October 19, 2005

Quacking South of the Border

We witness Dr. Howard Dean's "deep grasp" for foreign policy.

Howard Dean traveled south of the border to meet with Mexico's presidential contenders Monday, and lashed out at the Bush administration's policies on Mexico.

Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, claimed President Bush "turned his back on Mexico'' after it refused to support the Iraq war.

The former Vermont governor told The Associated Press in an interview that "a strong Mexico and a strong Mexican economy fixes a lot of the problems between the two countries, particularly immigration and narcotics.''

"We ought to have a partnership with Mexico'' Dean said. "President Bush has lost ground in the relationship.''

...

Dean, who insisted he didn't have a favorite Mexican presidential candidate, argued that a lack of cooperation by the White House on immigration helped create the Minutemen, a civilian border patrol group that has been guarding the U.S.-Mexico frontier to discourage illegal immigration.

The notion that Mexico is being punished for not backing the Iraq War rejects reality. President Bush's inablility to get his guest worker/amnesty bill through Congress isn't due to lack of effort. It's because a large portion of the GOP base wants the feds to get serious about illegal immigration. Dr. Dean can't even offer one concrete example of the U.S. retaliating against Mexico because of the Iraq War.

As for the Minutemen, they don't care about cooperation. They care about the lack of adequate border patrol officers along the border. They decided since the government wasn't doing its job they would. Howard the Duck tries to reach out to disaffected conservatives and grasps air.

"Dean Slams Bush's Policies on Mexico"