Sometimes you find the best political commentary in the most unusual of places. I was listening to Geoff Berg’s Partisan Gridlock this past Friday afternoon (yeah, I like floggings too) and kept the radio tuned to KPFT 90.1 after hearing a blurb at the intro to their 4:00 pm news letting people know that Congressman John Culberson (R-7) would be on in an exclusive interview with Luke Jones to talk about immigration.

Rep. Culberson listed four points about the current bill and why it will never pass the House:

1. The Senate bill is unconstitutional and cannot be voted on. Sen. Harry Reid has not even sent the bill to the House because it is nothing more than a publicity stunt. It is unconstitutional and illegal on its face
2. Strenuously oppose the idea of amnesty or citizenship for people who broke our laws. All that is necessary is to enforce the laws that already exist. Fix the current VISA system – 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of those here illegally came on VISA’s and stayed illegally.
3. Implement a commonsense guest worker program based on the Bracero Program of 1950’s – can’t bring family, no welfare, no social safety net programs that are already bankrupt, cross border legally with work permit, then go home.
4. Employers must have a safe harbor – they should be given a chance to check a worker’s eligibility at the Federal level. Once the employer has done their due diligence to make certain the employee can work legally, they need to be protected from fines, penalties, or further persecution from the federal government.

He emphatically said that there is zero chance of Republicans granting citizenship to those that entered the country illegally and elaborated on that at the end of the interview:

Under no circumstance will Republicans grant citizenship to those that have broken our laws. It is not necessary, illogical, unlawful, and contrary to our entire history as a nation. Those who waited in line patiently and obeyed the law, and have done the right thing, they should be honored and respected because they did it the right way and we should not disrespect them or dishonor them by giving citizenship to people who deliberately and knowingly broke the law.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the interview. It’s only 6 minutes long. (click here if the player doesn’t show)

And if you know the “conservative” columnist in the Houston Chronicle, Bill King, send a link to him and tell him to listen in. A dose of real conservative principles might help him.

And just for grins, read this piece in the Washington Examiner: Economic populism, not Gang of Eight immigration reform, will boost GOP’s future. Hat tip to Ed Vidal for sending me that link.

Rep. Culberson is correct on this issue. Granting amnesty and/or citizenship will not help the Republican Party or the middle class. Country club Republicans may want cheap labor but the middle class is tired of them getting rich off our backs.