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Parting Ways: Immigration Group Drops Dobbs



By Mary Lu Carnevale
Wall Street Journal

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC yanked its support for Lou Dobbs today, shutting down Web sites that promoted a presidential bid by the former CNN anchor.

The reason: Dobbs, once an outspoken critic of illegal immigration, has shifted on that issue as he considers a run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2012 or, less likely, a presidential bid. (For more on Dobbs’s shift and aspirations, click here, here and here.)

William Gheen, president of ALIPAC, which draws a hard line against illegal immigration, said in an interview that a lot of supporters were left in “shock and disbelief” by Dobb’s interview with Maria Celeste on Telemundo Nov. 20. “I spent my Thanksgiving dealing with the backlash from that interview,” he said.

In the interview, Dobbs voiced support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants – something ALIPAC strongly opposes. ALIPAC had circulated the video of the Telemundo interview to more than 30,000 supporters, Gheen said, adding that internal polling found that more than 70% of the group’s supporters weren’t happy.

But that wasn’t all. On Monday, Gheen called Dobb’s syndicated radio show to talk on the air, and Dobbs again backed the idea of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

ALIPAC suspended its Facebook “Draft Lou Dobbs for President or US Senate” and its Lou Dobbs for President. Draft Lou Dobbs for President Campaign., which had generated more than $660,000 in pledges for contributions – before many former supporters demanded that their pledges be removed, Gheen said.

“Lou Dobbs just blew away a large segment of his base of support,” he said.

Our beloved media: Crookedest. Puppet. Show. On. Earth.

Anything to keep us from realizing that it is all contrived.