The GOP trajectory is to mock and belittle Democrats enough so they will wimp out on immigration. It has been working-as the article below discusses Congressman Christopher Murphy. Since everything revolves around re-election, those most vulnerable have to move with the current.
Only thing is that what may look like a current is really a trickle, disguised as a current. See post "Fighting Immigration at the Polls" from November 7, 2007.
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November 8, 2007
Congressional Democrats Grow Wary of Spitzer License Plan
New York Times
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Democratic members of Congress, having watched Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stumble on the question of whether states should give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, are growing increasingly agitated over Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to do so and are calling for him to shelve the idea.
...
The governor’s aides have been quietly working to mollify lawmakers, and Mr. Spitzer will meet behind closed doors with members of New York’s Congressional delegation next week, according to staff workers on Capitol Hill and in Albany.
...Indeed, many of the Democrats who prevailed on Tuesday distanced themselves dramatically from Mr. Spitzer’s plan. And the Congressional members fear a Republican campaign of attacks on an issue that Mrs. Clinton’s experience shows is extremely difficult to finesse.
During a Democratic presidential debate last week, she seemed to endorse Mr. Spitzer’s plan at first, saying she sympathized with his attempt to address the problem. Moments later, she backpedaled, leading critics to accuse her of trying to have it both ways.
The next day, her campaign workers released a carefully worded statement in which Mrs. Clinton expressed support for the governor’s goal without endorsing his plan.
Mr. Spitzer initially proposed a blanket program of giving full-fledged driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. After intense criticism, he proposed a three-tier system that would provide a more limited driver’s license for illegal immigrants that could not be used to board planes or cross borders, while those legally here would be eligible for a more secure federally recognized ID card.
That plan upset both immigrants’ rights groups and critics from the right, who do not want any kind of license to be granted to the illegal immigrants.
Republicans are already exploiting the issue nationally, and believe it has appeal beyond New York.
In press releases and on talk radio, the National Republican Congressional Committee has called the proposal the “Spitzer-Clinton” plan and has sought to tie Democratic incumbents to it.
“We plan to start in New York and expand nationally,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the Republican campaign committee. “This is an issue that Democrats are on the wrong side of.”
A few days ago, for example, Republicans began mockingly comparing Representative Christopher Murphy, a first-term Democrat from Connecticut, to Mrs. Clinton after he declined at first to comment on Mr. Spitzer’s plan, saying he had not had an opportunity to review it.
In a subsequent interview, Mr. Murphy, while dismissing the Republican attacks, said he was strongly opposed, arguing that a driver’s license was a privilege that should not be extended to anyone who is here illegally.
While acknowledging that Mr. Spitzer was trying to address a problem that was not of his making, he said the solution was not to “cloak” illegal immigrants “with the privileges and documentation of legal Americans.”
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Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting.
For complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/nyregion/08spitzer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
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