Even The Normally Very Partisan Karl Rove Sees Constitutional Problems With Arizona's "Immigration" Law. Read More Below.

Rove says he has ‘problems’ with AZ immigration law
By Christine Show, Orlando Sentinel

THE VILLAGES – Karl Rove, chief political strategist for former President George W. Bush, today questioned a controversial new Arizona law designed to cut down on illegal immigration by making it a crime to not produce proof of citizenship when a law enforcement officer demands it.

Rove, speaking to a crowd of about 500 at the mammoth senior community as part of a national book tour, said that while the law is understandable, it does present difficulties. The law has become the nation’s toughest anti-immigration measure.

“I think there is going to be some constitutional problems with the bill,” he said to the standing-room-only crowd at the Colony Cottage Recreation Center. “I wished they hadn’t passed it, in a way.”

Still, Rove, who was promoting his book Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight, objected to comments by critics including President Barack Obama that the law will lead to problems such as racial profiling by police.

“These are modern police forces that respect the rights of people in their communities,” Rove said. “They’re going to do it on the basis of reasonable suspicion that these people are here illegally, like they’re driving a car with a Mexican license plate or they can’t speak English or they don’t have a drivers license.”

However, Rove said there may be other ways to tackle the issue.

“At the end of the day … I think there are better tools,” he said. “But I understand where it’s coming from.”

Dressed in a green-checkered shirt and khakis, Rove touched on a number of national topics during a speech that lasted about 1 1/2 hours, including health-care reform, the tea-party movement, global warming and the relationship between the United States and Israel.

He spoke about his time in the White House working alongside Bush, including his experiences on Sept. 11, 2001, when he searched frantically for a TV at a Sarasota elementary school to learn more about the terrorist attacks that occurred while the president was visiting a classroom.

Later on Air Force One he recalled seeing the smoking Pentagon, one of the targets of the attacks, and noted that Bush said to him, “Take a look. You’re looking at the face of war in the 21st century.”

Villages resident Dick Doumeng, 75, who spends part of the year on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, thanked Rove for his national-security efforts in the years following the 9/11.

“That was a rare opportunity,” Doumeng said. “I wanted to thank him and President Bush for the courage they had. This is the closest I’m ever going to get to the life of the president.”