Isabel Macdonald, a former FAIR staff member, published an article in the Nation (10/7/10) revealing that undocumented workers had been landscaping Lou Dobbs’ Florida home and looking after his daughter’s show horses. As a hardline commentator on the issue of “illegal immigrant workers,” one would think Dobbs would be a little embarrassed about this discovery.
When Dobbs and Macdonald appeared on MSNBC‘s Last Word (10/7/10) yesterday to debate the issue, Macdonald pointed out that “Lou Dobbs, who has made himself an emblem of this get-tough approach to immigration…had been exploiting undocumented labor.”
Dobbs attempted to sidestep the issue by claiming that he had never “directly or indirectly hired an undocumented worker.” To which host Lawrence O’Donnell replied, “Someone hired by your landscaping contractor had an undocumented worker on your property . That, Lou, is indirect.”
Dobbs, though, had his own definition of “indirectly”: “intentionally hiring a contractor…for the specific purpose of hiring an illegal immigrant.”
Dobbs, Macdonald said, has criticized others in the past for not verifying contract workers: “[In] 2007, you called employers ridiculous for insisting that they should not have to be held accountable for their contractors’ employees.”
In his debate with Macdonald, however, Dobbs claimed that not only was he not obligated to find out the immigration status of those who were working for him, he was legally prevented from doing so: “The reality is this: There is a law against you or me inquiring about a legal status for a person in this country…. That’s a violation of their rights.”
Dobbs is scheduled to speak at a Tea Party conference this weekend.
It’s the usual approach for hypocritical crusaders: Do as I say, not as I do.
Conservatives sure do love their magical version of reality: unless Dobbs “intentionally” hired them, it didn’t actually happen? Or does his lack of intent make it “unhappen” retroactively?
If this report was published by anyone other than a former staffer, FAIR would be tearing it to shreds. The Nation article was highly deceptive, highly misleading and totally irresponsible — and this is coming from someone who would LOVE to see Dobbs go down.
Isabel Macdonald’s article was built around third-party contractors and yet was written in such a way to lead the public to believe Dobbs had hired undocumented immigrants. If there was ever a hatchet job, that was it. The article was playing with the facts so much that the writing turned into a circuitous mess.
If TIME wrote that piece, FAIR would have immediately pulled it apart. But I guess journalistic standards don’t apply when it comes to a former staff worker. Seems like FAIR is just as hypocritical as Dobbs is accused of being.
Nice work!
Dobbs has made a career of crusading about how everyone else should behave, Robert – and he doesn’t let the rest of us off the hook for hiring contractors who use undocumented labor. If he wanted to make this his signature issue, it would have behooved him to be damned sure none of his contractors used illegal labor.
This is the standard “plausible deniability” Nixon aspired to. It completely absolves the rich, who are only willing to provide wages and conditions that undocumented workers will accept, while denying all knowledge of the hiring practices that creates. Dobbs is part of the problem and he should just ‘fess up to his hypocrisy.
Ain’t gonna happen.