Ohio’s Governor Musters All of His Ministerial Compassion to Reject Refugees
Here’s the story (HTs to RAB and Right on the Right):
First posted: 2/14/2007 9:33:42 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday had a message for President Bush: any plan to relocate thousands of refugees uprooted by the Iraq war to the U.S. shouldn’t include Ohio.
The Bush administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.
The United States has allowed only 463 Iraq refugees into the country since the war began in 2003, even though some 3.8 million have been uprooted.
Perhaps Compassionate Ted’s next step, in the name of consistency, will be to see if any of the previous 463 refugees ended up in Ohio — so he can deport them.
Others noting: Pajamas, Right Angle (follow-up post), Right on the Right, Lorain Morning Journal (”Gov. Strickland sells Ohioans short in role as Good Samaritans”).
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UPDATE: Bill Sloat at the Daily Bellwether digs into the detail and finds that the Bush Admin’s relocation plans face difficulties — not the least of which is that “it looks doubtful that the Bush administration can move large numbers of refugees, not because they would be unwelcome, but because the background checks would be a near-impossible hurdle.”
It looks like Compassionate Ted revealed his true colors over something that might not even happen. That’s known as a substantive “gotcha,” and it’s too late for “never minds.”
UPDATE 2, Feb. 16: State Senator Kevin Coughlin responds (HT RAB in an e-mail) — “Strickland Should Apologize, Change Views on Iraqi Immigrants”
