McCain aide touts 'Mexico first' policy

[Soldier4Christ]

McCain aide touts 'Mexico first' policy
Skeptics of candidate's immigration stance highlight appointment


The Hispanic outreach director for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is a dual American-Mexican citizen known for his "Mexico first" declarations to immigrants in the U.S., WND has confirmed.

Word of the appointment, made in November, spread across the Internet last night, sparking reaction from secure-border activists who charge Juan Hernandez's position in the campaign belies the Republican candidate's attempt to position himself as an advocate of border security.

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers emphasized to WND that Hernandez is "a non-paid volunteer to the campaign, and he does not play a policy role."

"Juan works with us to reach out to the Hispanic community to meet with the folks in the various states," Rogers said.

Asked if the McCain campaign has repudiated Hernandez's "Mexico first" declarations, Rogers did not give a direct answer.

Twice he referred WND to McCain's immigration position on the campaign presidential website arguing for border security.

In an appearance on ABC's Nightline in 2001, Hernandez said, referring to Mexican immigrants in the U.S., "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first.'"

Hernandez told the Associated Press the same year, "I never knew the border as a limitation. I'd be delighted if all of us could come and go between these two marvelous countries."

Last August, Hernandez published a book entitled "The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?" in which he argued Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, were at the forefront of establishing a new North American market combining the U.S. with Mexico.

Mark Krikorian, director for the Center for Immigration Studies, asked last night on a National Review Online blog, "Has McCain offered Hernandez, a former high-level foreign government official who presumably swore an oath to uphold the Mexican constitution, a place on a future McCain Administration? That's not a rhetorical question."

Columnist Michelle Malkin posted equally critical comments this morning on her blog HotAir.com.

Noting that McCain has attempted to distance himself from the comprehensive immigration reform bill he co-sponsored with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, Malkin said the appointment of Hernandez "tells me that John McCain is as weak on border security now as he ever was."

While McCain is now emphasizing border security, the policy posted on his website repeats many of the "flexible labor market" arguments advanced in the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform bills, arguing for the necessity of a guest-worker program.

No fence

Hernandez has appeared on various cable news talk shows aggressively arguing against building any fence on the Mexican border, insisting the frontier need to remain wide open so illegal immigrants can easily cross into the U.S.

Hernandez was the first U.S.-born cabinet member to serve President Vicente Fox, operating from Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. Hernandez represented the 24 million Mexicans living abroad whom Fox then called "heroes" for representing Mexico in the foreign nations in which they lived.

In 1996, Hernandez was responsible for inviting Fox, then governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuanto, to speak at the University of Texas, Dallas, where he met George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, for the first time.

[Soldier4Christ]

Sources affirm McCain dissed Alito
Contend senator said Supreme Court justice 'too conservative'

Sen. John McCain has denied a report that he privately suggested Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative, but columnist Robert Novak writes today that multiple sources confirm the presidential candidate made negative comments about Alito nine months ago.

McCain previously responded to the buzz started by a report Monday by the Wall Street Journal's John Fund, who wrote that the Arizona senator "has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito because 'he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.'"

McCain reacted in a conference call with bloggers that day, saying he was "astonished" by the Alito quote.

"I don't recall a conversation where I would have said that," McCain said, adding he's repeatedly said at town meetings, "We're going to have justices like Roberts and Alito."

But Novak writes today that he "found what McCain could not remember," a private chat with "conservative Republican lawyers" shortly after he announced his candidacy last April.

"I talked to two lawyers who were present whom I have known for years and who have never misled me," the columnist writes. "One is neutral in the presidential race, and the other recently endorsed Mitt Romney. Both said they were not Fund's source, and neither knew I was talking to the other. They gave me nearly identical accounts."

Novak summarized the sources accounts:

    "Wouldn't it be great if you get a chance to name somebody like Roberts and Alito?" one lawyer commented. McCain replied, "Well, certainly Roberts." Jaws were described as dropping. My sources cannot remember exactly what McCain said next, but their recollection is that he described Alito as too conservative.

Novak emphasizes the issue is important because members of the Republican Party's base who are skeptical of McCain's conservative credentials want the assurance "he would not emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberal Supreme Court justices such as John Paul Stevens and David Souter."

Novak noted McCain will encounter some of the party's "very conservative" voters at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington Feb. 7-9. The senator's campaign asked to speak at CPAC after turning down an invitation last year.

"At CPAC, he might well consider providing "straight talk" about Samuel Alito and promising to veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress," Novak writes.

As WND reported, the McCain campaign's appointment of a "Mexico first" promoter as Hispanic outreach director sparked reaction from secure-border activists last week who charged it belied the Republican candidate's attempt to position himself as an advocate of border security.

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers emphasized to WND that Hernandez is "a non-paid volunteer to the campaign, and he does not play a policy role."

At a campaign event in Florida Sunday, McCain was asked about Hernandez.

"He's on my staff because he supports my policies and my proposals and my legislative proposal to secure the borders first," McCain said. "No one will receive social security benefits who is in this country illegally. I don't know what his previous positions are or other positions are, he supports mine. I have nothing to do with his."

Columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin also has pointed out McCain's national finance co-chairman, Jerry Perenchio, is an open borders advocate. Perenchio, the billionaire founder of Spanish-language media conglomerate Univision, poured millions of dollars into fighting the California movement to teach schoolchildren English, Malkin noted.

[BHarper]

I think people who believe in AMERICA FIRST! and preserving American sovereignty ought not to vote for Sen. John McCain ( R-AZ ) to be the next President of the United States.  He will most certainly continue President Bush's policy of merging the United States into a North American superstate with Mexico and Canada which sets us on the path to a one world government which will eventually be ruled by the coming Antichrist.  As students of Bible prophecy we know this is enevitable but we shouldn't and don't have to cooperate in the destruction of our country by voting for people who wittingly or unwittingly taking us down that road.  Juan Hernandez is deceived too and, unless he is a traitor, he wouldn't be involved in this either if he understood that it will strip Mexico of it's national sovereignty as well.  He is short-sighted and looking solely at the economic benefits.  We already know what McCain's record and stand is on illegal immigration.  His solution to that problem is simplistic, that is, to grant illegal aliens general amnesty and declaring them now legal. 
 
AMERICA FIRST!