Good Neighbors

by digby

Everyone's been following the saga of Representative Virgil Goode of Virginia, I'm sure. He and Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo are clinging to one another on the fainting couch, wringing their little hankies and whimpering over the prospects of the brownskinned hordes streaming into the country and ruining our fabulous "culture."

TPM Muckraker has been stalking Republicans all day trying to get them to say whether they support Goode's comments. None seem to be available. But the intrepid Terry Jeffries of Human Events Magazine did share the GOP talking points on today's Situation Room:

JEFFREY: I'm someone who lived in the Muslim world. Twenty years ago I lived in Cairo, Egypt, studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo, had Muslim roommates. I believe Cairo may be the largest Muslim city in the world. It is a city that is very peaceful and not much crime there, a great place. I know that Muslims can be good neighbors. I know they can be good neighbors and Americans here.


So far so good. Very decent of him. But wait...

JEFFREY:I do think under Virgil Goode's concern, there is something Americans should think about. America is a culture I think is basically rooted in the Judeo-Christian civilization of the West. Egypt is a country that is rooted in the civilization of Islam. I think history has shown where you have countries that are divided between those two civilizations it causes friction we don't want to have in the United States and I think that's a legitimate concern for immigration policy.

BLITZER: You think we should block Muslims from coming into this country?

JEFFREY: I think we need to have a immigration policy to make sure the immigrants we bring in are assimilated into our culture and become fully Americans.

And I think quite frankly right now we have a situation where we've had too many immigrants come in legally and illegally and the at the same time the engines of assimilation in the United States have been broken down by multiculturalism.

I think we need to solve that first... We have a First Amendment right to freedom of religion in this country that applies to everybody no matter what their religion is. This man has a right to put his hand on the Koran when he is sworn into Congress.

I do believe, however, that the United States has to worry about what this country is going to be like in the future and our immigration policies have to be calibrated in a way that remain one people and one nation. I do believe it's a serious problem.


Jeffrey is basically saying that he doesn't care who these people worship, he's just doesn't think they are "our kind." This guy would agree. Good to know.

And to think his fearless leader worked so hard to hide this sentiment. (That was when he was running for office, of course.) But every once in a while his little white slip would show. Remember this?

There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern.


Don't you just love these color-blind Republicans? It sure is a better place since they eliminated racism in this country, isn't it?



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