Time: 04-26-2012 19:18 User: marjohnson PubDate: 04-27-2012 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: A11 Color: CyanMagentaYellowBlack

“Whywaltz with aguy for10rounds KY FRIDAY if you can knockhim out in one?” APRIL 27, 2012 A11 FORUM ROCKY MARCIANO, heavyweight boxing champ, who retiredundefeatedonApril 27, 1956. www.courier-journal.com/opinion

Mitt Romney campaigned this week with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who favors some legal status for illegal immigrants who would be covered SIGNE CARTOON by the DREAM Act. Romney has vowed to veto the measure. AP Romney carries Adocumentarymaker’s heavybaggage brush as whistleblower on immigration Telling one NFL what Williams said without be- ing attached to Gleason, Former Ariz. official story led to another shouldn’thave released the tape without Gleason’spermission.” underscoresGOP’s forSeanPamphilon Softening toward the end, King allowed: “Icannot find it in hardline attitude By EdwardWasserman my heart to quite call Pamphilon McClatchy Newspapers arat ...” ASHINGTON —Aficio- King’sargument is that Glea- nados of the Etch a nside the nasty question of son, as the documentary’ssub- W Sketch will recall acer- whether gratuitous mayhem ject, was entitled to control the tain flaw in the toy: If you use it I is astrategic element of pro use of material recorded during often, some of the lines drawn no football is aquestion of adiffer- the film-making, especially longer disappear when you shake ent kind. It involves former New where the recording couldn’t the device, leaving an indelible Orleans Saints standout Steve have happened without the ac- trace of where you have been. Gleason and afilm-maker cess Gleason’spresence en- This is the problem Mitt Rom- named Sean Pamphilon, who’s abled. ney is encounter- making adocumentary about Now,that’saproposition Dana ing: He is shaking Gleason’sstruggle with the de- journalists find abhorrent, but Milbank the device, trying generative disease that is slowly it’sfair to say documentary film to erase impres- taking his life. has adifferent ethical tradition, sions left during This raises issues of trust and and film-makers don’talways this year’spri- discretion, of the obligations the Former Saints insist on the independence from mary contest. But Former Arizona state Sen. Russell person who chronicles alife has player Steve Gleason, left, is the source control that journalists he just can’tshake Pearce is the architect of his to the person who’sliving it. It’s subject of adocumentary about demand. away the image of state’stough immigration law. AP also about the often brittle re- his struggle with adegenerative Instead, documentarists of- Russell Pearce. ception given to anybody who disease. AP ten arrange collaborations with Pearce,thefor- the parent didn’tfile the papers, sees wrongs that need exposing, their subjects bordering on co- mer Republican now the child must suffer?” Dur- takes adeep breath and blows authorship. Some argue, com- president of the bin asked. the whistle. pellingly,that since they’re tell- Arizona Senate, is the author and “Youneed to blame those re- For the past year Pamphilon, ing the subject’sstory,they’re self-described “driving force” sponsible,” Pearce replied, “and who previously made awell-re- honor-bound to enlist the sub- behind that state’slaw —en- not us for being anation of laws.” ceived film about ex-Miami Dol- ject in fashioning that story. dorsed by Romney —cracking Such harsh logic accounts for phin Ricky Williams, has been This was the case with Pam- down on illegal immigrants. the recent NBC News-Wall Street working closely with Gleason on philon and the ailing ballplayer, Pearce told The Washington Post’s Journal poll finding that Presi- afeature-length documentary. King suggests. Felicia Sonmez this month that dent Obama leads Romney Gleason was diagnosed with But? Does that bond relieve Romney’s “immigration policy is among Latinos by an astounding amytrophic lateral sclerosis the film-maker of responsibility identical to mine,” and he told re- 47 percentage points. Romney (ALS) in early 2011.Helast to bring to light evidence of porters this week that Romney himself has acknowledged that played for the Saints in 2006 but egregious wrongdoing (unrelat- “absolutely” gave him the im- such agap “spells doom for us.” has maintained warm ties to the ed to the film), even when his pression that he saw the Arizona To shrink the gap, Romney, organization. He has access to collaborator fears disclosure law as anational model. who vowed to veto the DREAM Saints facilities, he’sinvited to might displease people who’d Democrats, seeking to use this Act, went on the campaign trail watch games from choice seats been kind to him? loose cannon against his own Monday with Sen. Marco Rubio, and he even received aSuper Former Saints defensive Here Ithink the criticism side, called Pearce to testify R-Fla., who favors some legal sta- Bowl ring, although he left be- coordinator lost goes off the rails. Pamphilon Tu esday before Congress on the tus for those who would be cov- fore their 2010 championship. his job amid an investigation was inadvertently witness to an eve of the Supreme Court’sre- ered by the act. Romney’scam- So it wasn’tsurprising that about players being told to appalling instance of near-crim- view of the Arizona law.Republi- paign says his claim during apri- Gleason —and the film-maker injureopponents. GETTY IMAGES inal behavior.Athletes were be- cans boycotted the hearing, sens- mary debate that the Arizona law —were in the Saints’ locker ing urged —and all but bribed — ing apolitical trap. was a “model” for the nation re- room in January when defen- universally applauded. to maim, even cripple, opposing But Pearce, whose question- ferred only to the electronic ver- sive coordinator Gregg Wil- “Sean Pamphilon is acoward players. Even alawyer may ig- able activities include touting an ification of immigration status. liams delivered the fierce pre- and should be ashamed for tak- nore confidentiality if aclient old deportation program called (Alas for Romney,heendorsed game speech that later cost Wil- ing advantage of Steve Glea- discloses plans to do harm. Sup- “Operation Wetback,” is less the Arizona law more than once.) liams his job and became power- son!” Saints safety Malcolm pose the coach had been promis- aware, and he handled himself in His campaign also tried recently ful evidence in the National Jenkins tweeted. ing pre-teen call girls for the just the manner Democrats had to disown Kris Kobach, an immi- Football League’sinvestigation On his New Orleans Times- post-game? hoped. Enhancing the effect, his gration hard-liner,before admit- into whether players were in- Picayune blog, Jeff Duncan ob- That Pamphilon was there to tie bore the “Don’tTread on Me” ting that the Kansas secretary of structed, and even paid, to man- served: “Essentially,Gleason chronicle Gleason’sstruggles is emblem of the tea party. state is an “informal adviser.” gle opponents. and Pamphilon were part of the no more relevant than if he’d Pearce, who lost his seat last Pearce is not aRomney advis- Williams literally targeted team. That’swhy Williams was been bringing in fresh towels. fall in arecall election, labeled er,but he is the embodiment of specific his so candid with his comments. He heard what he heard, and he the Obama administration and the law that Romney embraced — defense would face in the next He had no idea his speech would should never have paused be- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the baggage Romney now day’splayoff. He identified ever become public.” fore coming forward. “unpatriotic.” He sounded the carries for seeking far-right sup- physical vulnerabilities for his Steve Gleason himself op- Still, whistleblowers rarely alarm about an “invasion of ille- port in the primary.OnTuesday, boys to go after: an ankle here, a posed releasing the tape. “The have an easy time of it. Their gal aliens we face today —con- Pearce sat at the witness table, knee there and, especially, Saints trusted me and gave us motives are doubted, and their victed felons, drug cartels, gang shaking his head in disagreement heads —aparticularly choice unlimited access in filming, and methods are impugned. Fact is, members, human traffickers, as others spoke about how the law comment at atime when the I, in turn, trusted Sean Pamphi- their disclosures rarely profit even terrorists” (never mind that encourages racial profiling and NFL was finally acknowledging lon,” he said. them. It’sthe rest of us who ben- border security has improved hurts legal Latino residents. the horrific toll of serial concus- Breach of trust was key to a efit. and violence has lessened). And Does Pearce support Arizona sions. broadside from Sports Illustrat- he blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on authorities using “dress” as a Pamphilon, the film-maker, ed heavyweight Peter King. Edward Wasserman is Knight “the failure to enforce U.S. immi- way to identify illegal immi- recorded Williams’ clubhouse Pamphilon, he wrote, “betrayed professor of journalism ethics at gration laws” (omitting the fact grants? “Youhave to respond to exhortations. Earlier this month the wishes of adying man and a Washington and Lee University.He that the hijackers entered the reasonable suspicion to do your he posted the audio on his web- former very close friend ...” wrote this column for The Miami country legally). job,” he said. site, and it was clear the tape King, sportswriter of the Herald. Readers may write to him Sen. Chuck Schumer,D-N.Y., Why didn’tthe law simply re- would play arole in the league’s year in 2010,continued: “What’s at: The Miami Herald, 1Herald chairman of the Judiciary sub- quire that everybody stopped by two-month-old investigation. morally right is that Pamphilon, Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132; website: committee holding the hearing, the police would be checked for Still, the release hasn’tbeen who never would have heard www.edwardwasserman.com. began with aclaim that Pearce’s immigration status, to avoid ra- bill was “endorsed as amodel for cial profiling? “Idon’twant apo- the country by Mitt Romney” — lice state,” he said. and Pearce was happy to help No, he only wants that for peo- with the grave-digging. ple who don’tlook like him. Pearce dismissed as “blanket Pearce allowed that it’s “usu- udeau amnesty” the DREAM Act, which ally the case” that he finds him- Tr would legalize the immigration self outnumbered when defend- ry status of undocumented immi- ing the immigration law.But he grants who came to the United argued, correctly,that the law re- States as children, if they attend flects “by far the majority opi- college for two years or join the nion of my party.” Y|Gar military.Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., This is why Romney will have UR asked Pearce about achild trouble making it disappear. brought to this country illegally as an infant who later graduates Dana Milbank’semail address is from aU.S. high school. “Because [email protected].

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