The immigration compromise was the top issue on the Sunday morning show this week. On This Week, Fareed Zakaria gave his interpretation of the events:
Both sides have compromised significantly on principles, so it is what legislation in a large, diverse country should be. When people hearken back to the good old days, when there wasn’t polarization, and when people reached across party lines, this is what it produced. … It is not amnesty; to say that these people who you are not going to deport are finally registered with the government and have legal status. Amnesty means “no punishment,” if you look at any dictionary definition of the word. These people have to pay fines, they have to go through very arduous processes, they have to return to their home countries, the fines are not $5,000, it’s probably more like $15,000 fully loaded, it will probably take 13 to 18 years. To call that amnesty is to suggest that there is no option other than deporting them that will satisfy.
Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer were on Fox News Sunday, where they shared their thoughts on the proposal with Chris Wallace. Schumer said,
You have to learn English, pay a fine, go behind everybody else who’s been in line. It would probably take about 15 years. So those two are good things, and I think that’s a good balance in the bill. I have two problems with it. One, while I certainly believe that immigration–we need to bring in people who have skills, who the economy needs, we also need to take care of families so they can be unified. I think the bill is a little stinting on that. I’d like to see some changes there. But the biggest objection I and many Democrats have, which could be a stumbling block to the whole bill, is this guest worker program. It’s an additional program. Hundreds of thousands of people come in. There’re virtually no protections.
Graham echoed those sentiments:
I think we have struck the right balance here. We’re securing our borders. We’re controlling who gets a job on our terms. As Chuck says, this is by no means forgiveness. This is a probationary sentence for the 12 million” illegal immigrants currently in the country.
On Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich brought some historical perspective to the debate on Iraq:
But notice, there are two things there. First of all, even if you accept that this is a civil war, people have won civil wars. I devoted three novels about winning the American Civil War. And the fact is, civil wars are hard. But we also–I just did a novel on Pearl Harbor and the Second World War. The Second World War was hard. Guadalcanal was hard. If we’d had today’s Congress during Guadalcanal, the number of people who had said beating the Japanese is too hard, let’s find a negotiated peace, would have been amazing.
Meet the Press also featured an interview with Douglas Brinkley and Michael Deaver about The Reagan Diaries; not particularly newsworthy, but a fun and interesting read nonetheless. And over at the Face the Nation, Senator Arlen Specter said he believed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would soon resign:
Well, I think so. I think you already have six Republicans calling for his resignation. I have a sense, Bob, that before the vote is taken that Attorney General Gonzales may step down. … It is a very forceful, historical statement. Votes of no confidence are very rare. More than a century ago, one was leveled against a sitting president. And I think, historically, that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. And the most important thing, though, is the inability of the department now to function. I was about to say, U.S. attorneys met in San Antonio this past week, and there was a lot of criticism, a lot of dissension. And that department is very, very important, functioning for the welfare of our country.
