Archive for November 14th, 2012

Obama promises to push for comprehensive immigration reform by January

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:richard.dunham@chron.com (Richard Dunham)
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Four years ago, President-elect Barack Obama promised to push for comprehensive reform to fix a broken immigration system by the end of his first year in office.

This afternoon, at his first press conference since winning re-election last week, President Obama promised to push for comprehensive reform to fix a broken immigration system by next January.

This time he really means it.

The Democratic president said it is “my expectation” that a comprehensive immigration proposal will be introduced on Capitol Hill “very soon after my inauguration” on Jan. 20.

“We need to seize the moment,” he told reporters gathered in the East Room of the White House.

Obama was backed by 71 percent of Latino voters in the general election, according to exit polls, and 77 percent of  Hispanic women.

The president said the “significant increase in Latino turnout” in the 2012 election was an “incredibly encouraging sign” for the political empowerment of the nation’s largest minority group. The rising participation rates of Latino voters “is going to be powerful and good for the country,” Obama said.

In the short-run, he said, the Democratic dominance will “cause some reflection on the part of the Republicans.”

And that, he suggests, is “a positive sign” for immigration reform.

Obama said the elements of any comprehensive plan would include the following: strong border security measures, penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers, increased visas for high-skilled workers, a program for agricultural employers, a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants illegally brought into the U.S. by their parents, and a pathway toward legal status for illegal immigrants who have not engaged in criminal contact, pay back taxes and a fine, and learn English.

“I think that’s something we can get done,” he said.

Obama promised four years ago to aggressively push for immigration reform, but the issue was a lower priority than dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the president’s health-care overhaul. Comprehensive immigration legislation passed the Democratic-controlled House in 2010 but died in the Senate, where Democrats could not muster the votes to foil a threatened Republican filibuster.

Ebullient immigration reform advocates predicted today that next year would be different.

“It now appears that 2013 will be the year that Congress passes real immigration reform,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice Education Fund.

Sharry said Obama now has “made it clear that comprehensive immigration reform is a top priority for early 2013.”

“As he predicted before the election, Latino voters punished the GOP and its nominee Mitt Romney for lurching to the right on immigration,” Sharry continued. “And as we see now, numerous Republicans – from John Boehner to Sean Hannity to John McCain to Rand Paul – are gearing up to work with Democrats to put 11 million undocumented immigrants – including DREAMers and their parents – on the road to citizenship. This is a dramatic and welcome set of developments.”

Other pro-immigration activists put both parties on notice that they expect action.

“The demand in the growing Latino, Asian and all immigrant communities for politicians to deliver citizenship is only going to get stronger and that demand is supported by the majority of Americans,” said Marisol Valero, communications director of the United We Dream Network, the largest network of immigrant youth-led organizations in the country .

Conservatives — at least a few — declare war on the Republican Party

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:alex.yap@chron.com (Alex Yap)
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The political chasm is widening. A line has been drawn between two different ideologies, but not between Republicans and Democrats. This gap is between the Republicans and conservatives.

Ed Meese and Mark Levin discuss the impact of the election on conservative politicians. (Alex Yap/Hearst Newspapers)

“I think the Republican Party is devouring the conservative movement,” said radio host and conservative commentator, Mark Levin on Wednesday.

Levin sat down with former Attorney General Edwin Meese III at the Heritage Foundation to discuss the impact election mean for conservative politicians. The discussion was the final installation in the Heritage Foundation’s “Preserve the Constitution” series.

Since Barack Obama was re-elected last week, high profile members of the Republican Party have called for a new way to communicate. But Levin and other conservatives say that the problem is not poor communication — it’s establishment Republicans.

Doris Eisen was a registered Democrat for 50 years. She grew disillusioned with the party and believes the direction of the country under Obama is destructive, but she’s not a Republican either – she’s a conservative.

“It’s time for the old bulls to get out of the way,” Levin said. “I can’t even tell you what the Republican Party stands for.”

Levin’s disdain for the party doesn’t stop with two failed presidential elections. He said Republican politicians are “good at clawing their way to the top” but not at enforcing conservative policies when they get there.

“The three branches aren’t checking and balancing, they’re working with each other,” Levin said. “The moderates and RINOs (Republicans in name only) are trying to clean out the election.”

Sonny Branham, a professor of political science at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, agreed, saying Republicans are quick to cut down Tea Party or Libertarian candidates who pose challenges to their incumbency.

GOP elected officials “lean more to the right for their political survival” than to actually uphold conservative values, Branham told Hearst Newspapers after the event.

“[Constitutional conservatives] need to engage otherwise the Republican Party will go the way of the Whig,” Levin said.

Levin said conservatives need to embrace the Tea Party and Libertarian movements as the hope for the future.

Noting disparities between the two parties’ abilities to turn out votes, Levin called the low Republican turnout a failure to communicate about the issues.

“It was ludicrous that the American people don’t have enough education about what’s at stake,” said Nancy Griffin, a member of the Chevy Chase Women’s Republican Club who also attended the discussion.

“The country that I love is being taken from me,” said Eisen. “The ignorance of the people is going to imprison them.”

“Too many students in my estimation are interested in social media as opposed to social studies,” Branham said. “My students are not as aware as they should be of the challenges that face them.”

When Meese asked how the conservative movement could attract more of the youth vote, Levin said the “very, very difficult, complex problem” lies with the influence of public school and Hollywood on young voters to think “more emotional than cerebral.”

“Kids coming out of puberty – which liberals never do – don’t like authority,” Levin said. “Think of big government that way.”

Levin suggested that an anti-authority attitude could be a “very powerful argument” to engage conservative students.

Courtney Mattison, a communications and political science student at Johnson State College, agreed. She said she didn’t understand why more of her peers didn’t turn out for Romney in this year’s election.

Mattison said the past four years have been grim for the U.S. economy, and thinking about the election graduating into an Obama economy is “really depressing.”

She said conservatives politicians should “tap into the rebellious anti-authority attitude that college students feel and tie it to liberty.”

Mattison, who was the communications director for the Rutland County GOP, is “completely uncertain” about what she wants to do when she graduates in May.

Levin is also a lawyer and author of the books, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, and Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America.

Analysis: Obama does his best to avoid Petraeus morass

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:richard.dunham@chron.com (Richard Dunham)
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He didn’t take the bait.

You knew that President Obama, at his first press conference since the David Petraeus sex story broke (and since the election, if you forgot that event), was going to be asked about the mutating investigation/affair/scandal involving David Petraeus, the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, Gen. John Allen, a biographer and a pair of Florida socialites/social climbers.

He was.

Twice.

His answers boiled down to this: Gen. Petraeus is a good man who made a bad decision. And I assume that everyone is following protocol in investigating the facts of the affair. (Or is it affairs?)

Reporters wanted to know “what did the president know and why didn’t he know it.”

Obama wasn’t biting.

The president said he has seen “no evidence” that any classified information was compromised that had a “negative impact on our national security,” Obama said, choosing every word carefully.

He said the FBI “has its own protocols” and seemed to imply that he knows of no evidence that the protocols were not followed.

“I am withholding judgment,” he said. “We don’t have all the information yet.”

He tried to turn the tables on his questioners, saying that reporters would have asked him “why were you interfering in a criminal investigation” if he had been notified of the Petraeus probe.

“We’re not supposed to meddle in a criminal investigation,” he argued.

Obama repeatedly shifted the focus to Petraeus’ contributions to American national security, from Iraq to Afghanistan to the CIA.

“General Petraeus had an extraordinary career,” he said. “We are safer because of the work that David Petraeus has done.”

Obama said he hopes that the affair that ended his CIA tenure would be “a single side note” in an “extraordinary career.”

We’ll see.

Poll shows majority of Americans support immigration reform

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:kyle.campbell@chron.com (Kyle Campbell)
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A majority of Americans support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants as well as a more lenient view on same-sex marriage and marijuana laws, results from a nationwide post election poll show.

According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,023 adults, 57 percent of Americans adults support a path to freedom for illegal immigrants currently working in the U.S. and 39 percent oppose it, well outside the 3.5 percent margin of error.

A majority of support came from the western and southern parts of the country with 64 and 56 percent support, respectively. A majority of self-described liberals and moderates expressed support for immigration reform as did 47 percent of self-described conservatives.

Latinos polled in the survey expressed the most favorability toward a path to citizenship with 82 percent supporting and 17 percent opposing. Hispanic voter turnout reached an all-time high of 10 percent this past election, with President Barack Obama winning more than 70 percent of the Latino vote.

In the wake of the large racial gap between Democrats and Republicans in the election, some GOP politicians and conservative pundits have called for more Latino outreach and reconsideration of immigration reform.

The poll also showed a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, but by a significantly smaller margin than immigration reform. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they support same-sex marriage compared to 47 percent who oppose, putting it squarely within the margin of error.

This past election three states — Maine, Maryland and Oregon — legalized same-sex marriage through ballot measures and joined six other states and the District of Columbia as the only bodies recognizing marriages between two men or two women.

Minnesota voted down a ballot measure making same-sex marriage unconstitutional last week, however, a majority of states have such bans.

The poll showed 59 percent of respondents in the Northeast supported same-sex marriage, compared to 37 percent opposing. In the West 54 percent supported, with 43 percent in opposition.

According to the poll the Midwest supported same-sex marriage by the slimmest of margins — 50 percent to 49 percent. The South showed solid opposition, with 52 percent against and 45 percent for same-sex marriage.

Though support was down 2 percent since the last ABC News/Washington Post sponsored poll on May 20, overall, support for same-sex marriage has been on the rise since 2003 when it polled at 37 percent support.

Another major ballot movement, the legalization of marijuana, also was examined in the poll, revealing 48 percent support the measure and 50 percent oppose legalizing “small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

Colorado and Washington both passed measures to legalize the drug for personal use. A similar measure in Oregon was voted down.

Legalized marijuana received more support from men than women, 52 percent against 45 percent, and more support from adults 18-29 compared to those 65 and older, 55 percent against 30 percent.

Like same-sex marriage, legalization of marijuana also has been on the rise, starting out at 39 percent in 2002.

Diversity in action: Straight white men are a minority among House Democrats

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:kyle.campbell@chron.com (Kyle Campbell)
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Though they weren’t able to pick up the 25 seats necessary for a majority in the House, Democratic leaders are touting the incoming class of freshman Congressman, particularly for its diversity.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.., and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel, D-N.Y., introduced the newly elected lawmakers this week on Capitol Hill.

“These new members reflect the priorities and diversity and the values of the districts that elected them,” Israel said. “The Republican Caucus, if you look at it, it looks like a re-run of the show ‘Mad Men.’ Our caucus looks like America.”

The DCCC estimates there will be 200 members in the Democratic caucus at the beginning of the 113th Congress, that number includes five Democratic candidates that are leading in races that are yet to be called.

Among those 200 members, Pelosi said there will be 61 women, 43 blacks, 11 Asians/Pacific Islanders and six gay members, marking the first time straight white males will make up a minority of either party’s caucus.

The diversity is highlighted by a Democratic freshman class that is comprised of one-third women and boasts eight Latinos, four blacks, three Asian Americans, one Indian American and the first Hindu ever elected to Congress. It also has the first gay person of color to serve in Congress.

The Republican caucus has a 36 confirmed freshmen with three more candidates in races  they deem too close to call.  All 36 are white and just three are women.

According to an email from the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP still considers the Arizona District 9 race to be in contention, which leaves them one chance of adding a minority representative: Vernon Parker, a black councilman and former mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz.

Most news sources tracking the elections have called the Arizona District 9 race for Parker’s opponent, Krysten Sinema. Republicans trail by a few hundred votes in the other two tight races.

Texas reflects the diversity disparity between the two parties.

Among the eight first-time congressmen headed to Washington via the Lone Star State, the five Democrats consist of one white, one black and three Latinos while the three Republicans are all white. All eight are men.

Pelosi said the Democratic House caucus was a “picture of America” and she expects the incoming members to accurately reflect the diverse ideologies of their constituents.

Israel said the diverse members of his party represent the beginning of the end of far-right Republicans dominating the House.

“With these new members the Tea Party starts to roll back and the progress starts to move forward,” he said.

The women senators in the U.S Congress:

Nancy Pelosi to stay as minority leader

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by:Carolyn Lochhead
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House minority leader Nancy Pelosi will remain as minority leader.

“We have work to do,” Pelosi said. “I have made a decision to submit my name to my colleagues to once again serve as the House Democratic leader.”

Standing in a blue suit flanked by female House members, newly elected and veterans, whom she called her “sisters,” Pelosi stressed the diversity of the Democratic caucus. “You are looking at the future,” Pelosi said, a “future of empowerment of women in America.”

Asked whether at 72 she should have stepped aside for a newer generation, Pelosi answered, “Next,” supported by boos from her colleagues at the question.

“You always ask that question except to Mitch McConnell,” Pelosi said, referring to the Senate Republican leader who is 70. “So you’re suggesting everybody (over 70) step aside?

“For a moment, let’s honor it as a legitimate question, although it’s quite offensive, you don’t realize it perhaps,” Pelosi said. She said she has striven for a decade to elect “newer and younger people,” especially women. She recounted how she waited first to finish raising her children before running for Congress in 1987, spending 14 years “getting the best experience” in diplomacy. But she said men who arrived in Congress at age 30 “had a jump on me” in the seniority ladder. She said she wanted to make sure younger women had a chance.

She said she made her decision just the day before on Tuesday, after consulting with her family and hearing a unified call from colleagues who told her “don’t even think about” stepping down. She also strongly suggested that President Obama asked her to stay. Asked the question directly, she said, “My conversations with the president are not ones that I share, OK?”

Pelosi said the job’s time commitments are enormous, that she can’t find a way to squeeze any more hours from the day. “You can only sleep so much less,” she said. Her children were supportive, but she said her brother Tommy had qualms.

“My brother Tommy was not as keen on it as my children were,” she said. “He wanted more time,” with her, she said, adding with a laugh, “My kids were busy.”

Pelosi said that while she didn’t retake the majority, 16 House Republicans were defeated, and 49 new Democrats elected. “After our victory at the polls, I wouldn’t think of walking away.”

In what might have been a Freudian slip, Pelosi declared, “We have the gavel,” immediately correcting herself with a laugh, “Excuse me we don’t…we have our own gavel,” because Democrats remain in the minority. Pelosi served as House Speaker for four years until losing the majority in a GOP landslide in 2010. On Nov. 6, Democrats netted at least seven seats, but failed to gain the net 25 Pelosi needed to become Speaker again.

Today is the 10th anniversary of Pelosi’s election as the first woman to lead a political party in Congress. Sources said she wants to continue to “play a crucial role in developing a responsible deficit reduction package – working with President Obama and our colleagues in the Senate – that protects Social Security and Medicare, the middle class and children, while asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”

The San Francisco Democrat played a key role in the debt-ceiling negotiations two summers ago, forcing the military spending cuts that are now part of the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of expiring tax cuts, including the Bush-era cuts, and big spending cuts including both defense and domestic, known as sequestration. Negotiations over the fiscal cliff started the day after the election that kept Washington in a status quo political division. That stasis paradoxically opened room for compromise on both sides. Pelosi wants to stick around for these huge negotiations that will set tax and entitlement (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) policy for years.

Pelosi has scheduled leadership elections for the week after Thanksgiving. She will have to be elected by House Democrats but that is merely a formality. No one has challenged her. She is beloved by liberals, now known as progressives, who make up the bulk of the caucus and consider her their champion. Liberal allies were pressing her to stay.

Pelosi’s decision is huge for San Francisco and California. Although in the minority, she sits atop the House leadership structure, has a direct line to the White House and plots Democratic strategy.

Pelosi’s decade in the House leadership is the longest tenure since Rep. Sam Rayburn, D-Tex., died in office in 1961. He has a House office building named after him.

Former rival Steny Hoyer, D-Md., now Pelosi’s loyal lieutenant, announced that he would make his own bid to remain at number two in the caucus leadership. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is running against two opponents for the lowest step in the leadership ladder, vice chair.