[Dobbs:] Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama under fire from his Democratic rivals today. They charge he's naive and inexperienced when it comes to foreign policy. And, as Bill Schneider reports, they are using the senator's own words to support their charges.
[William Schneider, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] First came the CNNYouTube debate when Barack Obama said he would meet with unfriendly dictators during his first year in office.
[Sen. Barack Obama , Presidential Candidate:] the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration is ridiculous.
[Schneider:] Hillary Clinton pounced.
[Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , Presidential Candidate:] I thought that was irresponsible and, frankly, naive.
[Schneider:] It's called a not-supposed-to. You're not supposed to say you would meet with such people without laying a lot of groundwork first.
[Clinton:] Let's approach with some real careful planning and do it right.
[Schneider:] The implication? Obama lacks experience in foreign policy. Obama's response?
[Obama:] It's time to turn the page on Washington's conventional wisdom that agreement must be reached before you meet, that talking to other countries is some kind of a reward.
[Schneider:] In that same speech on Wednesday, Obama got tough with Pakistan.
[Obama:] If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will.
[Schneider:] Another not-supposed-to. You're not supposed to threaten an ally. Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson joined in the criticism, all touting their Washington experience. Get the idea? Obama lacks the experience of his rivals in world affairs. In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Obama was asked if he would use nuclear weapons to defeat terrorism and Osama bin Laden. "I think it would a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance involving civilians," Obama said." Clinton's response?
[Clinton:] I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons.
[Schneider:] The Obama campaign responded that: "Senator Obama would act and is confident that conventional means would be suggest to take the target down. Frankly, we are surprised that others would disagree." Now, his rivals are attacking Obama as inexperienced. And Obama is turning that around and arguing, my critics are prisoners of conventional wisdom. I'm fresh and new. I say things you're not supposed to Lou.
[Dobbs:] Well, maybe he's fresh and new, but is he basically just raw here?
[Schneider:] Well, that's exactly what his critics are saying, that he lacks the international experience. And they are all pointing to how much experience they have, because they don't say those things.
[Dobbs:] Well, apart from the issues of the Democratic rivals and their charges, the fact that a candidate for president would rule out of the use of nuclear weapons, would commit to talking with foreign leaders of states that are enemies of both the United States and actually in some cases the Western world, without conditions, this is reaching a level of incomprehensible, well, magnitude right now.
[Schneider:] And you're finding that the chin-strokers here in Washington are all stroking their chins, and saying, is this guy really prepared to be president? And he's trying to turn that around and there may be an audience for this and saying, I'm just saying things that ought to be said that no one else is saying.
[Dobbs:] All right, Bill Schneider, we thank you very much.
[Schneider:] Sure.
[Dobbs:] As always. Let me ask you, since we are on the subject of politics and presidential politics...
[Schneider:] Ah.
[Dobbs:] ... John McCain, Senator McCain is now a flip-flopper on the issue of immigration. So say his critics. Is he?
[Schneider:] Well, what he says and we got in touch with Senator McCain's office. He said they say, John McCain is still dedicated to comprehensive immigration reform. Nothing has changed. Well, something changed, because he now has signed on as a co- sponsor of a bill that would support a number of steps towards in the area of immigration reform, enforcement, border security, but it does not include any steps towards a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, something of course he was a strong advocate of. Lou, this is very much like what you reported a few weeks ago, that there's an effort now to chop up comprehensive immigration reform, pass it in little pieces, relatively noncontroversial pieces. And that's what is in this bill. And what Senator John McCain says, he hasn't changed his position. He describes this bill as notice the words an essential step toward achieving comprehensive immigration reform in the future. So, he says he hasn't given up his goal. This is just one step.
[Dobbs:] Yes, it is truly a head-of-the-snake strategy that is being undertaken by corporate America, the socio-ethnocentric interests, and in perfect alliance, of course, with the Democratic leadership of both the House, the Senate. It is again, I just find it unbelievable that, after witnessing the reaction of the American people to this Congress, they still are insulting, just saying straightforwardly, are they not, Bill Schneider, to the American people, you're too stupid to notice what we are doing?
[Schneider:] What they are doing really, in their defense, is to say, we are going to pass the relatively noncontroversial parts, like border security, an agricultural guest-worker program. And they are not talking about the stuff that really created the tremendous backlash that you accurately described.
[Dobbs:] Well, what you call noncontroversial, millions of Americans consider, well, just downright deceitful...
[Schneider:] Yes.
[Dobbs:] ... duplicitous, and absolutely unnecessary, particularly when Congress and this president are saying basically they are going to disregard their obligation to secure our borders and our ports.
[Schneider:] Certainly the guest-worker program, that has never been popular.
[Dobbs:] Absolutely not. And the guest-worker program, as you refer to it, we should say the legislation's and the president's guest-worker program, because what the president and these advocates all don't want anyone in this country to know and perhaps the president himself doesn't know it we already have eight so-called guest-worker programs that would be perfectly useful for anyone who wanted to sign up.
[Schneider:] Yes.
[Dobbs:] Bill Schneider, thank you very much.
[Schneider:] Sure.
[Dobbs:] The Department of Homeland Security says it will intensify its efforts to keep illegal aliens out of the workplace. The Department of Homeland Security saying as many as 10 percent of all employees' Social Security numbers are now suspect in this country. And DHS will soon introduce rules to force employers to fire illegal aliens with phony Social Security numbers. But, as Casey Wian now reports, critics are skeptical.
[Casey Wian, Cnn Correspondent:] Within two weeks, the Department of Homeland Security will publish new regulations requiring employers to fire illegal alien workers using phony Social Security numbers. Current policy allows employers to ignore letters from the Social Security Administration, warning that a worker's number is not valid. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff demonstrated one eligibility verification system in June.
[Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary:] What's bringing most of these people in is illegal work. And the only way to prevent that illegal work from being authored is to require the employers to use a system like this one.
[Wian:] A Homeland Security spokesman, while refusing to discuss specifics, says the new legislations will lay out very serious consequences and eliminate any ambiguity over the responsibility employers have to verify Social Security numbers. Skeptics say the system may encourage illegal aliens to steal identities, rather than use bogus Social Security numbers.
[T.j. Bonner, National Border Patrol Council:] It's really naive to believe that people who are paying smugglers thousands of dollars, risking their lives walking across through our deserts are not going to pay a few hundred or perhaps even a thousand more in order to obtain these documents so that they can get the holy grail, a job in the United States.
[Wian:] DHS says the new regulations will be combined with more frequent work site raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and give ICE another tool to prove an employer is fragrantly hiring illegal aliens. Some employers complain restrictions on cheap illegal alien labor could drive them out of business or out of the country. The American Immigration Lawyers Association told reporters on a conference call, "It's a terrible choice that we're putting employers into." The National Council of La Raza says, "Increased levels of immigration raids in workplaces and also in neighborhoods, separating parents from their children in many cases, it's a pretty ugly environment out there." They predicted the crackdown will drive more illegal alien workers underground. Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza also says the Latino community is pretty angry about increased enforcement actions and the failure of so-called compromise immigration reform. She says Latinos are going to mobilize with voter registration efforts and by exposing what she called bigotry, adding, her community believes, Lou, the gloves really need to come off.
[Dobbs:] Well, they have made it pretty clear, Munoz herself referring to a wave of hate as the reason for the defeat of the legislation, now suggesting bigotry is behind the enforcement of existing U.S. immigration law. This is absolutely absurd, the level to which La Raza and I spoke on this broadcast with Janet Murguia, who I respect, who I consider to be a rational advocate and spokeswoman for the interests of her organization. This is crazy.
[Wian:] What's even crazier, I think, is, it's not just groups like La Raza. It's the Service Employees Union, it's the Catholic Church, it is the Immigration Lawyers Association, all on that same conference call with La Raza today, outraged that Department of Homeland Security would dare enforce immigration laws.
[Dobbs:] The American people had better realize that the immigration lawyers, La Raza, the Chamber of Commerce, the Catholic Council of Bishops all have a seat at the table in Washington, D.C., up on Capitol Hill, and that the American people are not represented well, almost unrepresented entirely at that table on the issue of illegal immigration and border security. And, if the American people do not make their wishes and their views known, they are going to get rolled by every special interest, every corporate interest, every socio-ethnocentric interest in the country who care nothing about our laws. It is the idea that an organization called La Raza would talk about bigotry and of any kind, when it it's when its title is La Raza, and to suggest that enforcement of U.S. law is somehow an abridgement of their rights, it's extraordinary. Casey Wian, thank you very much, reporting from Los Angeles.
[Wian:] OK.
[Dobbs:] That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight: Do you believe the Department of Homeland Security will aggressively enforce workplace immigration laws, yes or no? Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We will be back with the results here in just a moment. But, first, a drug dealer linked to the case of former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges. The dealer was an alleged accomplice of the drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. Davila testified against the two former agents and received immunity for his testimony against them. The plea bargain may prevent the release of government reports that are believed to implicate him in another smuggling case while he was under immunity to testify against Ramos and Compean, information that, by the way, was withheld from the jury that decided the fate of the two former agents. Up next: chaos in the House of Representatives, name-calling, charges of vote manipulation, a walkout. We will tell what you it was all about. And will talks with communist China do anything on the part of this administration to stop dangerous toys from being exported into the United States and bought by American consumers, of course? We will have the report. That story is next. Stay with us.