Amnesty by any other name?

By Les Kinsolving

Editor’s note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you’d like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily’s exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT!

At today’s White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Scott McClellan about President Bush’s plan to make legal some illegal aliens already in the U.S.

WND: Since the last illegal-aliens amnesty plan produced so many more illegal aliens, why is the president considering what Republican leader Tom DeLay and others oppose as another amnesty, and Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo calls, in his words, “the same pig with lipstick”?

McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, it is not an amnesty. The president does not support a blanket amnesty. The plan that he outlined was aimed at matching willing workers with willing employers and giving them temporary legal status as part of a temporary worker program. It is a program he views that will help strengthen our controls on the border, as well as help provide more humane treatment for those workers who are here illegally now and don’t have protections. It will help meet an important economic need here, as well. And that’s why the president believes that’s an important priority that we should move forward on.

WND: Since the president presumably supports the Federal Communications Commission’s prohibiting obscene language on the air, doesn’t he think that the often lying exit polls and unsubstantiated projections should also be banned from the air on Election Day?

McCLELLAN: Well, I think that that’s something that people are going to continue to look at in this election and analyze. I don’t think the president nor myself tend to get into an analysis of the media, or critiquing the exit polls. But I think others are looking at those issues. There is a problem with some of those exit polls getting out ahead of time, and I’m sure people will continue to look at the issue.

WND: And he hopes they will –

McCLELLAN: I’m sure people will continue to look at it.

Les Kinsolving

Les Kinsolving hosts a daily talk show for WCBM in Baltimore. His radio commentaries are syndicated nationally. His show can be heard on the Internet 9-11 p.m. Eastern each weekday. Before going into broadcasting, Kinsolving was a newspaper reporter and columnist – twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his commentary. Kinsolving's maverick reporting style is chronicled in a book written by his daughter, Kathleen Kinsolving, titled, "Gadfly." Read more of Les Kinsolving's articles here.


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