Gibson wasted no time: "Let's start with the House bill. It would build a wall along our southern border, turn 12 million people into felons and make it criminal to give an illegal immigrant help. Is that what this country is about?"
Countered Hannity: "I think this country is about laws and the rule of law and I think you've got to come into this country and do it the way my grandparents did it, which is legal."
Gibson then deployed the Lazarus Gambit: "but we're about 'give me your tired, your huddled masses.'"
Hannity: "Absolutely. And everyone that came through Ellis Island came here legally." Bingo!
He continued: "The problem is the 9/11 Commission says, it promises us, that it's not a matter of if, it is a matter of when this country is attacked again. The enemies of this country are plotting, planning and scheming the next attack. If our borders are open, that, I contend, is the single biggest area of vulnerability and susceptibility we have to a terrorist attack."
Gibson, giving his best nattering nabob of negativism impression, opined: "But from a practical standpoint, that is virtually impossible to do."
Hannity: "It's not."
Gibson apparently thinks we can't defend our borders: "You have the Canadian border, the Mexican border, and you simply can't build a wall. You can hire border guards to make parts of it secure."
From personal experience, Hannity knew better: "I was down there. I've been in their helicopters and their boats and out on patrol with them. I was at the El Paso, New Mexico border, the San Diego border. I saw the --"
Gibson: "And they can do sections."
Hannity: "But every time they concentrate on a particular area, usually 100 miles wide, they can stop it. Here is the message we have to send -- that America will control its borders. . . We can reform the process and allow as many people as we want but do it legally so we know you're a friend of the United States, that you're not an enemy, you're not part of a group of people that believe they're doing God's will to kill us.” For me, this is security issue, one, two and three. This is about America can no longer afford to be vulnerable at the borders."
Two questions:
1. Does Charley Gibson believe that our porous borders are a grave threat to our national security?
2. If ever we suffered another major terrorist attack and it was shown that the perpetrators had illegally entered across our border, how long would it take - measured in milliseconds - for Gibson and his MSM confreres to begin bashing the Bush administration for deficient border security?
Finkelstein lives in Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning public-access TV show 'Right Angle'. Contact him at: mark@gunhill.net
