Lou Dobbs was against alien amnesty before he was for it

In the surest sign yet that the newly former CNN talker seriously plans to enter politics, Lou Dobbs has already flip-flopped on the question of amnesty for people illegally living in this country.

Having created much of his fame and infamy out of controversial statements on the unacceptable presence of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country and the federal government's ineptitude in addressing the problem, here's what Dobbs now says:

We need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.

His surprising switcheroo barely two weeks after departing his network of nearly 30 years came during an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Dobbs, a Texas native and graduate of Harvard, lives on a 300-acre farm in northwest New Jersey, where he could run for a U.S. Senate seat. 

Or possibly launch a presidential bid for 2012, trying to tap into the kinds of conservative populist anger that has confounded the Republican party and fueled so-called "tea parties" across the country this year, protesting taxes, spending and deficits.

"Whatever you have thought of me in the past," Dobbs told Telemundo's Maria Celeste the other day, "I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together. I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest."

The Garden State usually votes firmly Democratic. But earlier this month voters there rejected the reelection  Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine -- who had ample money and the frequent campaign support of President Obama -- and elected a Republican on a "taxes-are-too-high" platform.

The next U.S. Senate election in New Jersey comes in 2012, when incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez is up for reelection for the first time.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Screen shot of Lou Dobbs on CNN. Credit: Tony Pierce / Los Angeles Times

So do you think Lou Dobbs will get the Hispanic vote in 2012?

President Lou Dobbs.

Has a nice ring to it, right?

Well, he's starting to think so. Word out of New York this afternoon that LD is pondering a run for the White House.

The 64-year-old award-winning former radio/TV host, the son of a Texas propane dealer (no gasbag jokes,  please), was asked on a radio interview today about this "crazy idea" floating around of him seeking the presidency of these United States.

His response: "What's so crazy about that? Golly!" (Except he really said golly.)

He elaborated slightly:

"Well, I’ll tell you this much -- it’s one of the discussions that we’re having. For the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics. I don’t think I’ve got the nature for it. [But] we’ve got to do something in this country, and I think that being in the public arena means you’ve got to be part of the solution.

The controversial Harvard-educated CNN commentator, who was particularly outspoken on this cockamamie idea that the United States has some kind of illegal alien problem, abruptly resigned on-air Nov. 11. Protest groups claimed they had him pushed out.

But Lou cited his growing concern over the nation's expanding problems and the need to address them beyond his cable commentator's role. (See video below for his complete resignation remarks.)

Now, it's taken the self-described "independent populist" 12 whole days to....

broach the idea of running for the White House, good news for any incumbent since Dobbs and you-name-all-the-others can divvy up the voters unhappy with him.

It is, of course, a preposterous idea that someone never elected to anything except high school student body president in rural Texas could win the nation's top elected job on the backs of angry voters who believe the incumbent is incompetent.

Next thing you know, people will be suggesting that some old movie actor from California, who switched parties and peddled refrigerators on black-and-white TV, could run against a Democratic president elected after eight years of Republican controversy and scandal. And then the Republican actor could be elected president -- twice.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Lou Dobbs abruptly quits CNN on the air -- video

CNN's outspoken and controversial anchor/commentator Lou Dobbs suddenly announced his retirement during his program today, effective immediately.

See the video below.

Dobbs, who's been particularly outspoken on the issue of illegal immigration, said the country's current problems require rigorous discussion based less on partisanship than empirical evidence. He said he'd been under pressure to take a new direction in his life (politics) and he was going to do so in an effort to help save what he called the country's beleaguered system of capitalism.

Over the past six months, it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us.

And some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day. And to continue to do so in the most direct and honest language possible.

CNN, which isn't doing all that well in recent ratings anyway, has also been under pressure to....

Weekly remarks: John Cornyn on 9/11; Obama on, of course, healthcare

Weekly Republican remarks by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas,
as provided by the Republican National Committee

Hi, I’m Senator John Cornyn of Texas.

Eight years ago, the American people experienced the worst terrorist attacks in our history.  On September 11, 2001, thousands of innocent people lost their lives in the fields of Pennsylvania, and in the ruins of the Pentagon and the fallen towers of the World Trade Center.  This year and every year, we honor those we lost on 9-11.  And our hearts go out to all of those who remember that day as both a national tragedy – and a personal tragedy.

The terrorists who attacked us on 9-11 enjoyed safe haven in Afghanistan – and that’s why winning in Afghanistan remains so important.

The Afghan people, like the American people, are tired of war.  But they do not want their country returned to the control of religious extremists.  And neither do we.
 
“President Obama has renewed America’s commitment to Afghanistan.  He has the....

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's heckling of Obama sparks fundraising flood to his Democratic opponent

In eight years of George W. Bush's presidency -- despite huge differences on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and contentious debates over torture policy, No Child Left Behind and immigration reform -- no elected official ever heckled the president of the United States when he addressed a joint session of Congress.

But last night, as President Obama was making the case for his healthcare reform initiative, 62-year-old South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson called the president a liar. To his face.

It happened when Obama was rebutting the myths about healthcare reform, including the shibboleth that the package will allow benefits for illegal immigrants. Obama assured the viewing audience that the rumors were false.

"You lie!" shouted Wilson.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looked stunned. First Lady Michelle Obama, watching from the gallery, shook her head back and forth. And Republicans like Arizona's John McCain, calling the heckling "totally disrespectful," immediately called on Wilson to apologize.

Wilson did call the White House to apologize. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reportedly livid over the breach of civility, took the call. Then Wilson put out a statement saying, "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility."

But the apology did not stop a flood of donations to Wilson's likely Democratic opponent in 2010: Rob Miller, a Marine Corps and Iraq war veteran who lost to Wilson by 8 points last year and is eager for a rematch. Miller quickly put out a statement saying Wilson's behavior "exemplifies everything that is wrong in Washington. Instead of engaging in childish name-calling and disrespecting our commander-in-chief, Joe Wilson should be working towards a bipartisan solution."

"Joe Wilson" quickly became the most searched term on Google. Ditto Twitter. And soon enough, the money started pouring in. ActBlue, which bills itself as the clearinghouse for Democratic action, says it has raised more than $100,000 for Miller, and counting.

Of course, some conservatives are hailing Wilson as a great hero. Red State is urging backers to pony up to Wilson's campaign. They're also flogging Utah Republican Robert F. Bennett for applauding when the president bashed politicians (former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's name was not mentioned but you could kind of hear it in the air) who inspire fear over mythical Obama death panels.

And throughout the speech, House GOP leader Eric Cantor texted on his BlackBerry, and several Republicans waved sheets of paper at the president, offering reform suggestions.

Meanwhile, Wilson's official House website has been overwhelmed. "Due to exceptionally high traffic, this site is temporarily unavailable," says a notice. "Please come back shortly."

-- Johanna Neuman

Top photo: Rep. Joe Wilson. Credit: Reuters. Bottom photo: Republicans wave ideas. Credit: Getty Images.

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Some Latinos, angry at Obama and Congress, threatening to boycott census

The Senate this week confirmed Robert Groves, a former census official and sociology professor at the University of Michigan, to run the Census Bureau. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced him ''a respected social scientist who will run the Census Bureau with integrity and independence.''

The appointment will hardly still controversy over the 2010 census.

To guarantee the most accurate count of the 300 million or so Americans, federal officials promise confidentiality. But now a group of Latino clergymen is charging that widely published census data is being used to crack down on illegal immigrants. And they're calling on people in the country illegally not to answer the census.

"Law enforcement has been very effective in areas where the data of census 2000 has been used," said Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, a Washington-D.C.-based group of 20,000 churches, many of them storefronts serving undocumented workers.

Required by the U.S. Constitution, the census is used to apportion seats in Congress. With residents leaving amid a fiscal meltdown, California could lose a congressional seat. With new residents moving in, Utah or North Carolina could gain. And, beyond the politics of the thing, the census is also used to apportion more than $300 billion in federal dollars to states and cities. So, high stakes all around.

Disappointed that President Obama has not pushed harder for immigration reform to help the estimated 12 million undocumented Latinos in the country, Rivera told NPR that he hopes a boycott will put pressure on Congress to do just that. "If they don't want [a loss of]  funding for their constituents, maybe losing seats at the congressional level, then what they have to do is roll their sleeves and move forward with comprehensive immigration reform," he said.

Los Angeles activist Nativo Lopez is trying to convince the group he heads, the Mexican American Political Assn., to endorse the boycott. Latinos -- who helped elect Obama -- feel betrayed, he said, believing that despite great campaign rhetoric, the Obama White House is just continuing the Bush crackdown on illegal immigration while ignoring the impact of the recession on undocumented workers.

"There is no incentive for me to cooperate with the federal government to conduct this count unless we get relief from the federal government on the types of issues that are devastating our families socially and economically," he said.

In North Carolina, where a Latino undercount could seriously damage the state's chances of getting another congressional seat, Roy Crisanto, pastor of El Tabernaculo De La Uncion, a Pentecostal church, is telling members to join the boycott.

“The government wants to count people,” Crisanto told the Charlotte Observer, “but not give them the benefits that come with being counted.”

Other Latino groups are gearing up to fight the boycott, fearing that it could undermine the very count that helps the community with needed funds.

Arturo Vargas, head of the National Assn. of Latino Elected Officials, called the boycott "irresponsible," reminding his colleagues that an undercount would affect funding and representation for a decade.

"The irony is that the enemies of immigration reform, this is what they want," Vargas told the Wall Street Journal. "They don't want these people counted."

Catholic bishops have also joined the be-counted campaign. "It is important to get the word out because some of the populations we serve tend to normally be undercounted," said San Antonio's Archbishop Jose Gomez, an official in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The U.S. Census is a useful tool for learning about God's people, who and where they are, and many other facts that shed light on their lives, possibilities and struggles."

Census forms are to be mailed out in the spring. Between now and then, look for this debate to rev up.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo:  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson speaks to Latino voters during a rally in Denver in October. Credit: Associated Press

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More questions about Barack Obama's birth certificate, still

Well, here we go again on the Barack Obama birth certificate controversy that just won't die because it's one of those zombie issues like who really killed JFK.

No less an authority on politics, history and government archives than the Pat Boone is now raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the entire Obama administration and everything it has done since those 21 guns went off shortly after noon on Jan. 20.

This is because a lot of people, including firebrand conservative Alan Keyes (as The Ticket described here in February) and now Boone, insist or suggest or imply that Obama cannot be president of these United States because they insist, suggest or imply he wasn't really born in Hawaii but was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland.

(See below for the certificate of live birth provided by the Obama staff a year ago, even though technically that's not a birth certificate.)

(Helpful Ticket Political Reminder: Obama thoroughly thumped Keyes, a last-minute hopeless fill-in GOP candidate, in his initial 2004 U.S. Senate run in Illinois. So there may be a lingering issue there in the mind of Keyes, wherever that is.)

Now, none of this should actually matter because Obama's mother was an American, if you consider Kansas America. So she could have been on Mars when wee Barry emerged and he'd still be American. All the courts have consistently thrown out challenges to the first African American president's legality. And Obama's spending, golfing and official POTUS Air Force One jacket sure don't indicate he's got any doubts about his legitimacy.

But maybe the courts are all part of a vast Kenyan socialist conspiracy or something. As they do daily, Wonkette has a lot of fun with its own theory about this conspiracy theory.

Anyway, the latest development is that Pat Boone, in an article headlined "Mr Obama, Show Us Your Birth Certificate," goes on a long while about the hassle of non-terrorists trying to board commercial American flights nowadays. Which is so true, isn't it?

It's gotten so bad, Pat reports, that he's actually turned down some gigs just to avoid the airport hassle. Which must be a nice position to be in, even with the hassle.

Pat -- we call him that because we've never met -- questions the validity of the certificate of live birth published on The Ticket. He raises dramatic fears about what will happen if years down the road Obama is actually proven to be legally barred from holding the Oval Office as is, say, California's Austrian-born Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But then PB gets to his main point:

If I have to produce my passport, my driver’s license, my birth certificate, for things like leaving the country and returning, buying and selling and leasing and renting — all the things ordinary citizens are required to do all the time — why then, in the name of decency and equality, and, in the “open” and “transparent” approach to government Obama promised, should our elected leader not do the same?

Now, some might say, who is this Pat Boone to question the legitimacy of the president of the United States? Well, he's a lifelong conservative who had a very nice voice and made so many popular hits for your parents that for many years he was second only to a singer who died of drug issues (that would be Elvis).

Pat's qualifications also include popularizing the wearing of white suede shoes about a century or so ago, even though such foot gear is impossible to keep unscuffed for more than 27 seconds..

Pat says Obama is dismantling America’s free markets, taxing the higher-earning middle class into despondency, spending and taxing the nation into bankruptcy, imposing socialistic, government-run healthcare, seriously weakening our military and encouraging our enemies and enacting crippling and fraudulent “global warming” laws, among other nefarious things.

And, he asks, what if "he wasn’t even legally entitled to be president at all. Yes, it is important, crucially and everlastingly important. America’s very future depends on the defense of, and obedience to, our basic constitutional laws."

So while it seems unlikely Pat will be invited to perform at the next White House lesbian gay pride celebration, this birth certificate thing doesn't seem to be going away as quickly as white suede shoes.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Obama tells leaders of Americas the U.S. is too disengaged, dictatorial

Ten days after telling Europeans that the United States had been divisive and derisive toward its allies there, President Obama publicly tells leaders of the Americas that his country has been too disengaged and even dictatorial toward its more local neighbors.

He was warmly applauded. Critics of Obama's European jaunt felt such criticism of his own country was inappropriate abroad. Supporters find his different approach change to believe in.

It didn't take long on this trip -- the fourth paragraph of the very first event. Other news coverage focused on the absence of Cuba from the meeting.

At the opening ceremony of the Summit of the Americas last night, the 44th president sought again to differentiate his new administration from those in the past, many of which have made similar earnest vows of fervent interest in the neighborhood, only to become occupied with affairs elsewhere much farther away.

 But Obama urged that the hemisphere not be "prisoners of past disagreements."

We have the full text of Obama's lengthy remarks below. But here's the particular passage likely to generate some renewed comment and controversy back home:

I know that promises of partnership have gone unfulfilled in the past and that trust has to be earned over time. 

While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. (Applause.) 

There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values. So I'm here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration. (Applause.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

Complete remarks of President Obama at Opening of Summit of the Americas, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

THE PRESIDENT:  Good evening.  I am honored to join you here today, and I want to thank Prime Minister Manning, the people of Trinidad and Tobago for their generosity in hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas.  And I want to extend my greetings to all the heads of state, many of who I am....

Full news conference transcript of Presidents Obama and Calderon

Following is the transcript of the joint news conference by Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Barack Obama, on April 16, 2009, Mexico City. Some news: The U.S. leader would not commit publicly to a ban on assault weapons:

PRESIDENT CALDERÓN: (As translated.) Ladies and gentlemen of the press, of the media, I would like to give the warmest welcome to Mexico to President Barack Obama, and to the delegation accompanying him. This is a historic event that will inaugurate a new era, a new relationship between our two countries.

Today in the meetings that we have held we have confirmed the determination of both governments to consolidate the very, very close contacts and links that join and bring together Mexico and the United States. We have new projects in important affairs such as security, migration, competitiveness and global affairs.

As never before we have decided that the fight against multinational organized crime must be based on cooperation, shared responsibility, and in trust, a mutual trust. 

Both governments recognize that the Merida Initiative is a very good starting point in order to strengthen cooperation in security. But we want to go beyond, we want to go further in order to liberate, to free our societies from the criminal activities that affect the lives of millions of people.

We have also agreed to expedite the times so that we can have available the resources for this Merida Initiative, and we have also decided to launch other activities that are in the hands of our governments.

For example, we can adopt new measures for preventing illicit flows at the border, particularly....

As Obama tackles immigration, Texas legislator suggests immigrants Americanize names

The White House is making plans to roll out an immigration reform proposal next month, one that would make good on President Obama's promise to Hispanic voters to tackle the thorny issue.

On tap, White House aide Cecilia Munoz told reporters this week, is a reform package that "controls immigration and makes it an orderly system," one that would also provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.

With 6 million Americans out of work, many of them blue-collar employees who believe immigrants are pushing them out of their jobs, conservatives predicted tough political sledding for any reform effort. "They will face a bloodbath," GOP commentator Pat Buchanan said this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

But one Republican legislator in Texas has a unique spin on how to help immigrants, and even second- and third-generation Americans, assimilate. Republican Betty Brown said this week she thinks Americans of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent should change their names to make it easier for poll workers to identify them.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the comment came late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting because they may have a legal trans-literated name and then a common English name used on driver’s licenses or school registrations.

Brown, who with her husband Ron operates a ranch near Terrell on land that has been in her family for four generations, suggested that Asian Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible. She said:

Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here? ... Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?

No word on how Ko responded. Perhaps, like us, he was speechless. But Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie found plenty of words. He accused Republicans in Texas of trying to suppress votes with a partisan identification bill and Brown of "adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments. "Brown spokesman Jordan Berry said Brown was not making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve an identification problem. He also said Democrats are trying to sensationalize her comments because polls show most Texans support requiring identification for voting.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: David McNew / Getty Images