McCain Hits Romney Hard
by Ryan Sager
Mon, 21 May 2007 at 11:26 AM
updated Mon, 21 May 2007 at 11:33 AM
Mitt Romney has been trying to make quite a bit of political hay out of the compromise immigration bill — he sees it as one of John McCain's key weaknesses as relates to the Republican base and a great way to differentiate himself as the One True Conservative in the race (at least until Fred Thompson jumps in).
Well, today, on a conference call with bloggers, Mr. McCain fired back at the former Massachusetts governor, who has (of course) held varying positions on immigration over the years.
"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," Mr. McCain said of Mr. Romney's position on immigration this week. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."
More after the jump...
In response to the same question from the Sun (namely: What message do you have for your GOP opponents trying to use immigration as a weapon against you?), Mr. McCain also had a few other things to say:
On Fred Thompson's attacks on the immigration compromise, Mr. McCain said: "He had a different position not that long ago." But, as he's not in the race yet, Mr. McCain said, maybe "Fred" will have time to sort that all out.
He also said that "Clearly the status quo is a … untenable situation." And he repeatedly said that his opponents owed the American people their alternative plans if they didn't like his.
Later on in the call (still on immigration — almost the whole call was on immigration), Mr. McCain said that "For Republicans, we need to be cognizant of the" need to be "humane" on this issue. He also made the explicitly political case for the GOP getting behind immigration reform: "The Hispanic vote is turning against us in very large numbers. ... It's just something we have to do as a nation, but as a Republican I think it's important that we get this resolved."
He also added: "There are some in the Evangelical community [such as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention] who see this as a humanitarian issue as well."
UPDATE I: Here's Mr. Romney's response.
UPDATE II: Here's the audio and a more full transcript.
Related Topics: Immigration
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