Chris Dodd Hearts Lou Dobbs?

As much as I admire Chris Dodd's efforts to preserve the Constitution and oppose the circumvention of the courts as they examine whether or not U. S. telecoms broke the law by aiding the administration as it spies on Americans without a warrant, his performance at the end of this week's debate was abysmal.

I didn't watch the whole debate, but I've read (and annotated!) the 40 page transcript.

There's a lot I can say about the Brian Williams/Tim Russert misogynistic tag team questions apparently written by Pills Limbaugh, or about the various ways the candidates flirted with and sometimes repeated outright right wing attacks and talking points against fellow democrats, but all that will have to wait, because something else really pissed me off: Chris Dodd used several talking points right from Lou Dobbs' nightly coded racist rants:

MR. RUSSERT: An illegal immigrant should not have a driver's license.

SEN. DODD: This is a privilege. And look, I'm as forthright and progressive on immigration policy as anyone here, but we're dealing with a serious problem here, we need to have people come forward. The idea that we're going to extend this privilege here of a driver's license, I think, is troublesome. And I think the American people are reacting to it.

We need to deal with security on our borders, we need to deal with the attraction that draws people here, we need to deal fairly with those who are here; but this is a privilege. Talk about health care, I have a different opinion. That affects the public health of all of us. But a license is a privilege, and that ought not to be extended, in my view.

MR. WILLIAMS: Who else? Senator --

SEN. CLINTON: I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it. And we have failed --

SEN. DODD: Wait a minute. No, no, no. You said yes, you thought it made sense to do it.

SEN. CLINTON: No, I didn't, Chris. But the point is, what are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants who are (driving ?) -- (inaudible)?

SEN. DODD: Well, that's a legitimate issue. But driver's license goes too far, in my view.

SEN. CLINTON: Well, you may say that, but what is the identification if somebody runs into you today who is an undocumented worker --

SEN. DODD: There's ways of dealing with that.

SEN. CLINTON: Well, but --

SEN. DODD: This is a privilege, not a right.

SEN. CLINTON: Well, what Governor Spitzer has agreed to do is to have three different licenses; one that provides identification for actually going onto airplanes and other kinds of security issues, another which is an ordinary driver's license, and then a special card that identifies the people who would be on the road.

SEN. DODD: That's a bureaucratic nightmare.

SEN. CLINTON: So it's not the full privilege.

Dodd pretends not to know that under our system, health care is also a "privilege," so the standard he sets out is a dishonest one, not to mention paternalistic as hell. He claims health care is different, but does not explain why, or how. He also says "there are ways to deal with that" but his campaign has refused to elaborate on what those ways might be, or to offer any statement of clarification of these remarks at all. I've asked for follow up and have gotten none.

Dodd has some good history in dealing with issues of interest to the latino community, which makes it all the more puzzling that he uses what clearly can be construed as dog whistle signals to any xenophobic working class whites in Iowa who may blame their economic insecurities on migrants and latinos. While these statements may seem innocuous to many of the rest of us, these are specific talking points, like the "welfare queen" label of a generation ago, that xenophobic bigots recognize as consistent with their own irrational fears and racist inclinations.

Elliot Spitzer's original plan was a very good one. It would have saved New York taxpayers a lot of money due to accidents by uninsured drivers while simultaneously bringing many more people into the system where they can be counted. Unfortunately, Spitzer has modified his plan in such a way that it could place migrants at significant risk of federal persecution through tracking by Homeland Security.

He knuckled under to extreme right wing pressure by the astonishingly corrupt Republican Joe Bruno* in New York, under simultaneous attacks from his flank by machine Democrats in Albany like Andrew Cuomo who don't like Spitzer's independence or tendency to shake up the status quo with his progressive, outsider's agenda. Meanwhile, Spitzer should fix his plan to ensure protection of migrants and prevent the targeting of latino minorities through profiling and harassment by a hostile federal bureaucracy (here's but one casualty of the right wing's attrition, harassment and deportation strategy. . . and what it does to families of people who participate in the American dream and contribute to the economy). The governor's approach was right the first time.

Unfortunately, from what I can tell, the progressive grass roots in New York are currently more consumed with anger over poor communications and outreach from Spitzer's office than they are focused on helping him advance his most preferred agenda, and unintentionally, their lack of open support and their barely whispered fury are playing in to Joe Bruno's slimy hands.

There's a reason New York Democrats fail to advance strong leaders, and why NYC in particular ends up electing Republican mayors, giving the rest of us people like Rudy Giuliani: it's because the state party gets too embroiled in political fiefdoms and personality feuds to let a strong progressive leader emerge. Spitzer's driver's license policy retreat should be an occasion for new grass roots leadership to engage in progressive organizing, not recrimination that ultimately empowers progressive enemies. Having grown up and spent my grad school years in New York, the pattern to me is all too familiar.

Time will only tell if New York Democrats will gather round Spitzer to promote a sustainable progressive agenda for the long term, or if hacks like Andrew Cuomo will gain in power. . . with the tacit "let's do business" cooperation with GOP crime bosses like Joe Bruno.

Though Clinton got tangled up on the driver's license issue during the debate, she had the right instinct to defend Eliot Spitzer, rather than throw him under the bus. She would not commit herself to the specifics of Spitzer's current plan, which is indeed flawed, even as she endorsed its goals, both during and after the debate. Her position on the policy is, to my eyes, the same one John Edwards is cited as having after the debate, and is like the one Obama made more explicit during the debate.

Dodd, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to shame himself in front of the very progressives who otherwise have begun to give him a strong, second look.

Note to Chris Dodd: just as it was wrong for Obama to throw gay folks under the bus for crass political advantage, you don't get a pass for signaling a willingness to throw immigrants and latinos under the bus for cheap political gain and for the love of Lou Dobbs.

Stop it.

* For more on the scummy Joe Bruno, check out here, here, here, here and here, for a start. It would be a great service for someone to create one single summary source with links to tell the full story of the corrupt Bruno and his machine as it continues to evolve. Focused, consistent, coordinated effort on this front would seem to be a good investment of grassroots time. The story needs lotsa telling, even beyond New York, where "everyone knows" he's scum, but the story is not well enough documented and collected to make for easy telling.

Pachacutec blogs at Firedoglake.

Comments

[PhillyQuaker]

Can we move the toy mfg. out of China and into Mexico? Seems like that would alleviate a couple issues at once

[therealredstateblues]

The bottom line here is that legal immigrants will find more allies and sympathy from the democrats than they will republicans.

However illegals will be hard pressed to find sympathizers among the rank and file of either party.

They do have common ground with the elites, neo libas and neocons who benefit from using them as pawns to depress wages and provide a cheap pool of labor as well as further their pro globalist/­corporatis­t agenda.

[Tennessean]

Chris Dodd Hearts Lou Dobbs? Well, Dodd is ruled out as a possibility from THIS Democrat, then. Lou Dobbs is one of the worst Demogogues of this era. He's despicable. His hateful and inflammatory rhetoric is encouraging a rise in xenophobia and racism. No Democrat with an ounce of intelligence would join the Dobbs Cult of Hate.

[MsLiz]

The Federal government is responsible for controlling immigration, but has not done so. The state and local governments are left to deal with the problems created by illegal immigration, and are severly constrained in terms of what they can do.

We must distinguish between threats from terrorists, who enter our country in order to do harm, and illegal immigrants seeking work. Those who attempt to confuse the two are not being honest.

[Crowhaul]

Is this posting even on the right forum? This is Huffingtonpost, isn't it?

The author should be aware of the fact that we Dems, for the most part, are uniformly against rights/privileges being extended to those who are here illegally. It has nothing to do with race; it has nothing to do with economic status.

On the contrary, it has everything to do with the fact that we are a nation of law.

As a side note, I would encourage the author (and those of his ilk) to do this: go to any foreign country; wait until your tourist visa expires (usually 90 days or so), proceed directly to the local authorities entrusted with issuing driver's licenses, then politely request a driver's license. After a series of puzzled looks, followed by phone calls to the local precinct, you may likely end up incarcerated. What you will definitely NOT end up with is a license to drive.

We Dems need to stand strong on this one.

[fromthecheapseats]

Unless you are an out of touch elitist, most Democrats understand that immigration (particluarly H-1B) is a bipartisan, corporatist ECONOMIC issue, not a social issue!

There are millions of unemployed and underemployed citizens who have a right to jobs first that illegal and legal immigration are taking. Dodd is right and it is absurd at best to name call Lou Dobbs (who is married to a Mexican) as a racist for being the only news reporter to stand up for millions of middle class American citizens. Our jobs are being outsourced thanks to an out of control immigration policy and Dodd has worked hard to introduce legislation that would reverse immigration policies that exist to drive down wages while corporations sell off our jobs to the lowest bidder.

[Evolin]

Illegal immigrants are here illegally. Against the laws of our country. We are supposed to be fair and kind, but is it fair to those who waited in line to come legally, or fair to the local tax payers where schools are crowded, and emergency rooms are full of illegals who pay no tax into the system? The people who hire them do not pay them enough to alow them to pay for health care- much less provide it for them. These employers are the ones profiting and leeching on the American public.
Are we rewarding crime by giving them a USA license? Are USA citizens treated with equal compassion? How do we know these are all just the poor seeking a job - instead of criminals coming over that porous border to do harm?
I think we should restore our constitution in the administration, in the congress our laws upheld and our borders controlled.

[krispykb]

Thank god some of us have some sense. If you think for one minute giving licenses to illegal aliens will make them buy insurance you’re out of your mind. 2 other states tried this and had to reverse their decision because it ended up costing legal residents more money. Besides voter fraud we have serious security issues. The only reason we have this immigration problem is for industries to make mucho bucks on the backs of the most poor people. Fix the immigration problem. Don't break the law by making this insane decision.

[VicPerry]

I cannot believe what complete and total suckers the people screaming about illegal immigration are. How convenient to focus on this right now. America's biggest problem is itself. It's embarrassing to look ourselves in the mirror right now, what with the ever growing pools of blood on our tab and the knowlege sinking in that we won't be changing anything next election except perhaps the logo on the hat. We need scapegoats, muy pronto.

But to find illegals to be your big scapegoat for your falling standards of living after you've been voting for "free trade" policies and privitization schemes from Democrats and Republicans all these years is silly enough -

hey, d'ya think maybe if we can get those brave businessmen to send ALL our jobs offshore that will solve this terrible illegal immigration problem, eh? -

but for you to actually believe that if all the illegals disappeared tomorrow your wallet would be even a millimeter thicker - well you just hit the hyperspace button, suckers. Get an economic education.

And when you start talking about "crime" (as if the population of illegal workers included a higher percentage of real criminals, not just criminals-­by-definit­ion) or "drugs" (which are bought by whom now?) or, "terrorism" (..um..), when you start whining about the fact that there's a for english press 1 and for spanish press 2 - well, my heart just bleeds for the way you suffer, yeah.

Racists. You.

[bradford]

I am not anti-Immigrant.I would simply like immigration to be legal.Why is the notion of the rule of law such a revolutionary concept?
Of course I realize the pro-illegals are destined to win because it's a bi-partisan coalition;­pro-illega­l republicans like Bush and McCain don''t want to enforce the border
because to do so would threaten their corporate masters.pro-illegal Democrats like Ted Kennedy and his party's preidential candidates except for Dodd and Biden,don''t want to enforce the border because they see the illegals as potential Democratic voters.Yes it is a bi-partisan criminal conspiracy, God help us!

[zull2]

There are people on the right AND left that are against illegal immigration. The primary difference being, on the left, its because it's ILLEGAL, therefore, against the law. On the right, it's because they're pasty white Protestant folk.

And what, about disagreeing that illegal immigrants should have Driver's licenses, is so much like Lou Dobbs? There are more accurate ways to identify people who cross the border, and to think that Mexicans are so stupid that they'd actually even keep an ID card that identifies them as illegal is preposterous. Anyone who thinks that, should really take a look in the mirror and consider that they might be just as bigoted as anyone else for thinking that migrants are that stupid. Of course illegals are going to tear up those cards and throw them out, and get fake ones that don't identify them as illegals. No business is going to hire them unless they do that because they don't want to be directly held accountable for not even checking that much.

Giving them Driver's licenses isn't going to solve the problem, not one bit. Getting our government to work with the Mexican government to spread out the wealth to those rural areas is probably the best humane option. The only form of ID that might moderately work is surgically implanted RF tags, and that's way, way too creepy for me to even consider.

[Independent voter]

Dead wrong Pacha.

Why is it that Mexicans don't understand the word ILLEGAL? They seem to be able to learn other English phrases like "free education", "free healthcare", "identity theft", "gang member", "housing assistance" and others without any problems.

The illegal alien lobby continues to obfuscate and obscure the facts by grouping legal immigrants with illegal aliens. These are not the same thing Pacha. Immigrants are welcomed members of our society. Illegal aliens are criminals and should be punished - not rewarded.

As a New York native I fully support both Dodd and Dobbs on this issue. Illegal aliens have no right being here. Illegal aliens have no right to a drivers license.

[rwe]

Again..No one is really paying attention ...Bill Clinton years ago pushed for voter eligibility with a drivers liscense...Whover the illegal aliens support would have a huge benefit from suporting this.You want to talk about voter fraud ,compared to the fiction still held by many from 2000 and 2004, this would produce a pandering from candidates to the criminals of incredible proportions

[jesselee]

sidebar: many illegal immigrants are licensed drivers. for example, my husband of six years has no work papers, no green card (another unfortunate example of why the inertia of INS must be circumvented somehow) but he has a driver's license. and he's insured on the roads. all it takes is a couple of thousand of dollars (untaxed, i'll add) and a crooked dmv employee somewhere in the system. its naive to assume that a license is holding anyone back from the roadway. what's heart braking, is that my husband, like so many illegals, would gladly have taken any legal measures afforded to him to be driving (not to mention living here). none were. we live in a community designed for drivers, not public transit users. and a world where our children need to eat and can't wait on bureaucratic red tape and green lights. we'd love to be living honestly and legally and paying taxes like other families, but haven't been given the chance. bottom line, assuming that people are waiting on licenses is like assuming people aren't here illegally in the first place.

[laurenc]

Look, right now we're in a desperate struggle to unseat the right wing from destroying every aspect of our government. Spitzer didn't have to do this now...it's the equivalent of passing gay marriage in 2004. Moral leadership don't mean a thing when evil men wage war on the world and spy on everyone.
The fuss about Dodd was always misplaced.
Parachutec: I know how smart you are. Consider what candidate is best able to win votes from most Americans, and pray we get him as a nominee.