Eliot Spitzer:Clinton's 2008 Camp URGED HIM Not To Give Driver's Licenses To Undocumented Immigrants

[Segami]

"...As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system," she said in a statement in November 2007.

Clinton came around earlier this year. In April, a spokesperson for her campaign told The Huffington Post that the candidate "supports state policies to provide driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants...."

WASHINGTON -- When former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) withdrew his plan to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants in 2007, it was partially at the urging of then- (and current) presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the former governor said in an podcast interview posted Thursday. While Clinton now supports driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, she flailed on the issue during her 2008 presidential bid. Eventually, the Democrat came down against Spitzer's proposed measure to provide licenses to the undocumented. But Clinton went further than opposing the plan, Spitzer revealed on "The Axe Files," a podcast hosted by David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama (who went on to defeat Clinton in 2008). In fact, the campaign asked Spitzer to drop the proposal altogether. Spitzer told Axelrod he yielded to that request, although heavy opposition from elsewhere also played a role.

"We heard from folks [on Clinton's campaign] who said they want this issue gone," Spitzer said. "I thought the issue was a metaphor for her vacillation."

Earlier in 2007, Clinton, then a senator from New York, said that Spitzer's plan made "a lot of sense." During a Democratic primary debate in October of that year, though, she walked the statement back, saying "I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do it." Her debate opponents hammered her for hedging, and Obama said unequivocally that he supported driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. Spitzer said he was "pacing around the living room" watching that debate and that Clinton "waffled and waffled and waffled.”

"Because it was controversial, she hemmed and she hawed," he said on the podcast. "And again, this goes to the core of, where are you on immigrants' rights?"

cont'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/eliot-spitzer-hillary-clinton-drivers-licenses-undocumented_56325e1be4b00aa54a4d3864

[jeff47]

1. Where is she? She'll tell us after she's elected. (nt)

[Fumesucker]

4. On a "need to know" basis anyway

Wouldn't want to go too far with all this taking a firm position stuff.

[Segami]

7. Oh yea,...I forgot..

presidential candidates should never take a firm position on issues just in case they need to flip their stance for political gain....

[frylock]

9. Only people who are rigid in their ideology refuse to remain flexible..

or some bullshit idk.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

29. lol, you got that right...sad but true!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[Segami]

30. My, my..... thats such a good lookin' ticket...

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

32. Ain't it tho!..just imagine the possibilities!

[Truprogressive85]

3. Its almost like Pokemon

just evolving over and over till it benefits her campaign

wanted to end children back to central america
did not want "illegal immigrants" licenses


Where is the political courage ?

[jeff47]

5. What is this "courage" thing you speak of?

We don't keep any of that around our party anymore. Got rid of it in 1990. Got in the way of big campaign contributions.

[Truprogressive85]

6. :( so sad

The big campaign contributions, the venom that killed the party

[askew]

21. Obama has been courageous on many issues.

The Clintons have never been courageous which is one reason we don't want to move backwards with electing Hillary president.

[jeff47]

35. Such as?

About the only big political fight I can remember Obama engaging in is the TPP.

The ACA was mostly accomplished by Pelosi and Reid, with Obama adding some pressure at the end. I can't think of any other time where he "stuck his neck out" for something.

[askew]

36. Obamacare was absolutely driven by Obama. Pelosi and Reid credited with him pushing Dems

to pass it after Scott Brown's election. Many Dems wanted to abandon it and Obama got them back on board.

He was courageous on coming out for gay marriage before 2012 election. Pushing for DADT repeal after 2010 election disaster.

There is a troubling problem on the left with giving credit for Obama's achievements to white Dems and saying that Obama hasn't been courageous or accomplished much. Obama has done more than any president since LBJ yet he is treated horribly by many on the left.

[jeff47]

37. Yes, "after Scott Brown's election" is what I mean by him applying pressure at the end.

But it was Pelosi and Reid who got it 90% of the way there. Obama closed the deal, but Rham's plan was specifically for Obama to sit on the sidelines and let Congress do most of the work. And Obama let Congress do most of the work until Brown won, at which point he started pushing.

Contrast that with his efforts to find a Grand Bargain or the TPP. That is the sort of pressure and effort I'm talking about. And I'd really love have more examples where Obama pushed like that.

He was courageous on coming out for gay marriage before 2012 election.

He was courageous for agreeing with the position held by the majority of people in the country?

Pushing for DADT repeal after 2010 election disaster.

Only after the courts ruled it unconstitutional.

There is a troubling problem on the left with giving credit for Obama's achievements to white Dems and saying that Obama hasn't been courageous or accomplished much. Obama has done more than any president since LBJ yet he is treated horribly by many on the left.

Then give me examples where he actually did show bravery and push through some policy. Something like his attempts at the Grand Bargain or TPP.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

31. Wait for the next polling result and advice from the hundreds of Hillary's advisors...

There's always a major flip-flop waitin' to be poll-tested and trotted out in yet another attempt by Hillary to channel her "inner Bernie."

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[Segami]

33. "Channel her inner Bernie"....LOL!

[StrongBad]

8. A driving license is not a right

[frylock]

11. Hmmnn. Very Sensible.

[Vincardog]

13. No it is a license. That is why they named them Driving Licenses. Would you rather the people you

are approaching on the road had no training, insurance or identification?

[StrongBad]

18. I would prefer them not to drive if they aren't a legal citizen.

[askew]

20. And I'd prefer money grew on trees. Neither of these preferences has anything to do with reality.

If you are making policy positions based on a utopia that doesn't exist instead of reality, you are completely out-of-touch.

[StrongBad]

23. It's pretty simple to make it a reality.

Make it law to prohibit licenses given to illegal immigrants.

If they want to drive and risk being caught, let them.

Problem solved.

[askew]

25. You are incredibly ignorant on this subject.

And "illegal immigrants" is racist terminology. Be better than that.

[StrongBad]

27. Sorry, law breaking immigrants.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

34. Seems a bit cruel dontcha think?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. Or, make them citizens. Problem solved.

[Major Hogwash]

40. Even all those Canadians who snuck across the border at night to take our jobs at Pizza Hut?

Oh, that's just not kosher!!!!

[Segami]

10. "...Mr. Spitzer, who once held his own presidential aspirations..

"....and who was known to be furious with Mrs. Clinton at the time for the damage her debate answer caused to his plan for driver’s licenses, suggested that doesn’t mean she would be a good president.

She is “intensely smart. Clever. Glib. A joy to be with,” Mr. Spitzer told Mr. Axelrod. “None of that has to do with whether or not she’s the best Democratic candidate for president.....”

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/29/eliot-spitzer-sharply-criticizes-hillary-clinton-on-2007-immigration-stance/

[Stand and Fight]

12. So what?

A driver's license is something given to citizens that requires specific documents. Undocumented (illegal) immigrants don't meet those requirements. That's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of fact.

[Ferd Berfel]

14. IT's not the License - It's just another example

of Triangulation - I'm sick of it.

Personally, I do not trust Hillary to keep Social Security, Medicare or ACA out of the hands of her wall street buddies. And don't tell me she would replace ACA with Single Payer

[YOHABLO]

15. Well until someone corners her and ask her the questions relating to SS and Single Payer we're lost.

[Ferd Berfel]

16. Well, not entirely

Tried to find this to ref from DU but couldn't.

[askew]

19. Actually not true.

Your comment is something no progressive should say. There are many, many reasons to give undocumented Americans driver's licenses including safety and economic reasons. It's been passed in New York, Maryland, etc.

Hillary's opposition against this shows how poor her judgment is.

[askew]

17. She's a coward on immigration issues. Always has been.

She attacked Obama from the right on immigration. She said she was against illegal immigrants in her Senate race. She wanted to send child refugees from central america back without due process last summer. If all candidates had 100% name recognition with latinos, she'd be polling horribly with them.

[JTFrog]

22. You better believe it. n/t

[azmom]

26. Shame on her. Always on the wrong side of

History.

[AzDar]

28. K & R

(Edited to add: meant to kick OP, but azmom's point deserves a kick, too...)

[John Poet]

39. She was against it before she was for it

as on so many other things....

[Vattel]

41. I am amazed that this is treated so lightly by so many.

If this is true, then she fucking threw immigrants under the bus for the sake of advancing her own political prospects. That is political corruption of the worst sort.