Mitt Romney has gotten slammed for celebrating his endorsement by Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and notorious author of Arizona and Alabama’s “show me your papers” laws. (Along with several similar nasty laws.) Of course, immigration advocates have pounced all over the endorsement and the press has written a lot about how this move is straight-up dumb if he’s trying to win the affections of Latinos this year.
Now I’ve known that Kobach is an equal opportunity hater for some time but hadn’t seen this yet. Center for New Community published “10 Reasons Why Mitt Romney Should Reject Kris Kobach’s Endorsement” on their Imagine 2050 blog. Check out #1 on their list:
Kobach defended the Apartheid policy in South Africa in a 1990 book. He stated, “Clearly, reform has become the clarion call of so many businesses because it is seen as a means of achieving stability. Yet, strict Verwoerdian apartheid enforced with an iron fist can also be seen as a route to a more stable South Africa. ”
Caramba.
Yes, the guy who bragged about “vote caging” (as in, purging minority, young and senior voters from the rolls) as chair of the Republican party in Kansas, who is the most prolific author of anti-immigrant laws in the country, who was the lawyer for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, FAIR – designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and who instructed Arizona police to check papers of people who dressed funny turns out to support South African apartheid…and as rikyrah just wrote, Kobach is still at it.
But despite the hubbub – Governor Romney is doing a campaign stop with Kobach on Monday in South Carolina to win over the coveted extremist vote.
Cheryl just wrote an excellent post posing the question, “Where does Mitt Romney Stand on Race?” Unless he rejects Kobach’s endorsement, it seems the answer is clear as day.
Cross-posted at Jack and Jill Politics.