Obviously the Bush administration had more than simply the usual press secretary in mind when they engaged Tony Snow - who I happen to respect, as well as enjoy. But his capabilities as a skilled political operator were on display during Sean Hannity's radio talk show this afternoon.
Mr. Snow characterized security first types as dodgers of the bigger issue because of their apparent lack of support for the President's comprehensive approach on immigration reform, insisting a comprehensive approach was the only real way to go. He went on to say it made no sense to go forward with controlling the border if you didn't also go forward with internal efforts on law enforcement against businesses hiring illegals and some form of guest worker program.
He's a smooth talker, but the logic of his argument doesn't hold up. If you buy it, then the reason we haven't more aggressively policed illegal immigrants, or cracked down on employers in the past is because that darned border of our wasn't secure. Let's forget that we've already passed legislation twice in twenty years to make so, all of what is yet again being proposed. What silliness. Unfortunately, he's just competent enough to help the administration pull off this shell game. Goodness knows they need a win, that might help them, too. I see the snow job on immigration is also taking other forms.
Disgruntled conservatives will have no way of strengthening the anti-illegal immigrant vote: Their choice will be a soft Republican, a bad Democrat or abstention (which in effect is the same as a bad Democrat). It would seem to me that we lose nothing by trading an otherwise inevitable de facto guest worker condition for a genuinely secure border and employer sanction regimen.
The political class in this country, and I include a certain number of pundits among it, simply can't afford to let governmental structure unravel over this issue - and they won't. They'll begin initiating compromised approaches, some honest attempts may catch on. Eventually, our politicians will start to exploit differences across the Right until any hard opposition begins to look extremist enough to marginalize in debate.
Hey, don't look at me. I'm not even against amnesty, I simply want our border genuinely controlled. But it isn't going to happen. Too many Americans are well off, or too prone to distraction, at least enough so as to soon tire of the debate and forget it, just as so many have already forgotten 9/11, or long ago given up on Iraq.
Ultimately, America is a victim of her own success and the same has been true for years. Call me pessimistic, realistic, whatever you want ... but I am already sensing the writing on the wall - the wall that isn't and won't ever really be there.
There's the fine print in any bill:-
The Senate amendment by two of the bill's leading opponents, Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, was softened Tuesday in negotiations with the legislation's supporters. The sponsors agreed to include exceptions for hardship cases and those who didn't know a deportation order had been issued for them, winning the additional support.
Hardship? LMAO I don't want to go home!! or Oops, I didn't know!! Well, it's better than I forgot, I suppose. Ha! Won't the ACLU have a ball with that one before the whole thing gets thrown out by some liberal immigration friendly judge?
And don't forget the budget cuts a year from now when no one's looking, along with an eventual slip in employer enforcement due to large corporate donors to political campaigns. It's why I get tired of fighting the fight, sometimes.
Invariably I'm always forced to conclude that P. T. Barnum George Hull was right - "there's a sucker born every minute", or perhaps worse considering we did once have a baby boom.
I wish I could say I looked forward to ten years from now when we get to hear all this again. But I don't. And it's just as well. We'll probably simply go through the whole damned charade, again, before a too complacent and increasingly soft America turns away from boredom or a lack of seriousness. America has been so incredibly right, maybe in the final analysis, that's where she went most wrong.
Anyway, pardon me for saying I told you so, now. I may not be blogging in a decade to say it to you, then. Maybe I'll brush up on my high school Spanish. As a business person, I always like to be able to offer what's most in demand.
edited above patrolled the borders policed illegal immigrants 7:08 PM
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