Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he is "sickened" that President Bush and Congress went on vacation "while young Americans in our cities are massacred" by illegal immigrants.
Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House, was referring to a recent crime in Newark, N.J., where three college students were murdered execution style in a school playground.
One of the suspects -- Jose Lachira Carranza -- is an illegal immigrant from Peru who was on bail on charges of raping a child when the murders occurred.
Gingrich said another suspect is an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua with a long record of arrests who was ordered deported in 1993 but never left.
However, The (Newark) Star Ledger reported Tuesday that the man -- Rodolfo Godinez -- obtained permanent legal residency in 2001.
The Newark Police Department did not return requests for comment.
Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."
So, I gather, illegal immigrants have killed four thousand Americans since 2003? Really? I mean, I guess I missed that. I would have thought Lou Dobbs, at least, would have told me about that kind of death toll.
Now, of course, Newt is insane. As Dave Neiwert mentions, Latino immigrants have a lower overall crime rate than Americans in general. (Don't even think about saying "But teh illegalz is all criminalz!" wingnuts. Unless you've never sped, you've committed a crime that the government considers no less serious than illegal immigration.)
But Newt is tapping into the hard racist core on the right, the one that the GOP has been dancing with since 1971. It's no longer acceptable to hate black people, at least overtly, so the racists have moved on to hating illegal immigrants, or, you know, immigrants -- it really doesn't matter much to them. No, Newt is just playing the same kind of games he always has played, like the time he blamed the Democrats for the Susan Smith murders. He's a hatemonger who lashes out at whatever the most convenient target is. Today it's Latinos. Tomorrow, maybe liberals, maybe atheists, whatever. Newt knows that the key to success on the right is to encourage hatred. That's why he's been so successful.
