Remember Richard Kimball? No, not “The Fugitive,” the candidate

Revealing comments show longtime commitment to amnesty, opposition to employee verification

The Washington Times reviews archived editions of the Arizona Republic to provide revealing coverage from the 1986 senate debates between candidates John McCain and Democrat Richard Kimball.

The article documents the fact that McCain opposed the passage of the 1986 amnesty bill.

Yet speaking recently to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials he brought up that bill: “In 1986, we passed a law that said we would secure the borders and gave amnesty to a couple, three million people. I supported that legislation way back then.”

Far from supporting it, McCain didn’t only vote against the bill, he used charged language to criticize it. The Arizona Republic quoted him as saying the bill’s requirements for employers to verify workers “would institutionalize discrimination.”

It wasn’t amnesty he opposed; rather the provision to verify workers to authenticate employment eligibility.

In a related article in the same publication, McCain told the Hispanic group NALEO that passing an immigration bill to legalize illegal immigrants is “my top priority, yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

He recently held a late-night, closed door meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago assuring them he would push through congressional legislation to liberalize federal immigration laws if elected.

McCain is scheduled to speak to the ethnic separatist group, La Raza July 14, 2008. Colin McNickle director of the editorial pages at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about the lapse of judgment in addressing such a radical group.