http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=169133Sen. Jon Kyl has accused President Obama of holding "hostage" efforts to secure the nation's border with Mexico because he wants to get something in return, a statement that has the White House frantically calling the longtime Arizona Republican a liar.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement to Fox News stating, "The president didn't say that and Sen. Kyl knows it."
There remains at issue, then, just exactly who is doing the lying.
"Seems like everybody lies except Obama," talk-radio icon Rush Limbaugh told listeners today. "Everybody is lying. Obama never does."
The dispute erupted over the weekend with Kyl's appearance before the North Tempe, Ariz., Tea Party town hall where he described the one-on-one meeting with Obama.
WND INVASION USA
Senator says Obama holding border 'hostage'
GOP's Kyl explains president wants amnesty in return for securing perimeter
Posted: June 21, 2010
3:26 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
WASHINGTON - JUNE 16: President Barack Obama addresses the American Nurses Association House of Delegates June 16, 2010 in Washington, DC. President Obama spoke about healthcare reform legislation that was recently passed. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Sen. Jon Kyl has accused President Obama of holding "hostage" efforts to secure the nation's border with Mexico because he wants to get something in return, a statement that has the White House frantically calling the longtime Arizona Republican a liar.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement to Fox News stating, "The president didn't say that and Sen. Kyl knows it."
There remains at issue, then, just exactly who is doing the lying.
"Seems like everybody lies except Obama," talk-radio icon Rush Limbaugh told listeners today. "Everybody is lying. Obama never does."
The dispute erupted over the weekend with Kyl's appearance before the North Tempe, Ariz., Tea Party town hall where he described the one-on-one meeting with Obama.
"I met with the president in the Oval Office … just the two of us," Kyl said. "We had a discussion. Here's what the president said. The problem is, the president said, if we secure the border, then you-all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.
"It other words, they're holding it hostage," Kyl said, prompting gasps of surprise or possibly outrage in the room. "They don't want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform."
He told the tea-party group he reminded the president that both have an obligation to secure the border.
"You don't have to have comprehensive reform to secure the border but you have to secure the border to get comprehensive reform," Kyl said. He said he told the president he may not think there are other incentives, and, "I'm not so sure that that's true.
"In any event, it doesn't matter," Kyl said.
He told the audience that's why there is inaction on border security.
"That's why this is being done. They frankly don't want to do it. They want to get something in return for doing their duty," he said.
In a statement dispatched to Fox News, Pfeiffer rejected the characterization of events.
"There are more resources dedicated toward border security today than ever before, but, as the president has made clear, truly securing the border will require a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration," he said.
Ryan Patmintra, a spokesman for Kyl, said the senator was not backing down.
WASHINGTON - JULY 13: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) makes his opening statement during the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 13, 2009 in Washington, DC. Sotomayor, now an appeals court judge and U.S. President Barack Obama�s first Supreme Court nominee, will become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court if confirmed. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
"There were two people in that meeting, and Dan Pfeiffer was not one of them," he told Fox. "Sen. Kyl stands by his remarks, and the White House spokesman's pushback that you must have comprehensive immigration reform to secure the border only confirms Sen. Kyl's account."
But Limbaugh noted the dispute suggested a pattern of inactivity on the part of the White House.
"Obama won't plug the hole in the border until he gets what he wants. [He's] not going to plug the hole in the Gulf until he gets what he wants," he said. "How long will it be before Kyl is asked to apologize by his own party?"
At Right Pundits, a commentary suggested there were other similar situations.
"If Obama is holding the border hostage, it's the greatest example of Chicago-style, thug politics to date. Well except for maybe the health-care debacle or the BP shakedown," the site said. "Okay, he's adding to his list daily. If the Jon Kyl Obama meeting took place and Obama did say this, then he's just effectively sealed the fate of Democrats where immigration is a huge issue."
The accusations also are not dissimilar from claims made in requests to the Office of Special Counsel for an investigation of the White House over alleged job offers to U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., and former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, another Democrat.
The letters to the Office of Special Counsel allege White House officials offered the politicians jobs in return for not opposing White House favorites Sens. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet of Colorado.
Kyle Wingfield at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution concluded the charge against Obama is "very serious."
"It seems unlikely to me that a senator with his experience would be dumb enough to invent such a statement out of thin air and attribute it directly to the president."
On Kyl's website, he advocates for border security first.
"Comprehensive immigration-reform legislation was defeated in 2007, largely because many Americans demanded that the federal government get serious about enforcing existing laws and better securing the border, including with fencing and other barriers, before considering whether to provide legal status to illegal immigrants who are already here," he writes.
He said since then, a number of programs have been authorized to address some of the worst of the problems with illegal immigration. But he warns that Obama plans to cut funding for them.
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