Or would it be, "voy a hablar con McCain…"? I get mixed up with those infinitives, and whether to use a preposition or auxiliary verb. Of course, it would be better to use the future tense and avoid the whole "going to" construction, but that would mess me up even more. What do you think, Randy?
Anyway, the point is that I’m going to participate in a conference call with the senator in the morning, and we’ll be hablando about immigration.
This is my attempt to solicit thoughts on that. And please, no facetious questions the way some have done in the past when I solicit such input — you know, like "Ask him why he’s such a big fat idiot and I don’t like him."
No promises on using even the best questions, of course, because I’ll probably only ask one or two — it won’t be like a real interview. As much as anything, I want to listen in to see how he’s handling this issue, and my usual M.O. is to have a question or two ready, but likely as not toss them in light of something I’m inspired to ask by the exchange itself. (This sort of Zen, stay-loose approach of mine drives Cindi Scoppe, who is very methodical, up the ever-lovin’ wall. But it helps me get stuff that I find more interesting than what you might read, say, in an AP story.)
Maybe y’all can ground me. Anyway, you can try.
It could be interesting. When I e-mailed him to get in on the call, a guy with McCain’s campaign said, "Maybe it will be as exciting as the call earlier this week."
Since I have a regular job and don’t spend all day reading blogs the way some people do, I had to ask, "Which call was that?"
He called my attention to this post on The New York Sun blog, which featured this passage:
"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," Mr. McCain said of Mr. Romney’s position on immigration this week. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."
So yeah, maybe it will be interesting.
Related Posts
Ask McCain why in light of the L.A. Times report that Al-Qaeda’s operation in Pakistan is now being funded by Iraqis who despise America’s presence he continues to support this hopeless quagmire that claims hundreds of lives, thousands of maimed soldiers and billions of dollars in American treasure.
Tell him you’ve received posts on your blog from people in AZ and they are furious with him. Then ask him if it will be embarassing for him if he loses the Presidential primary in his home state.
Ask him why so many people in his HOME STATE feel he has abandoned them.
…and ask him THIS! Why hasn’t he spoken out for pardons for Ramos and Compean???
The government has admitted Federal Prosecutor Johnny Sutton out and out lied about these two Border Patrol agents. McCain is aware of that – don’t buy it if he says he didn’t know.
Please don’t let him slime off with “we need to let the process go through the courts” or some other weasel-like response. << Tell him he gave you a facile political response and your readers want him to explicitly tell you WHY he does not support law enforcement officers when the circumstances of their encarcerations raise many, many questions. ...Ask him if anyone from a drug cartel has contributed to his campaign.
Yeah, that was the kind of facetious non sequitur, ranting sort of non-question “question” that I was specifically not asking for. Thanks for providing an illustration for the others. (I had thought my example of “Ask him why he’s such a big fat idiot and I don’t like him” pretty much covered the field, but some people just can’t resist riffing on a theme.)
Anybody actually want to participate? You know, that’s what the blog’s for — dialogue, raising and answering questions, etc.
Do the rest of you ever wonder, as I do, what folks such as “bud” or “Cactus Wren” — who are so filled with anger that they greet good faith requests for input with such contempt — would do if they were actually interviewing the object of their ire?
I guess it’s sort of one of those “What would the dog do if he caught the car” things. Is it social dysfunction, or just a persona they put on in the blogosphere. Do they think it’s necessary to behave that way? Are they perfectly charming in person — like, when they’re using their real names? Quite possibly. I prefer to think so, although in my business I’ve met quite a few of the socially dysfunctional types. Fortunately, I can testify that out in the real world, they are a minority. Just not in this phony world.
Anyway, I continue to believe it’s possible for blogs to be useful and helpful to improving the real world. But so many habitues seem determined to undermine that. I don’t know where such ill will comes from.
I suppose that will generate another stream of abuse under the guise of “explaining” to me why they are so ticked off and unwilling to converse constructively. And any of us can probably write those rants for them; we’ve heard the very same stuff so many times before, generally at high volume.
But anything in that vein, if it comes from any more of these anonymous characters, it won’t stay here long.
As I said, anyone have anything serious to offer?
At least part of the impetus to do this bill is to adjust the status of the 12 million or so (some say its closer to 20 million, I don’t know the right number) illegal immigrants so as to “get them out of the shadows”.
I’ve heard McCain talk about that aspect of the bill as if it is the main impetus to do the bill – almost like its an emergency that we do something now.
I would ask him why it is so urgent to address their status that we can’t wait untill we’ve complete all 700 miles of border improvements that were authorized last year. My point is that we’ve had illegal immigrants here for at least 20 years. We don’t really expend law enforcement resources on them unless they are breaking other laws, so I don’t see the urgency to do something about their status at this time.
This is sort of a rambling way of asking “why now” for legalizing the illegal immigrants.
Si, “voy a hablar…”
Una pregunta posible: “Señor McCain, Usted cree que paguen los immigrants pobres $5,000 y cree que lleguen ellos el pais?”
Don’t forget to follow up with: “Porgue usted es un muy grande gordo idiota?”
You can finish with: “Como se dice ‘bridge to no where’ en español?”
Brad, the problem you’re having getting questions for Senator McCain stems from a previous solicitation you made for questions for Senators DeMint and Graham. You pretty much ignored our input. We feel burned, used and abused. By your own admission you pretty much wing these interviews so why should we bother submitting legitimate questions?
Because you might come up with something really good. That’s why you talk to people, to find out what they have to say.
The interview just ended.
It was short, and I had time for one question and a folo. I essentially asked Sand Hill’s question about “why the urgency,” but by the time it was my turn, I was wondering about urgency in another sense, so I framed it within the context of McCain’s opening remarks — all about how urgent this was in light of national security. I wanted to know “how come,” when we’re talking Mexicans and Central Americans for the most party, not Middle Eastern jihadists?
My follow-up was about urgency on another level — the feeling that DeMint and others that McCain, Graham and Bush were trying to hurry this through before they can study it.
Anyway, I’ve got to go into a meeting now. Later today I’m going to see if I can post the audio from the conference call.
Meanwhile, I see Graham was on FoxNews on the issue, FYI.
I’ll have to give Brad some credit on this one. Pretty good question, even if it’s not that important to me personally.
Bud is right on target and, Brad is customarily arrogant and dismissive.
We did come up with good, tough questions previously. Brad, of course, didn’t ask those questions because they didn’t fit into his neat little worldview.
Instead, he’d rather lazily “wing it” with impromptu questions off the top of his head. From my first viewing of his interview techniques, I noted its stumbling, bumbling deficiencies.
Brad, of course, thinks that he’s brilliant. No wonder you drive your co-workers nuts. Unprepared, off-the-cuff but convinced that you’re hitting home runs out the park– Cindi Ross Scoppe has my sympathies.
Who is the head of the SCGOP, again?
Katon Dawson. I’m right, but on a technicality.
So are you saying my "winging-it privileges" are revoked?
For that matter, about your "perpetually obnoxious, anonymous bait-the-blog-host" routine… "Does that still work in China? ‘Cause here it’s sorta been done to death."
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that RTH and LexWolf are jealous of their two brethren who are no longer among us. Apparently, it’s a mark of distinction in the seamier neighborhoods of Blogopolis to be singled out for one’s unseemly behavior.