A McCain flip-flop on immigration?

Baltimore Sun

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is going after Republican rival Sen. John McCain, questioning whether the Arizona senator is offering contradictory language on the hot-button issue of immigration reform following a closed-door meeting McCain held with activists during a recent trip to Chicago.

The criticism leveled by Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director, marked a day of accusations between the Obama and McCain camps over which presumptive presidential nominee is more guilty of political doublespeak--a shorthand way to describe pandering versus truth telling. The Obama camp's move may be aimed at deflecting criticism the Democratic candidate said one thing--promising to negotiate a pact with McCain on public financing--and did another by rejecting it.

In the aftermath of McCain's closed-door visit with more than 100 Hispanic leaders on Wednesday--sandwiched into a fundraising visit by the Republican contender--a conservative anti-illegal immigration activist who attended the meeting contended McCain was offering conservatives one view of immigration reform while telling Latinos another.

In the meeting, attendees said McCain promised that, if elected, Congress would pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. That's anathema to people like Rosanna Pulido, the director of the Illinois Minuteman Project, who attended the event. Pulido said McCain used the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform" three times. "To me, it's a code word for amnesty" for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, she said.

Pulido, who is of Mexican decent, acknowledged she told the Associated Press she thought McCain was "pandering to the crowd" by making a major emphasis on immigration reform in his 15-minute speech. Another attendee, Democratic Illinois state Sen. Martin Sandoval from Chicago's Southwest Side and an elected Hillary Clinton delegate, met privately later with McCain. He said McCain's remarks about immigration reform in the larger forum only lasted about 90 seconds while the Arizona senator talked more about job creation, keeping taxes low and the war in Iraq.

Pulido and Sandoval don't get along at all and Pulido has dubbed Sandoval the "godfather" of the illegal immigration movement into the state...........