From the right: Keep DACA, End Birthright Citizenship
Don’t expect the same GOP Congress that couldn’t repeal ObamaCare to “resolve our nation’s thorny immigration problems in just a matter of months,” warns Liz Peek at Fox News. So now that President Trump has thrown the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals over to Capitol Hill, she suggests a deal: “Grant the ‘Dreamers’ permanent status in the US in exchange for abolishing birthright citizenship.” The latter, she says, “could forever reduce the allure of sneaking into the US.” In 2014, an estimated 275,000 children were born here to undocumented mothers — 7 percent of all births. And they automatically became US citizens. But “Americans don’t like the policy and would likely back a GOP deal to scrap it.”
Political scribe: Will Christie Name Himself Senator?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is refusing to rule out the possibility he might appoint himself to the US Senate if Democrat Robert Menendez, whose corruption trial began Tuesday, is convicted, reports John Fund at National Review. That could be a game-changer, he says, since “even one more Republican in the Senate could have a major impact on whether major tax reform passes or any possible Supreme Court nominee can be confirmed.” And since Christie doesn’t leave office until Jan. 16, it seems probable he would name any successor — unless Menendez fights his removal. But appointing himself could be a political dead end: All five governors who’ve done so since the ’60s lost their next election. Yet while he’s unpopular now, “when sized up against the state’s other politicians,” Christie “might look virtuous in comparison.”
Culture critic: Why Austria Won’t Honor Maria von Trapp
Yes, “The Sound of Music” is a heavily fictionalized version of the Trapp family story. But it’s true that they did risk their lives to flee Austria and the Nazis to come to America. So why, asks Julia Dent at Acculturated, does the city of Salzburg refuse to honor them with a street name? The answer: “Because the real Maria von Trapp used corporal punishment on the children.” Never mind that it wasn’t illegal, or even uncommon, in that era. And Maria never hid the fact that she was no Julie Andrews, but “a pretty harsh and strict person.” Says Dent: “Hollywood thought her worthy enough to make a movie about her life,” so “shame on Austria for being too cowed by political correctness to embrace one of its bravest citizens.”
Foreign desk: A Hypocritical Silence on Cuba
Latin American countries “deserve credit for their recent denunciations of what they bluntly refer to as Venezuela’s dictatorship,” says Andres Oppenheimer in the Miami Herald. Which is why he can’t understand “why they don’t do the same thing with Cuba’s dictatorship. When it comes to Cuba, they all seem to look the other way,” even though it’s been “a hereditary dictatorship since 1959” and likely will remain so. Even President Trump “has left intact most key aspects of former President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba.” Indeed, “US trade and tourism to Cuba is flourishing under Trump.” Denouncing Venezuela “is the right thing to do. But ignoring Cuba’s abuses is morally wrong.”
Conservative: Affirmative Action for Ambassadors
In repudiating the racists at Charlottesville, notes Terry Eastland at The Weekly Standard, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also addressed “a great diversity gap” in ambassadorships — and pledged that “every time we have an opening for an ambassador position, at least one of the candidates must be a minority.” But that, says Eastland, would “necessarily . . . result in discrimination” against a “better qualified” candidate who lacks “the ‘right’ race or ethnicity.” Besides, “federal civil rights law and the Constitution would not seem to permit racial preferences in the selection of ambassadors and department employees.” And he suggests that Attorney General Jeff Sessions so inform Tillerson, before his “bean-counting gets out of hand.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
