Bill Clinton defends Perry on immigration

It’s hard to see how this helps Rick Perry in a brutal Republican primary contest, but former President Bill Clinton on Monday defended Perry’s position on immigration and his support of the Texas Dream Act.

From CNN: Bill Clinton came to Rick Perry’s defense Monday over a law the Texas governor signed granting in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants.

The former two-term Democratic president said it makes his “skin crawl” when Perry’s Republican rivals attack him “for one of the best things he did.”

“What would they like?” Clinton said during an interview with USA Today. “Would they like the kid to stand on a corner and sell dope or something?”

Long considered a friend of Latinos in Texas, most of his Republican competitors have taken shots at him for offering undocumented immigrants an incentive to come into the country illegally. Perry has defended his record while also showing a willingness to possibly move right on the issue.

In other immigration news, Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce’s recall election is today. Polls show a toss-up between him and another Republican. It’s complicated by the fact that their is a third candidate on the ballot. Olivia Cortes dropped out of the race after it came out that she had been recruited by associates of Pearce, who wanted the Hispanic woman on the ballot to siphon votes away from Pearce’s real competitor.

Pearce outspent his opponent almost 4-1
, drawing support from more than 40 states.

Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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