The Morning Line: Senate Republicans Question Birthright Citizenship

The chorus of Senate Republicans calling for congressional hearings into the constitutional amendment that grants citizenship to people born in the United States grew louder Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Congress "ought to have some hearings and take a look at it" but stressed that he viewed border security to be a more pressing issue.

At Tuesday's briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs accused McConnell of taking a position "based purely on politics." The remark came in response to a question about McConnell's assertion in an interview with Bloomberg that the federal government's challenge to Arizona's new controversial immigration law was a "blatant political move."

Two other Republicans on Tuesday added their support for re-examining birthright citizenship provided by the Constitution's 14th Amendment -- Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill that the idea of hearings "deserves serious discussion."

According to POLITICO, Sessions added: "People do not believe you should be able to break into America, have a baby and then the baby and then the baby becomes a citizen, and the whole family says, 'We can't go home. My child is a citizen.'"

McCain, meanwhile, said he supported reviewing birthright citizenship, but issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying, "I believe that the Constitution is a strong, complete and carefully crafted document that has successfully governed our nation for centuries and any proposal to amend the Constitution should receive extensive and thoughtful consideration."

McCain's fellow Arizonan, Sen. Jon Kyl, suggested on CBS's "Face the Nation" this past weekend that the issue should be examined.

Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News that "birthright citizenship is a mistake." He said the Constitution should be changed so that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants would not automatically be citizens.

The talk from Republicans could energize conservatives in an election year who are unhappy with the Obama administration's handling of the immigration issue, but the approach also carries the risk of turning off Hispanic voters in the long term.

Adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," which included recently freed slaves.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT

President Obama isn't taking it slow on his 49th birthday.

He begins his day with a daily briefing at 9:30 a.m. EDT, followed by a meeting with senior advisers. At 11:05 a.m. EDT he is scheduled to deliver remarks at the AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting in Washington.

According to the White House, Mr. Obama will talk with union members about the steps his administration has taken to rebuild the economy and will lay out the choice going forward: "whether to move forward on new ways to create jobs and strengthen our recovery, or go back to the failed policies of the past that led to a decade of economic insecurity for the middle class."

At noon, the president will have lunch with senators at the White House. Later in the afternoon he will present the 2010 Citizens Medal to 13 winners from across the country in an East Room ceremony. The award recognizes Americans who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens."

The president then meets with Sen. McConnell in the Oval Office at 3:10 p.m. EDT before departing for Chicago, where he is expected to attend a birthday dinner with friends and spend the night at his home in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood.

To help the president celebrate, the Democratic National Committee project Organizing for America has been collecting online birthday card signatures. Supporters are also hosting hundreds of birthday parties across the country to recruit new OFA volunteers to help with November elections.

Not to be left out of the party, the Republican National Committee is also encouraging supporters to send the president online birthday wishes. One card option features Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who is facing a public hearing this fall over alleged ethics violations. The text of the card reads, "For your birthday, I will go quietly."

ELECTION RETURNS

The fourth House incumbent of the cycle was defeated in a primary Tuesday night. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., lost to state senator Hansen Clarke by 6 percent of the vote. Kilpatrick clearly wasn't helped by the baggage from her son Kwame, the former Detroit's mayor now serving time in jail after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

The battle for governor will be "the nerd" vs. the "angry mayor," as the Detroit Free Press describes the Rick Snyder vs. Virg Bernero match up in November.

And in Kansas, Rep. Jerry Moran edged out Rep. Todd Tiahrt for the Republican nomination to replace Sen. Sam Brownback, who is running for governor. Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin backed Tiahrt, but he came up short despite having a pretty good endorsement record for the 2010 cycle overall thus far.

STEELING FOR MORE

POLITICO tees up the annual Republican National Committee summer meeting, which gets underway in Kansas City today, with yet another data point in Michael Steele's controversial tenure as chairman of the party.

"The Republican National Committee is trying to set up meetings between Chairman Michael Steele and foreign ambassadors to the United States, according to an email obtained by POLITICO -- an effort that has puzzled diplomats as well as fellow Republicans," reports POLITICO's Jonathan Martin and Josh Gerstein.

As for the more substantive discussions, POLITICO's Alex Burns reports on a memo by Republican pollster Whit Ayers being circulated at the meeting: a rhetorical roadmap for the homestretch of the 2010 midterm election. (Hint: taxes, spending and regulation play a big part in the preferred GOP message.)

STAR(T) WARS

From PBS NewsHour Foreign Affairs Editor Mike Mosettig:

Over the past two weeks, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has made more news for the hearings and meetings it has postponed than for those it has actually conducted. Last week it was the scrubbed hearing surrounding the BP/Lockerbie bombing connection; this week it is the New Start treaty that is tripping up the committee.

Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., had scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to take up ratification of the U.S./Russia treaty that would reduce the nuclear arsenals of both countries. Instead, Kerry said, the committee would vote on the pact after the August recess.

The postponement came amid growing Republican critiques of the treaty signed in April by President Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev, as well as amid signs of a widening gap among Republicans.

The committee's top Republican, Richard Lugar of Indiana, supports ratification. And after probable presidential candidate Mitt Romney wrote a Washington Post op-ed calling the treaty "Obama's worst mistake," Lugar lashed out at him. Lugar described Romney's attack as "hyperbolic" and said the former Massachusetts governor "repeats discredited objections and appears unaware of arms control history and context."

Romney was pleased to see the committee vote delayed. "It is my hope that the Foreign Relations Committee's delay of a vote on this matter is a sign that they don't have the votes to pass the treaty in its current form," he said in a statement.

Other objections to the treaty have been voiced by Arizona Sens. McCain and Kyl, the former on grounds it could impinge on U.S. missile defense programs and the latter wanting to make sure it does not limit U.S. ability to modernize its nuclear weapons. But so far Kyl, considered the swing GOP voice on the issue, has not said he would vote against the treaty, which requires a two-thirds majority for ratification.

The treaty has the backing of former Republican administration Secretaries of State George Shultz, James Baker and Henry Kissinger.

The pact also gained the backhanded support of a conservative foreign policy voice and analyst, Robert Kagan. The treaty "is not so badly flawed as to warrant rejection," he wrote in the Washington Post, while expressing disbelief that it could turn into a pitched battle between Republicans and the White House or a stand-in for an ideological contest over arms control.