Yesterday the Washington Times reported that Mike Huckabee wanted to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens.
Then Huckabee's office issued a statement yesterday afternoon that this was NOT the case. At that time I asked, "What gives?" And I'm still asking.
Today's Washington Times takes up the issue again and says
The Times reported that Mr. Gilchrist, in a half-hour conversation while campaigning with Mr. Huckabee last week in Iowa, pinned down the Republican presidential candidate on various immigration stances, including how he would address what most legal scholars see as the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to any person born in the United States, except for diplomatic situations.
Mr. Gilchrist said Mr. Huckabee promised to bring a test case to the Supreme Court to challenge the matter, and also would press Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution.
And after Huckabee disavowed this
But Mr. Huckabee's spokeswoman, Kirsten Fedewa, did talk to The Times for the article. She did not challenge any of Mr. Gilchrist's statements at the time, and was quoted as saying Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Gilchrist were "united by a mutual desire to end illegal immigration and are political allies toward that end."
You would think that between talking to Huckabee's new immigration guru buddy John Gilchrist and Huckabee's spokeswoman, this would be authoritative enough. Guess not.
The Times also said that back in August during an interview with them, Huckabee had expressed a willingness to look at a constitutional amendment dealing with automatic citizenship:
"I would support changing that. I think there is reason to revisit that, just because a person, through sheer chance of geography, happened to be physically here at the point of birth, doesn't necessarily constitute citizenship," he said at the time, according to the audiotape of the interview. "I think that's a very reasonable thing to do, to revisit that."
The article says Gilchrist insists he read his notes back to Huckabee on this issue before speaking, and that as far as he knows, this was Huckabee's intention.
So I'm still at a loss to "What gives?" Did Huckabee become fearful that he was driving too many of his liberal followers away with his recent "Tom Tancredo" stance on immigration? I don't know, but I have to wonder. For a man who used to think immigration and border control was "racist" and "bigoted," he's all over the road, these days.
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