In what seems like a fairly moderate position on immigration Bob Schaffer had the following to say as quoted in the DenverRockyMountainPost:
Calling America a country perfectly "capable of multitasking," Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer said the U.S. ought to be pursuing a guest- worker program at the same time it fortifies its borders.
That's pretty amazing considering Bob Schaffer used to be a member of Tom Tancredo's all brown people out of the country caucus.
What's really shocking however is what he uses as an example of a great guest worker program:
He pointed to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. protectorate that imports tens of thousands of foreign textile workers, as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally.
"The concept of prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private- sector management is a system that works very well in one place in America," he said of the islands' program. "I think members of Congress ought to be looking at that model and be considering it as a possible basis for a nationwide program."
The Mariana Islands? You mean the place of sweat shops, unlivable wages, and wait for it... forced abortions. The Mariana Islands of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay who worked to keep even minimum wage laws from reaching there?
What's actually shocking isn't all that. It's that Bob Schaffer was involved in all this. In 1998 the then congressman traveled to the capital Saipan on Jack Abramoff's dime to "investigate" labor abuses. The guide to archives of Schaffer's congressional records at CSU even contains photos of Bob in Saipan. Well, apparently Jack Abramoff's firm arranged his travel there, yet Bob found nothing wrong. Was he looking as diligently as President Bush did for WMD under furniture in the oval office?
Thanks Bob, for reminding us how you were involved in this scandal, could have stopped it, but decided to look the other way in favor of vacation junkets cleverly worded as investigations.
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