Hillary's Immigration Bluff Called?

You know how the Shrew Who Would Be Queen has made such a habit of assailing the Bush Administration for its admittedly flaccid stance on illegal immigration and border security? Well, using their majority power to deft effect, the Republicans put that posturing to the test this past Thursday, and the ex-first lady's bona fides were found wanting:

New York's two senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer - who have been complaining since the London bombing attacks that the federal government hasn't done enough to protect the U.S. from terrorists - voted against legislation to enhance border security on Thursday.

Clinton and Schumer turned thumbs down on two amendments to a Department of Homeland Security spending bill, which, according to the Washington Times, would have funded plans for 2,000 new Border Patrol agents and more than 5,000 new detention beds to house illegal aliens.

The measures, which had been stipulated in the intelligence overhaul bill passed by Congress last December, were intended to help end the practice known as "catch and release," where the Border Patrol has been forced to free illegal aliens because they have no place to hold them....

Despite the obvious risks to U.S. national security, Senators Clinton and Schumer, along with a number of soft-on-national security Democrats, declined to support the border security amendments and the measure failed to pass.

Now does that sound like the vote that would be cast by a Senator who posted this halitosis on her own website?

"This Administration has failed to provide the resources to protect our borders, or a better system to keep track of entrants to this country," she complained, adding, "I welcome the addition of more border security."

One of the big reasons why senators don't get elected president is the paper trail of votes - just like this one - that don't jibe with the cynically opportunistic rhetoric spun by their campaign propaganda apparatuses. It's called "having a record," and unless a senator is superhumanly nimble, it usually proves lethal to his/her White House ambitions.

Of course, we know that the Clintons are that nimble and more, and that their PR machine is without peer. Which is why hypocritical votes like this one will have to be stashed carefully away in the ammo drawer in order to build a stockpile so huge that when 2008 rolls around, even the Pink Dragon won't be able to navigate the road to ultimate power without some wounds and detours along the way.