Giuliani Backs English-Only Ordering

It's easy to find cheese steaks in Philadelphia, but former Mayor Rudy Giuliani didn't hit just any sub shop when he reached the City of Brotherly Love. No, the Republican presidential hopeful went to Geno's Steaks, where owner Joey Vento became a hero to anti-immigrant groups last year when he posted a sign in his window stating, "This is America. When ordering, please speak English." Giuliani even won the endorsement of Vento himself, who has kept his sign up despite a complaint from the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission that it is discriminatory."The bottom line is that I am backing him, because we seem to be on the same page," Vento told reporters, adding that everyone still gets served at Geno's no matter how bad their English. Giuliani's decision to embrace Vento would seem to be an extreme makeover from his days as mayor, when he often extolled the virtues of the city's immigrant community - without regard to their legal status. As he said in 1994 as mayor, "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect." Now, as Giuliani tries to woo primary-voting conservatives, he talks about illegal immigration as a matter of national security. "Immigration is wonderful," he said."Immigration is the best thing we have going for us. We need new people. We need people who are going to inform us, give us new ideas, but it has to be legal. "Illegal immigration is a bad thing." Meanwhile, in California, Democrats mailed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, asking that the agency investigate alleged links between the Giuliani campaign and a stalled ballot initiative to change how the state distributes Electoral College votes. Giuliani has denied any involvement with the GOP-backed ballot group, Californians for Equal Representation. The group's sole contribution came from a corporation funded by a top Giuliani fund-raiser, Paul Singer.