One of the biggest proponents of fencing out illegal aliens is Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, who reported yesterday that his re-election campaign war chest has surpassed $1 million in contributions.
Hayworth says his state and constituents are tired of being “ground zero” in the illegal-alien crisis. In Arizona, he says, there are 6,000 to 6,500 attempted border crossings every night, of which 4,000 to 4,500 are successful.
The congressman was driven to write a book on illegal border crossing, which he presented earlier this year to President Bush after his visit to the state. It proposes not only building a massive fence along the border, but also halting the U.S. practice of granting citizenship to American-born children of illegal aliens.
JUMPING SHIP
The number of black Republican candidates seeking major national or statewide offices in the United States in 2006, according to the National Black Republican Association: 43.
WISE GUY
Out for a stroll in Old Town Alexandria over the weekend, this columnist encountered a Cunningham Funeral Home director as he was washing a hearse in the driveway.
“How’s business been?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Dead,” he replied, without missing a beat.
CALL TO ARMS
When it comes to combating our crime epidemic, the nation’s capital might learn something from the state of Florida, where it’s just been reported that the crime rate has dropped for the 14th straight year, to its lowest mark since 1971.
“This report shows that staying tough on crime works,” Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told the Associated Press. “Law-abiding citizens that have guns for protection actually probably are part of the reason we have a lower crime rate.”
RUDY RUN?
As for one politician whose popularity skyrocketed after he got tough on crime, we are told this week that former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani most likely will enter the 2008 Republican presidential sweepstakes.
“At this stage, it’s more likely that he will run than not,” a top adviser to Giuliani tells The Beltway Beat.
GOD TURNS 50
It made little news given all the week’s turmoil, but the Senate has just agreed to a resolution reaffirming the 50th anniversary of the formal adoption of the national motto of the United States — “In God We Trust.”
This week’s approval reaffirms, in writing, that “from the colonial beginnings of the United States, citizens of the nation have officially acknowledged their dependence on God.”
It was on July 30, 1956, that President Eisenhower signed a congressional resolution passed by the 84th Congress making “In God We Trust” the official motto of the United States.
‘DIRECTOR OF IRONY’
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Democrat, is questioning why President Bush has surrounded himself with two highly paid ethics advisers and a director of fact checking.
“We actually have a ‘director of lessons learned’ at the White House, who is paid over $100,000,” says the congressman, a former aide to President Clinton, who considers rephrasing the White House title.
“They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the president,” Emanuel mused recently on the House floor. “Maybe the White House can consolidate these positions into a ‘director of irony.’”
TWO NATIONS
Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan is calling attention to an escalating culture war in America where traditionalists are now “seceding from institutions, communities, even cities where counterculture is in power.”
“Falling attendance at movie theaters, home-schooling of kids, right-wing talk-radio and TV, Christian schools, the religious divide at the ballot box, all testify that, on issues of morality, we have become two peoples and two nations.
“We do not even talk to each other. We shout at each other,” Buchanan notes in his American Conservative magazine.