Calling Out Karl Rove
In an online Wall Street Journal Live interview last week, Republican strategist Karl Rove, claimed that terms such as "self-deportation" are "distinctively unwelcoming" rhetoric and were the reasons why Romney lost the Hispanic vote this past election. He claimed Hispanics read the self-deportation message as a "lack of respect" toward their community. Rove stated that the only way Republicans can win the Hispanic vote in the future is to become "forward leaning on immigration."
Mr. Rove believes that in order for Republicans to win over the Hispanic vote, they need to aggressively campaign in the community and "let Latinos know they are respected."
Ok, fine, that’s Mr. Rove’s opinion, but in that interview he failed on credibility when he referenced Senator-Elect Ted Cruz.
Rove said, "Texas is a big state and we just elected our first Hispanic U.S. Senator in the history of the state, and guess what, he is a Republican, that’s what the message can do if we aggressively follow it as a party."
The message being Karl Rove’s recommended pro-amnesty message? I don’t think so.
Ted Cruz became the first Hispanic elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas and won the senate race with 57% of the vote. Karl Rove forgot to mention that Mr. Cruz is a NumbersUSA-rated True Reformer. Mr. Cruz filled out NumbersUSA’s 2012 Congressional Candidate Survey on Immigration Issues back in June. NumbersUSA’s surveys and candidate comparison pages are the No.1 source for news media and voters on the immigration positions of senatorial and congressional candidates.
For more information about Ted Cruz and NumbersUSA read Roy Beck’s blog.
As a True-Reformer, Mr. Cruz answered ‘YES’ to all twelve questions on the survey, including question #2, which asked if the candidate supports Attrition Through Enforcement also known in the media as self-deportation. The question asked:
"Do you support Attrition Through Enforcement (denying public benefits, turning off the jobs magnet and enforcing existing laws) as the primary was to deal with the existing illegal population, causing illegal aliens to self-repatriate back to their home countries over time?"
In addition to his True Reformer status, Senator-Elect Cruz has a record of prosecuting criminal illegal aliens as Texas Solicitor General and campaigned on pro-enforcement and border security polices. This all shows that Ted Cruz was anything but proving that Karl Rove's suggested pro-amnesty 'message' works.
On a side note - Karl Rove talks the talk on "aggressively campaigning" in the Hispanic community. Yes as the "architect" of the Bush re-election campaign in 2004, Mr. Rove certainly used this strategy with Hispanics. Yet in 2004, Bush STILL LOST the Hispanic vote to Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry by 9 percentage points despite all of President Bush's campaigning on open-borders and pro-amnesty policies.
Mr. Rove was certainly passionate about his argument, however passion is not enough to make it right. The right facts are what wins an argument.
HANNAH MILLER is a Content & Activism Assistant for NumbersUSA