Huckabee: I can’t compromise on scholarships for illegals because “my soul will not let me”

posted at 12:48 pm on November 30, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Never mind the facts, never mind logic, and certainly never mind voter sentiment; Huck, after all, answers to a constituency of one. The quote comes from this WaPo account of yesterday’s presser with Chuck Norris, looking every inch the enforcer by Huck’s side, but it’s not included in the video below. Watch it anyway. It’s loaded with bogus analogies and outright misrepresentations.

Start with the fact that he treats America’s willingness to allow emergency room care to illegals as a license to expand taxpayer benefits to them across the board. He draws no distinction between life-threatening and non-life-threatening circumstances; if you’re willing to pay to restart a man’s heart, you should also be willing to pay for his kid’s college tuition. He also can’t seem to fathom why citizens should or might be angry at the millions of people who knowingly break U.S. law to get here. We should instead thank God that we have a nation worth breaking into, he counsels us, but I doubt he’d feel the same about his house if he came home to find people squatting in his living room. He goes on to take a swipe at Mitt for describing scholarships for illegal immigrant children as a “special break.” Left unexplained is how it’s not a special break for foreign citizens who reside in Arkansas for three years to have a shot at state-funded scholarships when U.S. citizens who’ve resided right across the border in Alabama for 18 years shouldn’t. And speaking of those three years, Huckabee continues to give the impression when he talks about this that there was some long-term residency requirement that illegals had to meet to be eligible for the awards. That’s patently false; FactCheck.org kicked his ass about it yesterday. No wonder Numbers USA calls him an “absolute disaster” on immigration as governor.

And in spite of it all, he’s up up up — and not just in Iowa anymore, either. McCain has to be looking at this wondering if his problem with immigration is that he isn’t soft enough. The Romney campaign is sufficiently worried to already be spinning the prospect of a second-place finish in the caucus. And while the online pushback has begun, one has to wonder — is it too late?

For some, perhaps.

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