One of America's biggest threats, therese murray remarks on immigration, Tea Party stir right

Boston — Republicans and their supporters are promoting and disseminating a five-month-old video of a political speech by Senate President Therese Murray, which surfaced this week, to rally their base amid efforts to unseat Democrats this November.

In the May 1 speech to the Cape and Islands Democratic Council, Murray sought to energize Democrats in advance of a tough election cycle, slamming the Tea Party as “nutcases,” decrying “hate” in the tone of the national immigration debate, and calling for a clearer path to citizenship for immigrants.

The video was widely posted Tuesday, originating on the blog of WTKK radio host Michael Graham, who called Murray a “fringe lunatic.” The video quickly made its way to Red Mass Group, a right-leaning blog, to WRKO talk show host Todd Feinburg’s blog, and Murray’s Republican opponent Thomas Keyes blasted out an email condemning Murray’s comments.

Graham told the News Service that a listener e-mailed him a link to the video over the weekend. He invited Murray on Monday to appear on his show before airing the clip, but he said her office never responded to his request.

“I get links to video and YouTubes every day. But when I watched it, it just blew me away. It’s such a ludicrous statement and then you realize she’s reading it. It’s not just something that came to her,” said Graham, referring specifically to her remarks on immigration.

During her remarks, at the Radisson Hotel in Hyannis, Murray said Democrats this year needed to “pull out all the stops” to retain seats at the Congressional, statewide and local levels and to fend off challenges from the right, at one point calling Tea Party members “nutcases.”

“You might have heard of this little thing called the tea bag movement, tea party movement,” Murray said, eliciting laughs. “You know you can use tea bags over and over and over. And I’ve gotten to meet a few of them as they stand at our rallies and events and film them and try to intimidate us.”

Murray said candidates backed by former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2004 deployed similar tactics, videotaping their campaign events of their opponents. “We don’t intimidate easily and I have a message for all of them, that we don’t scare easily and while they’re listening to Sarah

Palin and paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars on Boston Common, Democrats are the ones under the golden dome getting the work done,” Murray said.

Later in May, while calling some of the changes “unfortunate,” Murray helped push through the Senate reforms aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, although many of those proposals died in talks with the House. In her speech, she sharply defended immigrants.

Noting her grandmother emigrated to the United States from Ireland, Murray said, “I would hate to have her live today to hear what they call immigrants, because they work hard and they usually work two and three jobs to make sure their children get the same education, the same opportunities that every other American already has. That’s the American way – don’t turn your back on people because they want to be here.”

Murray also predicted in her speech that the fall campaigns would get “negative” and “nasty,” and said Democrats should tout legislative accomplishments on health care, job creation, ethics, transportation and pension laws and efforts to ensure that “critical services” remain available to vulnerable residents. “It’s results that matter, not rhetoric, not hate, not the color of your skin not the country that you came from,” she said.

Murray said anti-immigrant sentiment dates back centuries. “This is nothing new in America, this kind of hate, this kind of fractious dissent has always been with us and we need to rise above it because everyone has a right to come to this country and everyone has a right to be a citizen and if they don’t come legally then Congress must act and they must act soon to pave that way.”

Murray also cautioned Democrats that their opponents had mounted “very concerted” efforts to mount resistance through letters to newspaper editors and “negative comments” in social media. “We need you writing letters, blogging and tweeting and posting on Facebook,” she said.

On Tuesday, Murray defended her remarks about the Tea Party, telling the News Service she aimed them at a “fringe element.”

“When someone’s got a sign that has pictures and things with the president with a swastika on their face … let’s say they might be the more fringe element,” Murray said, referring to protesters outside a Hyannis rally in January for Attorney General Martha Coakley during her U.S. Senate campaign. “But I know the Tea Party today is a movement. I get that.”

“Some people outside had tea bags stapled to their hats and had signs and were screaming and they had costumes on so I thought they were tea-baggers,” she added. “First of all I didn’t even know about the tea party. It was just beginning. It was early May and when people come with tea bags stapled to their hats, I just assumed tea bag meant the same thing as Tea Party … But when I was confronted with people with tea bags stapled on their hats with these signs, I didn’t think that they were in the mainstream.”

She also reiterated her support for “legal immigration,” stressing that it should not be confused with people who come to this country legally.

“It was the Senate, under her leadership, that approved a very strict immigration policy this year for the Commonwealth that was signed into law,” said Murray spokesman David Falcone. “What she has said, and continues to say, is that people who want to make a better life for themselves here in the United States should be able to do so legally. And she believes that Congress needs to act quickly on a national immigration policy.”

Rob Eno, owner of Red Mass Group, said he believed Murray’s comments could hurt her and Democrats in November.

“The Democrats don’t know how to categorize a group of people that have risen up because they’re sick of over-intrusive government. They don’t understand people who are sick of over-intrusive government.” he said, citing comments by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. John Kerry. “It helps our cause.”

Asked about the timing of the video’s dissemination, Eno, who said he received it in an email from Graham, said, “I would imagine that whoever had the video wanted to move it for maximum effect.”

“I think it can have an impact because it’s going to crystallize the support of people who are fighting against the machine,” he said. “[U.S. Sen.] Scott Brown wounded the machine in January and I think a lot of people are going to get ready to finish the job.”

Murray’s opponent, Sandwich businessman Tom Keyes, sent an email to supporters with the link to a YouTube video of Murray’s speech.

“It is disappointing that our Senate President does not understand the difference between a legal immigrant and an illegal alien,” Keyes said. “We don’t owe it to people who break our laws of citizenship. She is completely misguided in her beliefs.”

The video, originally posted May 11 by Steve Baty, a professional photographer and videographer from Brewster, has received about 800 views.

Baty said he was hired by the Cape and Islands Democratic Council to record the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. He said he posted the video, but Tuesday afternoon was unaware of the firestorm it had created and said he was not responsible for sending the link to Graham.

Graham said he thinks Murray could find herself in a tight race just by the sheer fact of being an incumbent.
“I don’t think her constituents have any idea of her true political beliefs, and this will make them ask…,” Graham said. “If I were her, I’d be worried, but clearly she is. She won’t come on my show.”

Keyes and Murray are scheduled to meet for five debates before the Nov. 2 election, according to a Murray aide.

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