Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

Last week, comedian Stephen Colbert’s testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration was roundly criticized by the media and politicians of all political stripes as a joke.  However, as it turned out, the joke was on Congress itself.

Colbert, a faux right-wing Republican commentator, was brought in by Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) to ridicule her GOP colleagues and offer a little “star-power” to the Democrats’ effort to pass an amnesty bill and get more desperate, illiterate Mexican workers into the country, legally.   These workers, who cannot speak English, then would be dependent on the left-wing Spanish language media that, come election time, can be expected to herd them into voting booths to, surprise, surprise, elect more Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »

Al Sharpton is likeable enough.  I discovered this when we appeared together on a television program and was taken aback by this polite, affable individual.   The man inside those expensive suits seemed strangely at odds with his public wrapper.

I chalked up his bombastic rhetoric and incendiary speeches to show business.  Nothing more.

Now his show is losing its appeal and he seems lost.   Sharpton has painted himself into a corner and nowhere was that more evident than during last weekend’s dueling rallies on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech. Read the rest of this entry »

Next week, Arizona voters have a chance to do something really important for the Republican Party.  Eliminate a key RINO (Republican in Name Only) and clean out some deadwood in the United States Senate.   John McCain has been a major stumbling block for conservatives for decades.

In an interview with Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum said this about his former colleague.  “ On almost every major domestic policy issue that I dealt with over the last six years anyway when I was in leadership of the Senate, John McCain was not just on the other side . . .  (he was) condemning people who hold the position opposite to you and sort of buying into these fallacious arguments that the left would argue on and everything from . . . importation of drugs to global warming to immigration.”

Unfortunately, Arizona voters have short memories.  Maybe it’s the summer desert heat.  Maybe it’s their age.  (Arizona has a larger than average retirement community).    Maybe they are blinded by the beauty of Sarah Palin who had no choice but to endorse her former running mate.  More likely, it’s his $20 million media blitz against a worthy primary opponent, J.D. Hayworth. Read the rest of this entry »

There have been a lot of ridiculous comments on Arizona’s new immigration law but California’s governor Arnold Schwarznegger and Latina pop star Shakira get my vote in the category of “Dumb and Dumber.”
On the Tonight Show last week, Schwarznegger called the law a grand “mess.”  Then, he went on to criticize the federal government for not passing immigration reform.  The Schwarznegger prescription: “Let people come in legally and work here because we need the workers.”

Wow!  What an interesting comment from the governor of a state with one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation!  Read the rest of this entry »

Those hellbent on ramming a hugely unpopular amnesty bill down our throats have one question that stops most of their otherwise articulate constituents in their tracts:

And what would you do with the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants now living in this country?

The image they want brought to mind is one of raids in the middle of the night – men and women driven from their homes at bayonet point, sleeping children snatched from their beds. Read the rest of this entry »