Geraldo Won't Shake "Shameful" "Hate-Monger" Lou Dobbs' Hand

Geraldo Rivera appeared on "The View" today to promote his new book, His Panic, which prompted a discussion of how Americans fear immigrants. He explained that this fear is "a nativist reaction that started at the grassroots" and that it is "driven by the most savage talk radio campaign in history." When asked to name names, Geraldo targeted Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs (who, incidentally, makes his debut as a talk radio host today).

"Lou Dobbs of CNN has been shameful in his hate-mongering," Geraldo said. "I would not shake his hand because this is a man that's done more damage to the cause of sensibile, comprehensive reform than anyone with a microphone."

Watch:

Geraldo appeared on "The View" today to discuss his new book, His Panic, and discussed the savage mentality coming out of talk radio. When asked to name names, Geraldo targeted Lou Dobbs (whose radio show starts today) and Rush Limbaugh. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1438502036http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1178199204

From ABC, 3/3

Comments

[Superfelo]

It is about time that someone called out Lou Dobbs for what he is: a hatemonger.
Thank you, Geraldo. I salute you.
Enough said.

It is about time we elected a real president.

Let's stand up for something.

Yes, We Can!

[pedrothemigrant]

no you wont amigo

[CindyKay]

What about Enforcing Immigration Laws that are Currently on the Books??? I agree that We can Not send all the Illegals back BUT We can & Should STOP the Flow! A Real President would Guard Our Borders. Lou Dobbs has said nothing Hateful about Mexicans as a Whole, He has Only Demanded that the US Government Enforce Current Immigration Law.

[wheelskeepturning]

Check out the I-9 form that is supposed to be filled out by everyone employed in the USA. I wonder how many employers have up to date, accurate records? We already have the law, lets just enforce it!!!!!!!!!!

[hjo4]

Geraldo is an idiot.We have immigration laws that work just fine for the 2 million or so people who legally immigrate into this nation annually.T­he people (no matter what skin color) who chose to illegally enter this country should be given no considerat­ion.We are a nation of laws that are to be obey and applied equally to all.I feel that more agents should be hired, ICE enforces the immigration laws with vigor arresting illegal aliens as well as those who employ them.It's easy for the Jerry Riveras to champion the cause of illegals because they don't effect their way of life as they do to other Americans.­Illegal is illegal no matter how you spin it. Lou Dobbs is correct about illegal aliens and our elected officials who do nothing to stop the influx of these people should be held accountable in the voting booth.

[tecpatl]

Yeah, we're a nation of laws - kill the people, take their land, pass a law that says they must live in the middle of nowhere on land without water, then name a football team after the people you killed (Seminoles) or the people that stole the land (Sooners). Sounds legal to me. What about that commandment against killing? Fugetaboutit!

[NorthernCross]

Geraldo is a disingenuous demogogue. As a former immigrant, son , nephew and grandson of former immigrants, and husband of a current immigrant, I know that there is absolutely nothing racist about a country enforcing immigration laws. Hell, Mexico has tough immigration laws too, but do we hear Geraldo whining about that fact?

[Clarabell]

Lou Dobbs has promoted a lot of hatred in this country. I frequently have to point out to people that they only like the "cheap labor" that does THEIR jobs - like building a house, a fence, repairing a roof, etc. This usually shuts them up, but I sometimes doubt if they get it.

[totalliberal]

I guess they both should be considered lucky.

[VOTER]

Geraldo has been everywhere promoting his new book.

However once an author appears on The View, if you are interested in the book you should

wait for 3 days and purchase it on the cheap from the Book Bargain Bin.

[gcallaghan]

There needs to be a middle ground between mass deportations and automatic citizenship. How about those who have committed no crimes other than that related to their immigration status are allowed to stay and, after registering, pay back taxes and fines resulting from their coming here illegally? Then they can apply for citizenship. But, their applications go to the bottom of the pile and are processed at 1/2 the rate they would be if they had exited the country and applied from their home nations. Two applications from people in their home country get processed for every one of theirs.

Set a registration cutoff date whereby anybody already here and with proof of residence receives a right to work and gain limited access to government services. Those who sneak in after the cutoff date WILL be jailed and or deported amd banned from this country for life.

Those who stay cannot sponsor any other aliens until after they themselves become natuaralized citizens. Require them to work and annually provide proof they filed their taxes, During the time they work in this country as non-citizens, 1/2 of their social security withholding goes into their accounts and the other half goes into a general account to bolster the overall health of social security. If they retire before attaining citizenship, they can collect their half of what they paid into Social Security but not stay in this country.

Make hiring or knowingly harboring or sheltering an illegal alien a crime punishable by deportation.

Make it tough, costly but possible for those who abide by the law to stay if they wish. But have a system in place that's easier, simpler and faster for them to return home and come back legally.

[Foohog]

Yes, there are right wing nuts out there, a bunch of them, who are using this entire issue as a nativist bludgeon. That's what happens when non right-wing nuts spend the better part of two decades not dealing with it in a rational manner: the morons of the world gain ammo.

I've watched Lou Dobbs a few times. Is he wrong about some of what he says? Of course. Does that mean he hates everyone south of the Rio Grande? Of course not. Mr. Rivera, not exactly a paragon of virtuous journalism himself, finds it way to easy to do exactly as Mr. Limbaugh does- demagogue.

While it would be plain dumb to try and deport millions of people, we cannot afford to not get control of our borders and when those who are here outside the law are found or can be, they should be deported. If you want to blame someone for the impact on their family you blame the parents who broke the law, not the poor slob who has lived here all his life and would like to keep his house. Whether Mr. Rivera or anyone else wants to believe it, that's exactly where some of these counties and states are at.

The county next door to mine has the highest property tax rate in the state and it is literally true that old people on fixed incomes, not rich retirees but people who take home $10 or 12 thousand a year, are being tossed out of their houses. Why?

Because they didn't plan? For what? Was there a memo back in the 70's or 80's that said plan for an influx of twelve or fifteen million people while at the same time we ship the better part of our tax base overseas by outsourcing good paying jobs?

These people, who have done nothing wrong, are losing their homes because the property taxes are going through the roof mainly because of a huge influx of the children of illegal immigrants. That's what they are told by local law enforcement, local schools, state government, the people who run charities and their own eyeballs. So when they have the audacity to chose to heat their home in the winter or pay for pills that keep them breathing, they can't pay the tax bill. The county lets it go for a year, but then they send the sherrif. End of story. End of a lifetime of work and raising kids and making a home. Then it's warehouse time as they're put into a nursing home, courtesy of those taxpayers the feds, state and local governments haven't already bankrupted. Goodbye grandma, hope to God I don't end up like you but it sure makes me warm and fuzzy that you can spend your final days in this house of death instead of the house you and grandad built.

Others who don't lose their homes are watching its value going down because their rising tax bill won't allow them to do the basics like replacing a roof or removing a dangerous tree before it comes crashing down on the garage.

I would guess that they are quite unimpressed with anyone who claims the moral authority to command that they sacrifice what they've worked for their whole lives because the wages are even worse somewhere else than they are here and if you talk a thousand years and you will never convince them that people like Mr. Rivera are not attempting just that.

This isn't the late 19th century it's 2008. There are legislated guarentees in place in our system now- education, health care, law enforcement- that make it impossible to continue down the path of allowing everyone on the planet access to them and it doesn't matter one bit if your Ukranian, Guatemalan or Indian. It ain't the race, it's the math stupid.

Friendly reminder- the legal citizens currently alive in this country have already promised about $53 trillion worth of goodies to themselves over the next 70 some years plus another trillion a year or so to account for the birthrate and no one knows how we're going to pay for that.

One does not have to be an anti-immigrant nativist, nazi or anything even close to bigoted to recognize that a nation where the median annual wage is still south of $40k a year simply cannot afford to be the repository for every unemployed family on Earth.

All they have to be is sane.

[chronic]

Geraldo is a liar!

OMG he just sat there and lied about Lou Dobbs position.

[blonkert]

Shouldnt Geraldo be used to rascists?

After all he goes to work every day at the most prejudiced and biased 'network' in the history of television. WHY isnt he so vocally offended by the 'personalties' who work in the same building with him - just down the hall?? Why didnt he mention BO in his rant?? Sean?? Are you blind AND deaf Geraldo?

Although GR is right about Dobbs, he sold his 'journalist' title AND his credibility a long time ago - the money is on the dresser Geraldo!

[Bulbul]

There was a time when Geraldo had a show on MSNBC, it was a good one, and then somehow he faded away...

Now the way MSNBC is going , may be they should get rid of that Mathews, and replace him with Geraldo, and get a little Latino touch to their lily white all male mediocre hosts !

[SILVANUS]

Both egomaniac mediawhores suck, (remember that great Vault gig Geraldo did?) but Geraldo still has nice pecs. Sad when that's all that can be said...

[Mock38]

Both MR. R and MR. D are BOTH contemptible.
They both are ego maniacs.
Neither is worthy of any attention paid by anyone with any sense and decency.

[Wildcatdiva]

I know he's not playing victim, I can't feel his pain. Screw Rivera....­that's just what he gets.

[1will]

Yeah, it's racist to want to secure your borders and expect those living in your country to at least make an effort to speak the national language. Everyone doesn't have to be alike in every way but you should at least be able to communicate. You can't do that if there are 20 different languages in use.

[amanda85]

Do you know what Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain, Slovenia and many other nations have in common?

Of course you don't...

[TheFlyingKidney]

Laws that are respected by legal immigrants?

[atlantajoe]

Was their a point? Are you alright amanda, you did not call this poster a fascist.

[cheesewiz]

In Quebec there are a lot of problems associated with their insistance on French. It is nothing to emulate. The other countries you cited are not exactly world powers. Remember when Mao came to power he made Mandarin the official language, replacing numerous dialects. He did this for a reason. Since you asked a question, maybe the question of the night should be why he did this?

[realpolitic]

They all have 2:00 A.M. last call for beer?

Anyway, in Switzerland everyone speaks three or four languages.

[NorthernCross]

Anyone who says that supporting immigration enforcement is racist is either intellectually lazy or intellectually dishonest. And certainly, there's absolutely nothing wrong with making English the official language. Most countries have official languages, so what's wrong with this one doing the same?

[tecpatl]

Why now, after hundreds of years? What about freedom, including the freedom to make mistakes? Are we talking about making English the official language because you believe that the inability to communicate is a bad thing? People are free to make mistakes in this country, as long as they don't hurt other people. As long as we're passing laws against bad things, what about alcoholics on the street? That is a problem that affects my life far more than a person's ability to communicate in English. Let's ban alcoholism and put every alcoholic on the street in jail! Put a chip in their arms and when they drink the cops will swoop down in black helicopters! This is America, ya know, the land of the free. If you have a problem with people not speaking English, don't deal with them. That is your right. How many Euro-Americans in our history started businesses using their native tongues? Foreign languages are actually a benefit of immigration! Many businesses are started in the transition period while immigrants get a toehold in our country. I have read of many newspapers, for example, that were originally published in European languages in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. The Bank of America was once the Bank of Italy, founded in North Beach for Italian immigrants. What bothers me is that now that the immigration patterns have changed, Euro-Americans want to change the laws that were good enough for their ancestors but too good for the brown people. The English-only movement is closely allied with the movement to change the 14th Amendment. Could we make that retroactive?

[YellowPanties]

You wish it were 20. In Los Angeles there are 178 languages spoken in the school district.

Immigration is great but at 11 million and counting here illegally, that's time for something to be done comprehensively. The LA Weekly estimated last week that there are 300,000 to 400,000 illegals here in LA county alone.

[Issak]

I'm with Geraldo on this one- Dobbs, like so many opportinists will take the route that best suits him- hummm I got it! let's scapegoat the weakest members of our society they sure can't come after me- and my ratings sure can use a boost. Besides, when has hate mongering been out of style? if it's not one group is another. Dunno...it­'s not like the Minute men type loons are a monument to intelligence or knowledge- Only morons buy the Dobbs shit- and only ignorant morons can condone this easy way out of explaing the crimes committed by so many Corporations in Latin America.

[bogtrotters]

I'm with Geraldo on this one

* * *
Me, too, Isaak. But what does he do with Bill-o? Shake feet?