| Morning Jolt – January 28, 2013 By Jim Geraghty High Atop the NRI Summit If you're in the Washington, D.C., area, I hope you had a chance to stop by the National Review Institute Summit; turnout was high. This one seemed bigger and busier, and I suspect you'll see it on the same scale in years to come. I don't think the aim is to displace the traditional January Washington-area gathering of righties, the Conservative Political Action Conference (moved to March this year) but to complement it. (I do think CPAC outgrew its venues in recent years, and I'm glad to see they're moving to a new, hopefully roomier venue, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.) (Don't let the suits know I told you this, but I'll bet the summit is a good way to get an experience roughly akin to the sessions of a National Review cruise, without the cruise. They even had a Night Owl session with Mark Steyn, Jonah Goldberg, and Rob Long.) Some of the highlights can be found over in the Corner, some of the audio for other sessions can be found at Ricochet, and most of the policymakers' speeches can be found on C-SPAN. My role was to moderate a debate between Hugh Hewitt and Mark Krikorian on the topic of immigration; it was a pretty ideal setup because (a) it's an issue most folks on the right have an opinion about, oftentimes strong opinions and (b) Mark and Hugh like and have great respect for each other, yet both think the other's approach to the issue is spectacularly wrongheaded and disastrous for the causes they hold dear. From my notes: This afternoon we'll be discussing the passion-stirring topic of immigration; while you are free to applaud, laugh, scoff and sneer as you wish, please hold all screaming and hurling of produce until the end. If you are with the organization Code Pink, and plan on interrupting today's proceedings, please pause and quietly contemplate how your life has gone so wrong so quickly. Joining us today is Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues. He has served as executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) since 1995 and is the author of the books The New Case against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal and How Obama is Transforming America through Immigration. And for those of you thinking, "Ah, an immigration-restriction advocate with the last name Krikorian, I guess your folks came over on the Mayflower," I estimate he's heard that joke roughly 80 million times. It was here that proud Armenian-American Krikorian noted that some Armenian settlers actually came over with the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, so they actually beat the Mayflower! Also joining us today is Hugh Hewitt, former executive director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, a professor of Constitutional Law at Chapman University School of Law, and author of ten books, including The Brief Against Obama. But you know him best as a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host carried on about 75 stations as part of the Salem Radio Network, where he is immensely popular and influential. I would add he also used to have terrific taste in guest hosts. I am proud to call Hugh a friend and I am immensely impressed with all he has accomplished in his life considering a rare and painful condition he has endured for most of his life; that condition is being a Cleveland Browns fan . . . and apparently it's worst in the autumn and winter months. I know, I know, a Jets fan shouldn't throw stones. The format for our discussion will be relatively informal, there will be no time limits or buzzers or dings and at no point will John King ask you whether you prefer Dancing with the Stars or American Idol. I'm just going to throw out topics of the current immigration debate and let each of you chew them over. Please hold off throwing punches until 5 p.m. First to Mark, and then to Hugh for response, how much of the GOP's poor showing in 2012 is the result of the way they handled the immigration issue? I note that earlier today, Senator Ted Cruz said that the polling he saw indicated that only 5 percent saw immigration as a top issue, and that the "47 percent" comment was a much bigger deal . . . I'm going to ask both of you what you think of the immigration-reform proposals from Marco Rubio. The senator has discussed his plan but not yet introduced it, so a couple of parts we know: - Rubio said that any broad immigration legislation should create a nationwide exit system to check foreigners out of the country, to confirm that they left before their visas expired. He noted that at least 40 percent of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country came on legal visas but then overstayed.
- a nationwide program for employers to verify the legal authorization of new workers, although he did not specify whether he would favor an expansion of an existing federal electronic worker-verification program or seek to create a new one.
- A temporary "nonimmigrant visa" to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to remain and work in the United States. They would have to wait a "significant but reasonable" period of time before they could apply to become legal permanent residents, going to the back of the line in the existing system. Once they became residents, they could go on like other legal immigrants to naturalize as citizens.
- According to current federal visa rosters, most Mexican-born immigrants applying to become permanent residents now face a wait of at least 17 years to receive their document -- known as a green card -- even if they followed the rules and were approved. Mr. Rubio's proposal could add 7 million more Mexican immigrants to those backlogs. The path to citizenship he proposes for illegal immigrants could be several decades long.
In the Wall Street Journal recently, Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick wrote, "The only tried-and-true method of reducing illegal immigration is a bad economy." So maybe President Obama deserves a lot more credit than we've been giving him on reducing illegal immigration. With unemployment at 7.8 percent, and so many Americans having dropped out of the workforce . . . . . . Hugh, what does it mean that this issue has gotten so wrapped up in the rhetoric of caring vs. not caring, that Rick Perry -- who had cultivated an image of one tough hombre, with no gooey soft sentiment in him -- characterized those who don't think children of illegal immigrants should pay in-state college tuition, as you'll recall he said they "don't have a heart." I mean, if I want somebody to talk to me like that, I'll tune in to MSNBC. . . . I'm going to share one anecdote; some of you know I spent a few years living in Ankara, Turkey, and I had a friend who worked on the visa line. And they said that when they turned down Turks who wanted to come to the United States, they would sometimes cry and scream and get angry, and security would have to remove them. Their previous post had been at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, and they said that when you turned down a Mexican visa applicant, they just shrugged and left, knowing they could just cross the border illegally. Isn't a big part of this equation the average Mexican in Mexico has no real economic opportunity, so that even the worst jobs in America look better? And do we have any ability to influence Mexico? At this point we'll take some questions, please show the staff your proof of citizenship before stepping up to the microphone. President Not Sure He Would Allow Hypothetical Son to Play Football Okay, show of hands. Is there any father of sons out there, who likes football, who isn't feeling a little wary of having our sons play full-contact football? For a president with two daughters, the question is theoretical. But I wonder if hearing Obama say this will hasten the hesitation of the fathers of the Pop Warner-stage football players . . . I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football. And I think that those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence. In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won't have to examine our consciences quite as much. I tend to be more worried about college players than NFL players in the sense that the NFL players have a union, they're grown men, they can make some of these decisions on their own, and most of them are well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies. You read some of these stories about college players who undergo some of these same problems with concussions and so forth and then have nothing to fall back on. That's something that I'd like to see the NCAA think about. Jazz Shaw: I don't disagree with Obama on this, but I think the problem is the helmets. The helmets allow defensive players to use their heads as battering rams, with the sense of invincibility they appear to provide. Even running backs dip their heads when attempting to run through a defender; we saw that play in the AFC championship, where the Patriots running back fumbled the ball after sustaining a concussion, a turnover that all but ensured the Ravens' victory. Maybe it's time to go back to leather helmets, perhaps in the NCAA especially, in order to remind players that they aren't guided missiles. Rugby players don't use helmets, and I don't think they sustain nearly the kind of head injuries seen in the NFL. It's not as completely counter-intuitive as it may sound; human behavior tends to become more careful as safety efforts are removed. One of my favorite examples: Two years ago, Gary Toth and several other staffers from the Project for Public Spaces traveled to the Netherlands to look at intersections. A handful of towns there have embraced a radical idea, originally the brainchild of the late Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman: Remove all the traffic lights, signs, curbs and lane markings from roads, and people will share them more effectively. Drivers, bikers and pedestrians will make eye contact with one another. They'll cooperate. They'll move through public space with a greater sense of its communal utility. In Europe, the result has proven to be safer and more efficient -- and more social -- for everyone involved. This concept, known as Shared Spaces, contradicts pretty much all conventional thinking about traffic engineering, and partly for that reason, it has never caught on in the United States. Slowly, though, a growing cast of advocates like Toth, a 34-year veteran of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, want to seed it here. "If you put stripes on the roadway, speed limit signs, stop signs, crosswalks, and tell everybody what to do, then you've removed the responsibility from the human beings who are moving around that space, they have no responsibility for their actions any more," Toth said, channeling Monderman's philosophy. "The light turns green, I go. The sign says I go 25, I go 25. The crosswalk says I walk here. [Shared Spaces is] saying you've got to put responsibility back on people, not on the government." The Weirdest Story on the White House Beat Remember when Vice President Biden's motorcade kept having a series of weird accidents, including one fatal one? Vice President Biden's motorcade has been involved in three accidents, one of them fatal, in the last three months -- but the Secret Service says it views the close string of collisions as "separate" and notes that Secret Service personnel were driving in only one of them. The latest mishap occurred Sunday in Vancouver. Figure skating legend Peggy Fleming and former bobsled champion Vonetta Flowers, who were riding in the vice president's motorcade, suffered minor injuries when the van they were riding in apparently was rear-ended en route to a hockey game. Biden was in a different vehicle at the time. Then a month later after that report: The advanced security detail for Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a car crash in New York today. According to NBC New York, three advance NYPD vehicles "were moving down 49th Street near 10th Avenue when they slammed into the back of a livery cab." Reports vary on whether Biden was in the motorcade at the time, with the New York Post claiming he was and NBC New York reporting that he was not. Reached for comment, an NYPD detective said that three people were injured in the collision. This is the third car accident involving Biden's motorcade or security detail in less than a week. On November 11th, a pedestrian was struck and killed by two Secret Service employees in Temple Hills, MD. In another incident yesterday, a sheriff's deputy was hit by a car while escorting Biden's motorcade in New Mexico. Why am I bringing this up now? Because of another sad story over the weekend . . . A Secret Service dog died in New Orleans Saturday night when it fell from a parking garage during a sweep for an event featuring Vice President Biden, the Secret Service said Sunday. The dog fell from a parking garage at the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton, where Biden was speaking at a fundraiser for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) Saturday night. Now, read no sinister subtext into all of this; Biden wasn't even there for most of these incidents. But . . . really, why do these awful events keep occurring with Biden's Secret Service detail? ADDENDUM: Josh Greenman offers an "Idea for how to make the Pro Bowl more dramatic: all losing players from animal mascot teams fed to their respective mascots." To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com Save 75% . . . Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for print-edition information. Click here for digital-edition information. And National Review makes a great gift. Click here to send a full-year gift to NR Digital, and here to send a full-year subscription to the print edition. Conservatives – stay healthy! Get plenty of Vitamin Sea on the next National Review cruise. Visit www.nrcruise.com for complete information about our next trip. National Review, Inc. | 
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