Clinton won't support driver's licenses
Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 4:47 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena JonesAfter weeks of giving a less-than-clear answer on the topic of how she felt about giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants,
Hillary Clinton came out today in support of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan... to
end his quest to do just that.
"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "His difficult job is made that much harder by the failure of the Congress and the White House to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
"As President, I will not support drivers' licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."
For several days after the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, reporters pressed Clinton on this issue and her rivals accused her of refusing to answer what some saw as a "yes or no" question -- Should undocumented workers have licenses?
Until now, Clinton has said she understood the tough situation governor's like Spitzer were in because they had to "fill a vacuum" left by the federal government's lack of progress on immigration reform. She also said before that she "broadly" supported plans like Spitzer's but did not "pretend to know the details." And now this.
*** UPDATE *** We point you to our timeline of her statements on the issue, which we put together last week -- from her Oct. 16 meeting with the Nashua Telegraph editorial board to her performance at the debate and more.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Obama spokesman Bill Burton writes, “When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** The Dodd campaign writes, "It's flip-flopping cubed. She was for it before she was against it, before she was for it, before she was against it. It's been weeks now, and she still hasn't offered up a serious, principled answer to the question."
