Montana guv tells it like it is about one special illegal immigrant
By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer says he's a "redneck with good ideas."
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told Florida delegates about an illegal immigrant who made a contribution to her community and state - his grandmother.
Judging from most of the 211 delegates who stood up and applauded at the end, Florida Democrats liked Schweitzer's trademark down-to-earth talk.
"I'm just a redneck with good ideas," he said Wednesday at the Red Lion Hotel at Stapleton.
Schweitzer proposed an immigration policy that runs counter to the anti-illegal immigration side.
"We need an immigration policy to clear a path to citizenship for hard-working, God-fearing people who want to come here to work and raise their families," he said.
He noted that various anti-immigration movements have come and gone in American history - anti-Asian, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-Eastern European and now, anti-Hispanic.
He talked of anti-Irish sentiment that pervaded the country in the early 20th century. Despite that, a poor girl in Ireland applied for a passport. She was lucky. About one in 10 who applied were successful.
Just as she was about to leave, a young man proposed marriage, so she stayed in County Cork. In her place, her 17-year-old sister, Hannah Friel, took over the passport and entered Ellis Island illegally.
"They looked at her passport, saw she had red hair and freckles, so they let her in," Schweitzer said.
Friel nearly starved after arriving in New York in 1909. An Irish family took her in. Then she heard about a free train ride to Montana, where she could acquire 320 acres of land to homestead. So she went on her own to the Big Sky. She settled, later married and raised five children.
"To the folks in Washington, D.C., who are anti-immigration and are telling Hispanics here illegally to go back home, I say, 'You would have sent the governor of Montana's grandmother back to County Cork, Ireland," Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer offered strong language to those who advocate such a policy.
"I say, 'Hey, big shot. Who the hell do you think you are? What about you? Unless you're Blackfoot or Crow, your people got off a boat somewhere."
Schweitzer played well with the Florida delegates. "He's a breath of fresh air," said Jerry Hart, a plumber and pipefitter union official from Boynton Beach, Fla. "He understands America's in trouble and there's a change in the air."
As Schweitzer left the delegates, he offered this snapshot of himself: "I'm the guy with cow on his boots - and no bull in his speech."
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August 28, 2008
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strohslite writes:
So, did you inform the voters prior to your election about this, or did you lie to them? How much welfare was collected by her? Lies, deceit, and corruption from more of our elected officials.