Posted by
Always To The Right on Saturday, May 29, 2010 2:48:04 AM
Via TPM,
skip ahead to 9:00 for the key bit from this otherwise wide-ranging
interview with the Kremlin’s TV house organ. (Really!)
I’m as shocked as you are — shocked, that is, that this is considered
some sort of fringe position given that there’s already a bill
floating around the House that would redefine “natural-born citizen” to
limit it to children of citizens or legal permanent residents. In
fact, see if you can guess which fire-breathing, not-at-all-mainstream
wingnut is responsible for this
passage
The point of this attack on Paul, of course, isn’t really to suggest
that he’s fringe but to get prominent Republicans, who are
terrified of losing any more Latinos votes, to condemn him. E.g.,
“Senator McConnell, Senator McConnell! Do you agree with Rand Paul that
the poor suffering children of illegal aliens should not
enjoy
the joys of American citizenship?!11!?” And actually, it’s precisely
that logic that guarantees that the House bill would never be enforced
even if it passed and was deemed constitutional. The public’s simply
not going to stomach deporting kids who were born here and spent their
first, say, 10 years here, even in a post-birthright citizenship
political landscape. Which is why some form of amnesty is almost
certainly inevitable. Exit question: Er, are we sure Rand Paul’s a
libertarian?