Cindy and John McCain/Photo by Tim Hacker, Tribune

John McCain spent a considerable portion of his press conference in Phoenix on Monday discussing his renewed efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters.

It was no coincidence that Monday is Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862 when a small group of Mexican troops overcame overwhelming force during that country’s struggle for independence.

McCain announced the launch of a Spanish-language page on his campaign Web site. It can be accessed at http://espanol.johnmccain.com.

Then, as he did following his Super Tuesday victories on Feb. 5, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declaired that he wasn’t overly worried about the reaction from the most conservative members of his own party.

“My party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. My party is an inclusive party. My party reaches out to every citizen, every American who shares our views and our optimism and our belief in the principals of this great nation,” he said.

“I will seek the vote of every American. I will make sure we go to places where we might not get the majority of the votes. But the job that I have is to re-unite America and to make sure that people know that I will be the president of all the people, whether they vote for me or not,” he said.

“Americans are crying for us to work together. I notice that Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton are touting their work in a bipartisan fashion. I will match my record for reaching across the aisle and working with the other party with them any day of the week. It’s far more extensive and far more substantive – and I’m proud of that work,” he said.

For more on McCain’s outreach to Hispanics and his plans pump up the campaign with discussion of energy issues, check out my story on the Tribune’s main Web site here.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (in Arizona)

Sen. Jon Kyl, who appeared on FOX News this morning, said he supports the idea of “getting about the job” of constructing a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The matter is in the news again because Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cleared the way Tuesday for another 220 miles of fence and roads to be constructed through Arizona.

Kyl, the Senate’s assistant minority leader told FOX’s anchor Jon Scott, “You’ve got to secure the borders if you’re a sovereign country. And we’re never going to have further immigration reform in this country if we don’t get control of our borders.”

During the interview, Kyl discussed the differences between actual fence and virtual fence, and sized up the environmental arguments. The senator also helped the geographically challenged cable-news anchor locate the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the proper state.

Here’s the transcript…

SCOTT:  Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff testifying on Capitol Hill this morning.  He’s expected to talk about plans for the virtual border fence — the federal government bypassing more than 30 laws and regulations to get it built faster.Let’s talk about it with Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl.Sen. Kyl, parts of this virtual fence, it’s my understanding, in Texas, would go through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, for instance. And there are opponents who don’t want the roads built and that kind of thing that you need to maintain the towers. Right?

KYL:  Well, let’s, first of all, get a couple of things straight. The virtual fence is not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about actual fencing. Secondly, actual fencing works. I was just in the Yuma sector between Arizona and Mexico. And because of the amount of fencing that’s been constructed there, the number of illegal border crossings is down substantially. Third, where it goes through federal land, especially, there is great consultation on environmental matters. It is true that they can accelerate the construction of the fence because of the waivers that the law provides for. It’s not as if the secretary is acting outside the law.

SCOTT:  Well, and that’s the argument:  The secretary is pushing through the fence by using these waivers, that, as you say, he has the power to invoke. Right?

KYL:  That’s right.  And he just testified — I just came from his testimony. And it’s very clear that Congress is pushing him to hurry up and do the fence. So he’s doing what we’re asking him to do. We gave him the authority for the waivers. We’ve given him the money. And we’ve said, “Get about the job.”And he says that he can complete the amount of fencing that he’s been talking about now by the end of this year.

SCOTT:  Well, then, good fences make good neighbors?  I mean there are an awful lot of people opposed to either a virtual fence or an actual physical fence.

KYL:  Yes. There are some people who would open our borders to illegal immigration. That’s not the policy of the United States. And I don’t know of anybody in the United States Congress, Democrat or Republican, that would admit to supporting that kind of a policy. You’ve got to secure the borders if you’re a sovereign country. And we’re never going to have further immigration reform in this country if we don’t get control of our borders.

SCOTT:  Well, it’s my understanding that the virtual fence, which I talked about earlier, going through some of those national monuments, that would require road building.Even though you’re not building a physical fence like the kind we see on our screen here, you need to build those giant towers, 100 feet tall or so. People want to put roads through some of these national monuments, and that has some of the environmentalists upset.

KYL:  Well, first of all, there are roads through the national monuments. Organ Pipe is in Arizona. I’m very familiar with our forests, our monuments, our game refuges. And in all cases where they are adjacent to the border, it is necessary to have protection at the border, but we also are very concerned about ensuring that the reason why they’re monuments or game refuges are not destroyed by whatever is constructed. But let’s just stop and think for a moment. Even a light on top of a pole or a camera on top of a pole has a very small footprint. And the roads that do need to be constructed in most cases are either already there or are very inobtrusive. It’s not like you’re building a paved highway through the middle of a national monument.

SCOTT:  All right, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, thank you.

KYL:  You’re very welcome, Jon. 

John McCain

A surge of interest in the Democratic presidential candidates will present problems for Republican John McCain across the West, according to Democratic Party leaders from Arizona and other states who spoke in a teleconference Thursday.

They pointed to numbers that indicate Democrats have been turning out for their presidential primary elections in record numbers across the region, where the political landscape is changing. In Arizona for instance, 369,000 Democrats voted on Feb. 5, which marked a 130,000-voter increase from the previous record amount.

If all of that’s true, the big blue upheaval hasn’t exactly shown up in most polls across the eight-state Mountain West region.

Deep thinkers with the polling company Rasmussen Reports classify Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana “Safe Republican” states, at least for the presidential race. They catalogue Nevada and Colorado as “Toss Up” states, and New Mexico as a “Leans Democratic” state. For those keeping score at home, that’s five reds, two purples and one blue.

The Democrats in the teleconference offer a different assessment. They said Republican voters feel betrayed by McCain.

Arizona Democratic Party executive director Maria Weeg noted that McCain failed to win the GOP primaries in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney placed first in each of those. McCain finished second in Colorado and Utah, third in Montana, and fourth in Wyoming.

“McCain’s losses around the West speak volumes. I mean, they’re really resounding. If you look at what happened in the Mountain West, McCain only won one state – and it was his home state,” Weeg said.

McCain won Arizona’s GOP presidential preference election on Feb. 5 with 48 percent of the vote. He was followed by Romney at 34 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 9 percent.

The U.S. senator from Arizona never opened a campaign headquarters in his home and hardly campaigned in Arizona, spending the bulk of his time before the Super Tuesday elections in other states, including New York and California, both of which he won.

The presidential primaries haven’t been conducted yet in the remaining Mountain West states. Idaho’s primaries are May 27 and New Mexico’s are June 3. Here’s a guess that McCain will win both GOP races.

The Democratic leaders did not respond to a question about whether they felt the state-by-state losses of their eventual presidential candidate foretold similar difficulties for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in those states. For example, Clinton beat Obama in Arizona. So if Obama ends up as the Democratic nominee, which seems likely, does his second-place finish in the state’s primary in February suggest that he doesn’t have a chance in the general election in November?

Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, faulted the Democrats’ assessment of McCain’s chances in the West.

“By ignoring every recent poll showing Sen. McCain’s strength among independents, the (Democratic National Committee) is proving that their Western strategy is as far removed from reality as their candidates’ liberal policies are removed from the values of the region’s voters,” he said in a statement.

“John McCain’s Western roots and proven record on taxes, Second Amendment rights, and protecting our national security stand in stark contrast to the flawed vision of Obama and Clinton,” Lindsay said. 

McCain’s biggest problem is within his own party, Weeg said. Republicans simply don’t trust him.

“He’s not the Straight Talk Express that he might have been when he ran for Senate the first time. He’s now what we’re referring to as the Double-Talk Express. He’s changed his stance on almost everything to pander to the most extreme portions of his party,” she said.

The Democrats said McCain has been cozy with lobbyists and AWOL from his Senate job, plus he’s weak on the economy and wrong on the war in Iraq. According to their assessment, that’s enough to tip the election toward the eventual Democratic nominee in Arizona.

“I see Arizona as winnable for a number of reasons. The first and foremost is that I don’t think McCain is that popular here. He may once have been – I don’t know – but certainly 48 percent of the vote from his own primary voters does not bode well for him,” Weeg said.

McCain’s handling of immigration has demonstrated his failure to lead, she said.

McCain and other Republican senators, notably Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, joined with Democrats to forge a compromise border security and immigration reform bill that failed to advance last year. Some Democrats said the bill was too strict in regulating immigration into the country, while some Republicans charged that it was too forgiving in allowing millions of illegal immigrants already living in the country to obtain citizenship.

Since the bill failed, McCain has changed his stance on the issues, going from an all-at-once approach to a two-step approach. He said he believes lawmakers should deal with the border first; and deal with immigration reform second.

Weeg said immigration will be a huge issue for Arizona voters in November.

“We work with people who come across the border. We play with them. We are next to them. We are their neighbors. So this is really an issue in Arizona,” she said. “And McCain, who once sponsored legislation to come up with some practical solutions to this increasing problem, has given in to the extremists in his party in order to garner this nomination. He’s not coming up with any real solutions at all.”

The Democrats talk about conducting a 50-state campaign. The real measure of their sincerity will be to see if Obama or Clinton runs a bona fided campaign in the 48th state.

Phil Gordon

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon bristled Monday at the way Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent deputies on saturation patrols in an east Phoenix neighborhood during the Easter weekend.

Arpaio sent sheriff’s deputies to the area of East Thomas Road and North 32^nd Street after business owners contacted him to complain about day laborers loitering and committing petty crimes. Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the area, issued traffic citations and arrested illegal immigrants they came across.Gordon said he hopes Arpaio will notify Phoenix Police officials before conducting similar operations in the future.

“The sheriff has concurrent jurisdiction – we certainly acknowledge that – but for whatever reason, the communication in advance and the coordination in advance has not occurred and I’m very concerned about the safety of his officers and our officers,” Gordon said before a press conference on a different topic at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office action also could be turning the Hispanic community against law enforcement in general, Gordon said.

 “We need everyone to testify against violent criminals – murderers, drug dealers, burglars. And the reports that I’m getting from many Police Departments is that a good segment of the Hispanic community is afraid to go out and testify,” Gordon said.

President Bush

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and Democrat Rep. Harry Mitchell both found aspects of President Bush’s final State of the Union speech to their liking. Here’s statements each of them issued after Bush’s speech Monday night.

From Kyl:

The president, in his final State of the Union Address, outlined an agenda that addresses some of our nation’s most pressing challenges. Most immediate is the need for legislation to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Al Qaeda still desires to carry out the same kinds of attacks against the United States and other countries that it executed on Sept. 11, 2001. We know the incredible amount of damage that can be inflicted if we do not monitor and respond to this threat. We also know that the best way to deal with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations is to collect intelligence so that we can prevent attacks from occurring in the first place, rather than having to respond after they have occurred. That is why it is critical for Congress to ensure that under the law, the United States can engage in the kind of intelligence collection against al Qaeda that technology today allows.

Congress amended FISA in 2007 under the Protect America Act, which conformed the legal procedures to the evolving technology of intelligence collection. The PAA, however, is set to expire on Friday. The Senate has now been in session for almost two weeks since the beginning of this session, and majority leader has done very little to advance the issue. Instead, the Senate has devoted much of its time to considering unrelated legislation despite the looming deadline. I join with the president in urging the swift passage of a bill to properly and adequately update FISA.

While there were many fine initiatives laid out by the president, I want to specifically commend him for taking the lead to reform earmarks in Congressional spending bills. I don’t believe Congress has done enough to end this wasteful practice, and the president’s proposal to direct executive agencies to not fund projects that are not voted on by Congress is a good start.

From Mitchell:

I was pleased to see Sen. (Bob) Dole and (Department of Health and Human Services) Secretary (Donna) Shalala here tonight. Congress has passed a number of their recommendations to help our nation’s veterans, but there is so much more to be done.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating tens of thousands of new veterans, with new and demanding conditions. We have to be ready to treat them, and as we gather here tonight, we are not yet fully prepared. I recently returned from both Iraq and Afghanistan, where we looked at the transfer of medical records from the point of injury through the point of return to the United States, and I can tell you the process needs work.

I think it is wrong, at this time of war and economic uncertainty for members of Congress to raise their own pay yet again. Our sons and daughters are in harms way, we have a debt of more than $9 trillion, and families are worried about making ends meet. Americans didn’t get a pay raise last year, and I think it is wrong for members of Congress to give themselves one. I’ve introduced legislation to block this pay raise, and I’ve asked leadership to include it in the stimulus package.

I think the economy is a real concern. Unemployment rates are up in Arizona and we have record numbers of foreclosures in the Valley. We need to work in a bipartisan way to reverse this trend before it becomes a bigger problem.

I was pleased to hear the President speak about the need to secure our border. This is the federal government’s responsibility, it is not getting the job done, and Arizona is paying a hefty price as a result. More than half of all illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings happen in Arizona. Congress increased funding for Customs and Border Protection, as well as for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and appropriated $1.2 billion for border fencing, but there is much more to do.

Mitchell represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, which takes in Scottsdale, Tempe, Fountain Hills, Ahwatukee Foothills and west Mesa.

Mitt Romney and Joe Arpaio

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio traveled to New Hampshire to stump for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the weekend.

Arpaio, who has made national headlines for arresting illegal immigrants, appeared with U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, at a press conference in Manchester to discuss illegal immigration.

Here’s some of Arpaio’s quotage, as provided by Romney’s campaign:

“I like (Romney’) stance on illegal immigration. If you recall, he’s probably the first governor that did make arrangements with (the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement service) for that type of training that ICE and we do. I give him a lot of credit for that.”

“It is an important problem in the state of Arizona and the whole country. That’s one reason I support the governor, versus many other reasons, too. Unfortunately, we have a U.S. senator from that important state that doesn’t give much emphasis to this most important issue.”

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed an agreement with ICE that allowed Massachusetts state troopers training and authority to enforce immigration law.

I’m not sure exactly what Arpaio meant by suggesting that Sen. John McCain doesn’t give much emphasis to illegal immigration. McCain co-sponsored the last two immigration reform packages that got any traction at all. Of course, both failed. And, in fact, it has been McCain’s unflinching attention to immigration policy that his given his campaign the most difficulty within his own party.

Curiously, Romney’s current immigration plan has more similarities than dissimilarities to the Senate’s compromise plan that McCain pushed in the summer. Here’s Romney’s 11-point plan, as outlined in the same press release:

– Secure the border. (Part of the 2007 Senate plan.)

– Implement a mandatory and enforceable employment verification system. (Part of the Senate plan.)

– Hold employers accountable. (Part of the Senate plan.)

– Reject amnesty. According to Romney, that means “oppose … any special path to citizenship for those here illegally.” (That might be a difference, but maybe not. The Senate plan contained a “path to citizenship” that included illegal immigrants paying fines, paying back taxes, proving steady employment, undergoing a background check and learning English, among other requirements. McCain, and others, said that was not amnesty. It’s difficult to determine how different Romney’s intended treatment of illegal immigrants differs from McCain’s proposed treatment, because Romney didn’t offer any details about what he would do with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States.)

– End the magnet of “sanctuary cities.” (The Senate plan was silent on this.)

– Oppose any special benefits for illegal immigrants. Romney defines this as driver’s licenses and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. (The Senate plan was silent on this.)

– Promote state and local partnerships with federal immigration officials. (Part of the Senate plan.)

– Improve interior enforcement. (Part of the Senate plan.)

– Teach English in our schools. (The Senate plan was silent on this.)

– End chain migration. (Part of the Senate plan.)

– Encourage legal immigration. (Part of the Senate plan.)

So in summery, of Romney’s 11 points, seven were featured in the Senate immigration bill, three weren’t addressed one way or the other, and the final point is tough to determine without more details from Romney.

It’s important to note that since the Senate immigration bill failed during the summer, McCain has said he now favors an enforcement-first approach.

Also, national Republican and Democrat decision makers alike have told me that immigration very likely will be a dead issue until after the next president is sworn in, and perhaps even until the next president is sworn in for a second term.

Jon Kyl (second from right) at a previous press conference

Sen. Jon Kyl and other Republicans staged a press conference in Washington on Wednesday to question why a provision to provide $3 million for border enforcement was stripped from a defense spending bill.

Kyl and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina authored the provision last month as an amendment to the defense spending bill. The Senate passed it 95-1, but the amendment was removed during a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill.

Kyl, Graham and the others blamed Democrats.

Speaking at the press conference, Kyl said, “There is no question about where the American people are on the issue of securing our border and ensuring that people can’t smuggle drugs into the country, that criminals can’t come in – bear  in mind that between 10 and 15 percent of the people who illegally cross the border are people with criminal records, serious criminal records – and that terrorist can’t get in.”

Kyl told reporters that the border funding is matter of national security.

He said, “It’s our first obligation as a Congress. And yet you see in the DOD bill, the Democrats taking this critical funding out of the bill.  Now they had their political reasons to do that.  But those political reasons, I suggest to you, don’ begin to rise to the level of the anger of the American people when they realize what they have done here. Put this to a vote of the American people, and see how they vote on what this Democrat majority has done.”

The $3 billion would have gone toward:

– Enough hires to bring the total number of full-time Border Patrol agents to 23,000

– 700 miles of fencing by the end of fiscal 2009

– Completion of the fence along the California-Mexico border

– 300 miles of vehicle barriers

– 105 ground-based radar and camera towers

– Holding cells to detain 45,000 illegal immigrants daily

– Funding to reimburse states and localities for reimbursable expenses

– $60 million to states to help employers comply with employee verification requirements

Chris Simcox

The primary reason 70 miles of new fence has been built on schedule along the U.S.-Mexico border is because of public pressure to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, according to Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp., a border watchdog group based in Scottsdale.

In fact, the pace of construction increased in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to meet President Bush’s self-imposed deadline to finish the work, Simcox told me earlier this week. Bush and members of Congress were afraid of the public backlash if they failed to meet the deadline.

“We’re gratified to see that with our putting such emphasis on their progress, they are now working overtime to meet their obligations. Isn’t it a shame that we have to put so much pressure on them for them just to do their job? And without that pressure, I’m afraid nothing would get done,” Simcox said.

Most of the new fence is a single-layed steel wall. A double or triple layered fence would have been better, but the single-layered fence was a good start, Simcox said. “We’re still applying the pressure necessary to ensure reform and to ensure the federal government is going to do its job, as per the specifications of the American people. We’re not going to back off of them until they get the job done and get it done the right way,” he said.

For more on the new fence, read my story in today’s edition of the Tribune. It can be accessed here: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/9…

John McCainJon KylArizona

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