Border security somehow emerges on Rick vs. Kay agenda...

A couple of weeks ago, Kay criticized Rick for suggesting that he wanted to send 1,000 federal troops to the Mexican border (link).

When asked about Rick's request for troops, she said:

"We're not in a war with Mexico. We have the same enemy and that is the drug cartels," Hutchison told reporters today.

"The issue of military on the border has to be looked at very carefully. I'm not ruling it out. But I'm not ruling it in either," Hutchison said.

"Nor has Mexico asked for that," the Texas Republican added.

It's hard to know whether or not to support Kay, because she is all too often all too careful with her statements and positions when put on the spot by a reporter. She always seems to take the position that she is "concerned" or that we need to look at something carefully, instead of just saying she is for or against something. A lot of the time, when she has thought about it carefully enough and long enough, she picks the right side, but not always.

Burnt Orange Report took her up on this yesterday (link), calling her a coward (they also called Rick a cyborg). From the liberal perspective, Kay is a coward for not knowing what her positions are until she has sufficiently polled them. Whether that is correct or not, I don't know, but Kay is definitely developing a reputation as a typical wishy-washy Senator. She needs to work hard on overcoming that reputation, or her current front runner status won't mean a thing in a year.

Yesterday was a big day on border security. According to google news search, Rick was mentioned in dozens and dozens of articles around the country as a Republican Governor who is asking Obama for more border security. In the articles, Rick comes across as some kind of lone hawk on border security, standing up to Clinton/Bush/Obama for inaction, exactly where he wants to be in the Republican primary.

Not to be outdone, Kay put out a statement on her website yesterday taking credit for expanded border security efforts in recent years (link). Here is the statement:

“Having worked on border security efforts for years, including working to increase the number of border patrol agents from roughly 4000 agents when I first came to the Senate, to over 20,000 agents today, I’m pleased that the Secretary is supporting current efforts such as Project Gunrunner and assistance for local law enforcement, two programs which I have been leading support for in the Senate. More must be done, including additional Border Patrol agents and equipment, to ensure that we can fight the drug cartels and do away with the human trafficking and violence along our border.”

Rick can take credit for various border security efforts at the state level and rail against the "inadequacies of Washington's response." Can Kay credibly say she was a bulldog in the trenches working on this issue in Washington? Let me tell ya, this is a big issue for Republican primary voters, and both Rick and Kay are positioning themselves as "tough" on border security.

As a Republican primary voter who has typically not cared much about this issue but (due to all the recent carnage and mayhem just across the border) is starting to come around to the hawkish conservative position, I will be keeping my eye on this issue.