By: Jonathan J. Cooper

(MESA, Ariz.) — Once bitter rivals for the presidency, Mitt Romney and John McCain campaigned together as friends on Friday, one gearing up for a likely presidential bid and the other fighting to hold onto his seat in the U.S. Senate.

The two Republicans fielded questions from a largely supportive audience of several hundred people, touching on issues including immigration and the environment while heaping criticism on President Barack Obama.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, battled with McCain in 2008 for the Republican nomination for president, then aggressively campaigned for McCain in the general election. He has endorsed the Arizona senator in his current re-election bid.

McCain is being challenged in the Aug. 24 primary by former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, a former television sportscaster and talk-radio host who hopes anti-Washington sentiment and McCain’s past high-profile work with Democrats can help him knock off the four-term senator.

Neither McCain nor Romney mentioned Hayworth on Friday, instead directing their criticism at Obama.

“This is an administration that is governing from the far left, and America is a right of center nation,” McCain said before ticking off various Obama policies he opposes, including bailouts of the auto industry and health care reform.

Romney said McCain’s clout after 28 years in Congress is important in fighting the Obama administration.

“He’s a Washington heavyweight,” Romney said of McCain. “He knows how to push back against the Obama machine.”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1994569,00.html?xid=rss-politics#ixzz0q1pfQ053

Oh dear, looks like Sen. Lindsey Graham is going to give John McCain a run for his money.  If the previous Kennedy/McCain bill taught us anything (in how it helped McCain), Graham will probably end up with the Republican nomination in 2012 thanks to the mainstream media using the New Hampshire Primary as a groundhog.

Obama must be under the impression Health Care will be pushed through the Senate with easy Reconciliation,  and only held back on immigration reform until Obamacare passed.  The question is, will Obama’s three ring circus of Health Care Reform, Cap & Trade, and Immigration Reform, finally be the moment the Democrats decide not to follow Obama to defeat in November and in 2012?

Craig Edwards

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama plans to focus attention on immigration next week by meeting at the White House with two senators crafting a bill on the issue.

White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said Obama will meet with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Monday.

The president is “looking forward to hearing more about their efforts toward producing a bipartisan bill,” Shapiro said Friday.

The meeting will be the first Obama has had with Schumer and Graham on the proposal they are developing since they began focusing on it last year.

Read More at breitbart.com

Related Article: Green Jobs Fantasy Sen. Lindsey Graham picks up the standard for job-killing energy taxes.

By:  Peter Nicholas

In an effort to advance a bill through Congress before midterm elections, the president meets with two senators who have spent months trying to craft legislation.

Reporting from Washington - Despite steep odds, the White House has discussed prospects for reviving a major overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, a commitment that President Obama has postponed once already.

Obama took up the issue privately with his staff Monday in a bid to advance a bill through Congress before lawmakers become too distracted by approaching midterm elections.

In the session, Obama and members of his Domestic Policy Council outlined ways to resuscitate the effort in a White House meeting with two senators — Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — who have spent months trying to craft a bill.

According to a person familiar with the meeting, the White House may ask Schumer and Graham to at least produce a blueprint that could be turned into legislative language.

The basis of a bill would include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.

Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman, said the president’s support for an immigration bill, which would also include improved border security, was “unwavering.”

Participants in the White House gathering also pointed to an immigration rally set for March 21 in Washington as a way to spotlight the issue and build needed momentum.

Read more at the LA TIMES

Remember Steve Poziner’s speech at CPAC? It seems Steve has now attracted the ire from the left for the so called ‘Racist’ elements of the speech.  However, Poizner’s stance on Pro-Legal Immigration (look it up people) is hardly new.  Back in 2009 at the Californian Republican Assembly Convention, Poizner delivered the message home, promising to use the CHP to protect the border.

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My question to the left: Why does Poizner’s urging the enforcement of existing laws make him a racist?

Craig Edwards

It puts the illegal and the legal immigration numbers in perspective by using a simple graphic demonstration.

Roy says on the video that he was looking for a way to explain the immigration situation in terms that a seventh grader would understand in the hope that if a seventh grader could could understand it, maybe members of Congress could as well.

~~John Cronin~~