill. The results surprised even me, one of the strongest critics of the amnesty bill negotiated by the White House and Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.). On the question of whether the bill would “secure the border and stop the influx of significant numbers of illegal aliens,” not a single blogger said it would. Now that’s unity.