Talk show host uses shoes to focus on illegal aliens

WFTL, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, talk radio show host Joyce Kaufman sampled the political atmosphere in Washington, D.C. this week where she broadcast live for several days, spreading the word on illegal aliens.

In an effort to focus on the undocumented immigrants problem, she brought along 5,000 pairs of shoes collected from south Florida listeners.  She said the footwear was designed to "hold their feet to the fire," referring to the administration and Congress with current and proposed changes to immigration laws that are not acceptable to Americans.

Ordinarily, a pile of 10,000 shoes would make a nifty picture of the day.  But the event in the nation’s Capitol brought no big gathering of press photographers.  Even Kaufman’s hometown Sun-Sentinel decided to no nothing about “shoe business” images from Washington.

Kaufman was among 34 local and nationally-syndicated talk radio hosts conducting live broadcasts during a four-day rally organized by San Diego talk radio host Roger Hedgecock of KOGO and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

While making the rounds, Kaufman found lawmakers look the other way when it comes to tackling the illegal aliens issue.  “We’re thwarted by our own government, people who just don’t get it,” she informed her audience, mainly in Florida but also on the Web, where Grumpy Editor picked up the audio.

Visiting congressional offices, she discovered the “lack of understanding the illegal alien issue is mind boggling” and that “young staffers are unaware of the problem.”

In her visit to the nation’s Capitol to get a reading on the illegals problem, she told listeners she was “abused by the mainstream media.”  In particular, she cited the New York Times was antagonistic in “following me around.”

One of the few members of Congress to lend support and submit to radio interviews was Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a candidate for the  Republican presidential nomination.