2008 Elections: Grampa Fred Tries To Breathe A Little Hate

Toad impersonator Fred "Saggy" Thompson

Or maybe that's "Life" - into his flagging campaign.

We thought once Tom Tancredo dropped out of the race due to his underwhelming support, the way would be clear to wipe the nasty racist rhetoric of the "anti-immigrant" cause right off the table. But no, Fred Thompson has taken up the mantle.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again. Think about what you're asking for. Most Americans are pretty torn about the whole immigrant issue. Pew seems to be showing a 55/45 split. Most Americans would prefer no illegal immigrants and tighter border control. However, nobody wants to pay $20 for a flat of strawberries, and we're all realistic enough to understand that undocumented workers do most of the low-paid unglamorous stoop labour in our fields and vineyards.

Clearly this is an issue that will take time and patience to resolve. No one wants to tear families apart. What do we do with illegal immigrants whose children were born in this country? Can we kick their families out? What if the children are under the age of majority? Who will care for them, and keep them on the right track?

Despite our current Messadministration's propensity for torture, the average American is basically generous. Just because we don't want another 12 million to cross the borders into our country illegally doesn't mean we want to tear babies from their breastfeeding mothers or force sisters to say goodbye to brothers whose only "crime" was to be born in a different country.

And it doesn't help to have the current Republican frontrunners try to criminalize these people, many of whom come to this country to better their lot. Most of them are hardworking taxpayers trying to achieve the American Dream.

Then you have some schlump like Fred "I'm Awake, Honest" Thompson tear himself from his trophy wife's 34DDs long enough to mumble something along the lines of "immigrants deserve some blame for the mortgage crisis." HELLO, you senile fool? What percentage of the total number of ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) were given to people who are in this country illegally?

I'll bet you don't know, do you? Because you're not awake long enough to do the research. Sheesh. The fact of the matter is, Alan Greenspan deserves some blame for the mortgage crisis. A lot of blame. Other good candidates for blame here would be George Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and their associated neocon buddies who kept beating the drums for a war in Iraq. A war which has cost close to $2 trillion dollars so far, not including lives lost, equipment destroyed, health care for the wounded and maimed (an ongoing cost), and destroyed families, American and Iraqi. Next in line would be the banks that lusted to get their lunch hooks into the public. They handed out guaranteed-to-blow-up mortgages like Santa with christmas candy. Let's not forget the mortgage brokers and appraisers, some of whom fraudulently inflated the price of properties to get larger loans; the greedy individuals who tried to flip houses for profit, and walked away when they couldn't afford the cost of their greed; and the idiots who pulled out their equity to finance an expensive wedding, a fancy holiday, SUVs or luxury cars, and other such inconsequential fantasies. The real victims are those who refinanced to fund medical bills; and the elderly or poor who were cheated by unscrupulous criminals.

What percentage of these folks would you say, Mr. Thompson, were in this country illegally? We here don't really know - and we suspect you don't either. But we're willing to bet it was a very very small fraction of the total. From Raw Story:

Thompson's anti-immigrant rhetoric -- which apparently wasn't limited just to those people who enter the US illegally -- came as the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order star tried to breathe some life into his lackluster campaign. His attempt to come across as the "true conservative," came just days after the virulently anti-immigrant Tom Tancredo withdrew from the presidential race, and it marked a 180-degree switch from his attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters at a Spanish language debate less than three weeks earlier.

Can we say "Flip-floppin' Fred"? You bet we can. And furthermore:

For the record, a confluence of negative economic factors, including the burst of the housing bubble, led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has shaken the US economy. Language barriers are not widely believed to be among its leading cause.

Raw Story has the rest.

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