President Bush, who has been championing illegal immigrants for five years, suddenly is being overshadowed by Democrats who have made much of that issue in recent days.
“Everyone acts like the protesters are against President Bush, but he agrees with the protesters,” one White House official lamented Tuesday. “He’s just not getting any credit for it.”
Indeed, when 150,000 protesters gathered Monday on the National Mall to demand a guest worker program for illegal aliens, Bush was nowhere to be found. Instead, the crowd was electrified by the oratory of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Kennedy took the opportunity to demonize House Republicans who in December passed a border security bill that would make illegal immigration a felony.
“Some in Congress want to turn America away from its true spirit,” he said, drawing boos from the largely Hispanic crowd. “They believe immigrants are criminals, and they’re wrong.”
He added: “They say you should report to deport. I say report and become American citizens.”
As Kennedy and other Democrats try to take credit for the guest worker program, Bush is taking heat from law-and-order conservatives in his own party who believe the program amounts to amnesty. The program was a key component of a Senate bill that faltered last week.
Bush and other Republicans have been accusing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., of killing the bill for political reasons. They say Reid and fellow Democrats like Sen. Charles Schumer of New York would rather have an issue to use against Republicans in the November elections than have real immigration reform.
“Every day, Sens. Reid and Schumer stand in the way of action in the Senate on immigration reform, America is less safe and less secure,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Tuesday.
“Republican-backed legislation includes tough new provisions that will secure our borders and help state and local officials deal with the illegal population already in place,” he said.
But even Republicans who support a guest worker program worry that it will cost them the support of conservatives in November. They are hoping to make up that support from Hispanics, a burgeoning minority that has shown an increasing willingness to support Republicans in recent elections.
That is, if Bush can figure out a way to claim credit for an issue he was pushing before it became fashionable.
