Updated
Fox News’ Karl Cameron interviewed Francine Busby about her very controversial comments, which she earlier described as a misspeak. Now she’s acting like she never made those comments and is trying to portray herself as an illegal immigration hardnose:
Let me make it clear to everybody. Ok? Illegal people should not be here. They have absolutely no place in the democratic process. They shouldn’t be voting if anyone tries to vote illegally they should be prosecuted and they have no place working on campaigns.
Wow. That’s one whopper of a flip flop from what she said to the Latino outreach event:
Well sure, everybody can help. Yeah, absolutely. You can all help. Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help.
As far as I’m concerned, Ms. Busby’s statement speaks for itself. However, for the moment, let’s accept the premise that she wasn’t encouraging illegal aliens to vote for her. Her comments still support the argument that she was soliciting campaign volunteers from people who were obviously not American citizens. How do we know they weren’t citizens? The audience to whom she was speaking could neither speak nor comprehend English, and speaking and comprehending English are requirements for becoming American citizens.
When Ms. Busby encouraged illegal aliens to help send her to Congress, she demonstrated her total lack of respect for our immigration laws. Don’t forget, she said what she did at the Latino event because she thought no one else was listening.
Ms. Busby can pretend until she’s blue in the face that she never made her potentially election-killing comments, but she can’t unring a bell – the audio is out there for everyone to hear. She’s not off the hook.
Be sure to read Jay Tea‘s piece on Ms. Busby’s comments.
Update: Watch the video that Jay linked to in his post and pay attention to how she encouraged the audience to “help.” She even had staff members there to show them how to “help.”
Got caught in a lie and now back pedalling. What else is new? If that district is really that heavily Republican, she just blew the election. Cunningham is jail, and this genius just blew whatever chance she had of the voters punishing the Republicans for Cunningham’s crimes. She can say what she likes, but she was in a not so veiled way seeking illegal aliens to vote for her as well. It’s not likely the voters are going to trade one crook for another, especially if the candidate is acting squirrely before the election.
Her comments still support the argument that she was soliciting campaign volunteers from people who were obviously not American citizens.
Because of course all Latinos are illegal immigrants, or all American citizens are registered to vote, right? Oh wait,
How do we know they weren’t citizens? The audience to whom she was speaking could neither speak nor comprehend English, and speaking and comprehending English are requirements for becoming American citizens.
Ah, and how do you know they did not speak English? Because there was a Spanish interpreter? That’s quite an assumption. Next time I see an interpreter I’ll assume no one in the room speaks English, regardless of the reality.
I tell you what, mantis, lets have her Karl Cameron interview translated word for word and broadcast on all the local Spanish radio stations. Then we can stop arguing about paraprax.
Ah, and how do you know they did not speak English? Because there was a Spanish interpreter? That’s quite an assumption. Next time I see an interpreter I’ll assume no one in the room speaks English, regardless of the reality.
The only person I know who uses an English interpreter despite knowing English perfectly is Jacques Chirac. And Busby’s questioner asked IN SPANISH how he could help despite his lack of papers. Her response wasn’t to say “go home,” like she’s saying now.
But Kim did miss one possibility. It is possible to be a US citizen and not know English. A naturalized citizen, ideally, will be able to read, understand, and speak English to some degree. But a birth citizen, if born to non-English-speaking parents, could easily grow up not knowing English (especially with “bilingual education” enabling by the education industry). However, this is an aberration, and education should be geared to NOT allowing that to happen.
There are actually very few illegal or legal Mexican immigrants who don’t understand spoken English…People think cops are joking when they say it’s like pool… The harder you whack em, the more English you get out of em.
Kim, some of your posts are starting to sound Kos-style inflammatory. When the left criticizes a Republican for misspeaking, then repeats that misspeak repeatedly, it irritates me; this is no better. It sounded to me like she was saying you don’t need to be a citizen to help out with her campaign, which I don’t think is illegal. Even if she did mean what you’re implying, demonizing her over it just makes you sound like one of the looney left.
It’s a little ironic that you link to Jay’s post, where the closing paragraph starts with “But don’t [reject her campaign] over the “she solicited voter fraud” argument.”
–trb
mantis,
Who apologizes for you?
trb,
How do you get misspeak from what Busby said?
Read it slowly:
“Well sure, everybody can help. Yeah, absolutely. You can all help. Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help.”
This is not a misspeak and certainly deserves the attention it is getting.
trb:
“Even if she did mean what you’re implying, demonizing her over it just makes you sound like one of the looney left.”
Demonizing her?
Lighten up, Francis. It was just criticism.
I linked to Jay’s post because everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and Jay’s is completely reasonable.
You’re an idiot. She was obviously saying that you did not have to be registered to vote in order to help her campaign.
Nice way you, Faux Nuz and other wingnuts take her quote out of context and distort what she was saying.
The sad thing is, you know that the robots will fall for this BS every time, and you can fool people not smart enough to see through you lies, and you keep doing it because you can get away with it.
It should be a crime to distort people’s words and lie like you propaganda wingnuts. Lucky for you that a lot of conservatives are not smart enough to figure out your game.
les:
Demonize might have been too strong a word. I was trying to draw comparisons between how Kim is referring to her and how people on the left refer to Republicans on a regular basis.
texasproud:
It’s a misspeak because she could have been clearer about what she meant and the way she said it sure sounds damning. Did she mean you could be an illegal and vote? Did she mean you could be a legal alien without citizenship and vote? I don’t know, neither do you. She’s come out and clarified what she said, why don’t we take her at face value? The left does this all the time, interpreting for their own devices what a Republican says, and I think it’s a crappy analytical tactic.
–trb
I live in the district in which Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray are competing for the remainder of Cunningham’s term. I’ve heard the audio and seen the video.
Based on what I saw and heard, it is my opinion that Busby knew she was answering the question of someone who probably was not in the US legally. I think she did in fact misspeak about “you don’t need papers for voting,” but I think she was encouraging everyone at the meeting to help with her campaign, whether or not they were US citizens and whether or not the noncitizens were in the US legally. Her language and behavior suggest to me that Ms. Busby is soft on illegal immigration, as are many if not most Democrats, because she sees those immigrants as predominantly Democratic voters once they have received amnesty and have become US citizens.
Good lord, are you guys idiots or what? Let’s parse this sentence:
“Well sure, everybody can help. Yeah, absolutely. You can all help. Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help.”
PAPERS FOR VOTING…papers for voting…ticket for the concert…present for your birthday. The phrase “papers for voting” and “registered voter” are redundant…that is, she corrected a rather obtuse phrase with a better one.
That’s all it is, okay? By lying like you all are to add meaning that isn’t there, you only verify the stereotype of right wingers being lying facists.
Oh right. You probably are. 🙂 Kidding…I hope.
HEY…Did you notice? THe video explictly leaves out THE QUESTION! Hmmm…I take that back…you ARE all right wing facists 🙂
Hmmmm.
Frankly it seems the entire basis for most people to believe that this was a mis-statement is that it was far too obvious and explicit so must have been a mis-statement.
Which is a rather strange yardstick.
I can confirm Listkeeper’s comments about most illegals being much more fluent in English than they pretend. The fastest way to disperse a group of Mexicans in San Diego Country is to pull out your cell phone, pretend to call someone and then shout “Hello, border Patrol” into the phone. The group of non-english speaking Mexican’s will take off like frightened rabbits. In truth there is just an arrogance about them where they like to force Americans to use Spanish because they know most liberals are such idiots that they will force us to not use our native langauge for fears of trampling a culture that is so broken it can’t feed all its own people and has to export people to the US to provide enough employment
Let me add that while I disagree with Kim’s opinion, I think her position is also reasonable, and I have no problem agreeing to disagree with her.
Sorry to disappoint some folks, but there will be no “Kim, you ignorant slut” moments here.
J.
As someone who hopes she gets elected, I think it was a politically daft thing to say. Her response was a little over the top too.
But c’mon, if you read/listen to it with a nanogram of charitable leniency, she’s obviously not telling illegals that they can vote.
Furthermore, you can be a legal immigrant, but not a naturalized US citizen, and not speak English. You can also help out with a campaign. There is no way to determine the status of that man who spoke in Spanish, and to speculate is, well, speculative.
Her campaign should have consisted solely of a PowerPoint slideshow of photos of the stuff Cunningham was illegally given/sold. I like her chances if she can stay on topic. You’re doing good work trying to prevent that, and anyone who expects anything else from you guys doesn’t really understand politics. But I think you’re making a mountain of a mole hill. (Is mole hill one word?)
Bemused, that’s a brilliant strategy for her to defeat Cunningham.
Unfortunately, he isn’t running.
Sorry to interrupt your little pseudo-intellectual musings and ruminations with harsh reality…
J.
I thought google news wasn’t searching wingnut blogs anymore? Oh, brother, you guys! You just cannot stop lying. No wonder your coward president has to stoop to beating up on gays to rally his primal ooze, “the base,” as he calls it; I call it walking garbage.
She’s obviously running afoul of the old maxim, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”
Right, Jay Tea, because Republicans would never, ever stoop to guilt by association. Of course Cunningham is irrelevant, but she and Bilbray are not trying to present a deductive case as to why they should represent their district; they’re trying to persuade people using whatever devices are available. Why not vapid rhetoric, if clods buy it? A Republican-led congress is now known to have a lot of corrupt people in it. (Anti-wingnuttery caveat: some of them are Dems. File under: bears shitting in woods.) Might people not be sympathetic to the idea that a Democratic congress could be a breath of fresh air? “Give us two years and we’ll see then” is a perfectly reasonable message.
As to how the prior post can be classified as “pseudo-intellectual musings and ruminations”…? You try to be civil…
“Might people not be sympathetic to the idea that a Democratic congress could be a breath of fresh air?”
Ah, those golden days when Dems ran Congress and there was no corruption. What year was that again?
It’s understandable that people might think that Dem Congress’ were virtuous. After all, Jefferson (D) didn’t crack the MSM until there was video tape evidence. Never mind that in January an associate pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson. Not that you would have known that by checking the MSM. If you’re corrupt with a D after your name it takes video tape to crack the news.
Let’s give the rabid rightwing mouth-breathers the benefit of the doubt and stipulate that Busby DOES intend to conspire to allow illegal aliens to vote for her.
How exactly is that supposed to work? Last I heard, illegal aliens have a hard time registering, and also last I checked, it helps to be registered if you actually, you know, want to vote.
So how was Busby planning to pull off this coup, using cadres of illegals to register and vote for her, presumably several times? If she can pull such a thing off, she deserves to win an election.
You conservatives, you slay me. You folks seem awful nervous lately, I wonder why? Not comfortable in the hands of your Dear Leader anymore? Gotta spend millions of dollars with radio blitzes over a momentary lapse in speech? Which garbage bag in Ed Rollins’ summer home did you steal that strategy from?
It’s incredibly racist to assume that at any Latino event there must be tons of illegal immigrants. The only way to mis-interpret what she said so terribly as to conclude she’s trying to garner illegal immigrants’ votes is to take that racist view.
Was there a sale on red herrings at the local gunvideotruckbaitshop/church today? Your righties are even further off the deep end than normal.
Let’s see if we can think of a parallel example here. Oh, got one! The Cheney interview from 03/16/03:
We know that based on intelligence that he has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He’s had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.
Wow, he just said that Saddam had nuclear weapons! OMG, he totally lied in March, 2003! Look, look!
Oh, wait, how about some context? Elsewhere in the interview:
And I think that would be the fear here, that even if he were tomorrow to give everything up, if he stays in power, we have to assume that as soon as the world is looking the other way and preoccupied with other issues, he will be back again rebuilding his BW and CW capabilities, and once again reconstituting his nuclear program.
—
We know he’s reconstituted these programs since the Gulf War. We know he’s out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization.
Oh, so in context is seems as though Cheney misspoke, and he really meant they believed Saddam had reconstituted his nuclear program! Well then, looking at things in context and without a partisan agenda sure does clear things up, doesn’t it?
Moonbats, all of you.
I’ve waited half a day, and still no evidence her interview with Karl Cameron has been translated word for word and broadcast on all the local Spanish radio stations. You would think that the progressive media would be all over helping folks get info that don’t speak English too well… or don’t have papers.
mantis,
Who apologizes for you?
No one needs to. I am but a bug.
A busy bug at that. Thanks for digging up the Cheney quote.
Hmmmm.
LOL.
And ever since you liberals have been hammering away shouting that this was evidence.
And now *your* standards are applied to a liberal and it’s “OMG how can you do this?”.
Goose, meet gander.
And ever since you liberals have been hammering away shouting that this was evidence.
Please point me to where I shouted this was evidence (good luck, it’s never happened).
What is it called again when you dismiss someone’s argument not on substance or merit but based on something about that person you object to (say, being liberal, for instance)? I think it might be latin. Hmmm….if I could only remember.
mike:
“It’s incredibly racist to assume that at any Latino event there must be tons of illegal immigrants. “
Is that a true statement? With ’10 or 20 million’ illegals here, mostly Latino, is it really such a stretch to beleive some illegals are present? Lighten up, crybaby.
Maybe not “tons”, as in ‘at least 4000 pounds’, but at least some illegals are probably present. I guess it depends on how Clintonian you want to get.
Somewhat OT: Man, there’s a lot of Lefties and/or Trolls commenting on Wizbang! lately.
Well As I predicted on a previous thread, Bilbray is the winner. Busby stuck right where she was in the first election 45%. Kos now 0 for 19. Make that o for life. Light hitting journeymen second basemen for cellar dwelling clubs hitting a lot higher than that. You would think he would get wild ass lucky at least a time or two.
Special elections tend to bring out the very committed. This is the high water mark for Dems in this district. Even with the slime that Duke Cunningham left and with a special election add wind to their sails, it was not near enough. And it wont be in November either, in San Deigo and in most other places in the country.
gmax
So a solidly Republican district elected a Republican candidate after the Republicans outspent the Democrats by something like 2 1/2 to 1. And the Republican candidate got virtually no votes from anyone other than Republican voters. No one ever called it a sure win for Busby. You can crow all you want about this election, but if you don’t think this result has the RNC incredibly concerned, then you don’t know shit about electoral politics. Do you think they really wanted to spend $5 million in a solid Republican district?
Republicans are trying to portary Busby as the Democrats’ best hope, and her defeat as a sure sign that the Dems don’t have a chance in November. But it’s an old tactic to inflate your opponents’ chances. Just like we read about how Al Gore had everything going for him in 2002, ignoring the fact that sitting VPs virtually never get elected, never mind having served under an impeached President. Do you really think that Busby was the Dems’ best chance, rather than districts where an incumbent Republican won by 1 or 2 points in the last election? I’m hoping you’re just spewing partisan BS and aren’t really that stupid.
Chris
I seem to remember being told that Hackett was a victory for Democrats, too. Keep winning then.