Here’s another one from the world of the absurd in Washington, DC. Apparently Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts have made a bargain with the House Hispanic Caucus (read – liberal Hispanic Democrats) that would kill a provision that would allow the Salvation Army to insist that its employees speak English.
It’s been less than a week since New York’s Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Eliot Spitzer had to climb down from their support of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican from Tennessee, is dumbstruck that legislation he views as simple common sense would be blocked. He noted that the full Senate passed his amendment to shield the Salvation Army by 75-19 last month, and the House followed suit with a 218-186 vote just this month. “I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job,’ ” he told the Senate last Thursday.
Seems pretty cut-and-dry. Common-sense stuff, right? Not if you are a Dem. All hell broke loose, and the House Democrat leadership was forced to abdicate any support of the position after the Hispanic Caucus threatened one of their efforts to overtax Americans. Amazing!
After testy negotiations, the Hispanic Caucus finally agreed to let the tax bill proceed after extracting a promise from Ms. Pelosi that the House will not vote on the bill funding the Justice and Commerce Departments unless the English-only protection language is dropped. “There ain’t going to be a bill” with the Alexander language, Mr. Baca has told reporters.
Don’t bother telling Mr. Baca that “ain’t” isn’t proper grammar. Hell, he doesn’t even care if a company wants its employees to speak the English language. Grammar be damned! Basically it’s insanity like this that gives me hope that the GOP may actually be back in 2008.
steveflesher
Philip
Mel Maguire
Mark Ciavola
