SACRAMENTO -- In a brief fly-by media avail, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Saturday ducked two of the more contentious issues facing any Republican seeking the GOP nomination for president in California: oil drilling off the California coast and a path to citizenship for immigrants living and working here illegally.
Before a dinner speech to the California Republican Party meeting in Sacramento, Barbour (who says he'll decide on running for president by the end of April) took questions for about 10 minutes from reporters, demonstrating his masterful ability to respond without answering.
Asked about his stance on a path to citizenship, Barbour first cut off and argued with the premise of a question from San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci, who began, "You lobbied for the government of Mexico on the issue of amnesty and a path to citizenship... "
"Actually, your facts are incorrect," he said, saying his firm (but not he) had lobbied for the American Trucking Association in an attempt to ensure that American trucks would not be prohibited from Mexico if truckers had to return home before getting their visas renewed.
Not only is that version harshly at odds with documented reporting, which shows Barbour personally was a lobbyist for the Mexican government and helped push for more lenient treatment of Mexican nations seeking to remain in the United States (which his critics called "amnesty"), but it also side-stepped the real question - which Calbuzz asked in a follow-up: Where does he stand on the issue of providing a path to citizenship?
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