Post Politics Hour
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion

Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Congressional Reporter
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 11:00 AM

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Washington Post Congressional reporter Shailagh Murray was online Tuesday, May 16, at 11 a.m. ET .

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The transcript follows.

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Shailagh Murray: Good morning everyone.

Do you think the president's speech was pure politics, or was this so-called border security problem a ploy to delay the start of "24?" What will Jack Bauer uncover about OUR president in next week's season finale...

I have my theories, but let's hear from all of you.

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Colchester, Vt.: What happened? I got all excited yesterday thinking that Rove was going to be indicted just as Bush was going on the air, and instead all we got was a boring Bush speech, and Rove is still in the White House pretending to work. Is Fitzgerald going to make his move this week or not? If he does indict Rove, won't that take all of this immigration stuff (and any other legislative initiatives) right off the front page?

Shailagh Murray: Patience, Colchester. People don't get indicted during prime time! Although that would take sweeps week to a whole new level...Anyway, the indictment rumor has been swirling for a week now, but that's all it remains, judging from the dearth of TV trucks in front of the federal courthouse.

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San Francisco, Calif.: Was it the greed factor that allowed over 11 million people to illegally work, set-up house keeping, and actively work to divide America?

Why now is Bush pulling the border smoke-screen? When he needs instead to be accountable to law abiding American citizens.

As do all of the responsible State and Federal organizations that utterly failed in the duties of their descriptions.

Shailagh Murray: Note the dateline of this message...San Francisco? In fact, I think your views are more widely held than one might think, listening to the debate about guest workers on the Senate floor. I don't know of any other issue that has generated a more complex, emotional and hard-to-pigeonhole response.

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Tallahassee, Fla.: If the President truly wanted to solve the problem he would enforce the law. First by TRULY securing the border so that no illegal entry into the United States is possible (more than 6,000 troops would be required). Second, the President would require employers to hire only those legally permitted to work in the U.S. His other three steps are secondary and only cloud the issue.

Shailagh Murray: There was a great story in the New Yorker recently about a Chinese smuggling ring of rusty boats jammed with desperate people who would cross several oceans to get here, and then swim ashore on beaches up and down both coasts. If there's a will, there's a way. We're not going to wrap Cape Cod in barbed wire.

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Washington, D.C.: I made a bet that this speech would be the lowest rated prime time speech of Bush's presidency. Can you find out from the crack TV folks at The Post what the overnight ratings were?

Shailagh Murray: I just pulled this off Drudge:

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE MAY 16, 2006 10:11:04 ET XXXXX

TV RATINGS FOR BUSH HIGHER THAN LAST WEEK'S PROGRAMMING ON ABC, FOX

Is President Bush now a hot commodity on TV?

Overnight ratings show Bush's 8 PM ET speech Monday night outpaced audience levels for the previous week in the same timeslot -- on ABC and FOX!

Bush pulled a 6.6 rating/11 share at 8PM on ABC [up from 5.1/8 for ABC last Monday 8 PM] and a 5.7/9 on FOX [up from 5.6/9].

CBS saw its rating under Bush dip to a 5.1 rating/8 share from a 5.9/9; NBC went 6.6/11 from 8.9/14.

A top network executive cautioned that the president should not sign up with William Morris -- just yet -- for a post-presidency TV career.

"The numbers do not fully represent the out of prime-time airing of the speech on the West Coast, and it should be noted regular programming did begin before 8:30 in some time zones, so he got a bump."

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Washington, D.C.: So in the wake of the ABC story that the NSA is tracking reporters' calling records, are you guys sweeping the place for bugs and getting disposable cell phones?

Shailagh Murray: Sweeping the Post newsroom for dust should be a more urgent priority. But, now they know...my kids call me every later afternoon, and now and then my parents check in, and old friends...and, well, I guess I'm busted.

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Boston, Mass.: I think President Bush isn't given enough credit for fighting the flow of immigration. By refusing to raise the minimum wage, weakening health care and Medicare, forcing cities and states to slash school and safety funding, keeping job creation moribund, sending the military off on a dangerous, pointless war, Bush has done an excellent job of making the United States less attractive to the average third-world aspirant.

It's certainly true that we've got a long way to go before all sense of opportunity is lost in this country, but Bush still has several years to go.

Shailagh Murray: You are a glass-half-full type, Boston. Though let us reflect for a moment on our relative wealth and security compared to just about every other place on earth.

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Madison, Wis.: Why is immigration such a hot topic right now? Those 12 million undocumented workers didn't arrive yesterday, or even six months ago. Yet, suddenly Congress and the President are declaring a crisis. Immigration is looking suspiciously like a manufactured political issue, like gay marriage. I know this is more of an opinion than a question, but I'm interested in your take on why the issue has come up now.

Shailagh Murray: This is a good question. Two weeks ago, the world was about to end over high gas prices. Now it's those rascally Mexicans sneaking across the desert...My take is this: there's the border problem, and then there's the workforce problem. They're not the same. The former is a law enforcement/national security issue, and it shouldn't be isolated to the Mexican border -- as I mentioned previously, Mexicans aren't the only people sneaking into this country. The workforce issue is the one that's really getting short shrift -- distilling the discussion to a debate over guest workers is like addressing high gas prices with a $100 rebate. What about attracting highly skilled immigrants? There's also no discussion of that sector. Anyway, don't ever look to Congress for inspiration.

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Rockville, Md.: Hello: thank you very much for doing these chats. They are very informative and productive for the political junkies.

My question is all of these chats and conversations that go on are heard by only.. you guessed it, the other chat people and the people who read that chats.

How can we get to be heard by our local representative? They don't want to hear from us unless we have $$.

Any suggestions??? Form anyone?

Shailagh Murray: Thank you, Rockville.

A while back, when the WH was looking for a new press secretary, reporters joked that they don't really need one -- instead, WH officials could just do online chats. I mean, why not? If I were a member of Congress, or a city council member or county commissioner or whatever, I would totally embrace this medium. Forget press releases, we ignore them. And Hill staffers are the only people who watch TV political shows. Btw, politicians spend HOURS, even DAYS preparing for those Sunday show appearances. So don't encourage them! Take your dog for a walk instead. While these chats do attract their share of crazies, we ignore those posts. As for everyone else, you invariably have interesting observations and things to say.

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Minn.: "I don't know of any other issue that has generated a more complex, emotional and hard-to-pigeonhole response." I agree. I know they are still a long way off, but how do you think this issue will affect midterm elections?

Shailagh Murray: I can't tell! I can't tell how ANYTHING is going to affect the mid-term election. It's pure suspense. And isn't that great??

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Washington, D.C.: Will Mayor Williams's endorsement of Linda Cropp help or hurt her?

Shailagh Murray: DC politics, my favorite hobby...I'm sorry, I'm too big of a baseball fan to answer this question with any objectivity.

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Washington, D.C.: I find you comment about the NSA finding out that your kids call to be a bit unnerving. Not their calling you, which is nice, but your "oh well" attitude to being subject to invasions of your privacy as a reporter.

The lack of outrage is shocking.

Shailagh Murray: What am I supposed to say? Why should it bother me any more or less that the NSA has MY phone records, than some random Arab student? Of course it's crazy that they're collecting reporters' phone records, and I assume that if it's true, news organizations will respond accordingly. I will say it's a pretty dumb strategy for trying to correct a leak problem -- this is the blackberry age.

But at least now I know why my phone goes dead when I'm driving by the NSA on the BWI Parkway.

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Herndon, Va.: Under the proposed Senate bill, how many new workers and immigrants will be allowed to enter the U.S.? Some conservative blogs are throwing numbers around exceeding 100 million over the next several years? Can you give us some facts?

Shailagh Murray: The 100 million number is the result of some multiplier effect...which I can't explain, but it involves the people you let in, plus their families, and their future children, etc etc. I believe the Senate bill would create 200k guest workers.

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Coconut Creek, Fla.: Why not incorporate Mexico and Canada into The Greater United States. Mexico has the population and Canada has the land and plenty of natural resources (Energy). It seems to me this would solve major problems at least for the next 25 years.

Shailagh Murray: This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that we need more of in Washington. This approach would leave us with itty-bitty voters, although remember, we'd also be gaining those FRENCH speakers in Quebec.

See you in two weeks, folks....thanks for writing. Cheers, Shailagh

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