Dems Waking Up to The Ultimate Wedge

Don't look now, fellow Pachyderms, but the other side is beginning to pick up on the GOP's biggest political liability:

President Bush should know he's not doing us any favors by offering to enforce the nation's immigration laws. It's already his job. Yet that's the deal in his new guest-worker proposal: Keep the cheap labor flowing to business, and maybe I'll start going after employers who hire illegal aliens.

This mindset is making Americans crazy, and Democrats have taken notice. The public sees illegal immigration as its No. 1 international worry, according to a recent survey. Long afraid of the issue, Democrats are beginning to tackle it in a serious and politically potent way.

Or, more accurately, pretending to. Hillary Clinton has made noises about better border controls, but her bluff was called months ago. Similarly, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (along with his equally phony-baloney neighbor, Janet Napolitano) has declared a "state of emergency" along his state's border with Mexico, but it wasn't even two years ago that he "showed up at a rally for the 'Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride' and told them, "¡Viva la raza! . . . Thank you for coming to Santa Fe. Know that New Mexico is your home. We will protect you. You have rights here." Not long after that he issued an executive order that "prohibit[s] state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal authorities to detect or apprehend people based solely on immigration status." And even earlier this year Richardson "signed legislation giving some illegal aliens the right to in-state tuition rates at public universities."

But none of that will matter in 2008, since (1) though it will be an open presidential field (no incumbent president or vice president heading either ticket) on both sides (the first since 1952), the Dems will still be in the roll of challenger after eight years of GOP rule, and that means nobody will be scrutinizing Mrs. Clinton's record on the issues she chooses to emphasize (least of all the Extreme Media, which will be her campaign propaganda auxiliary); and (2) public anger at President Bush's refusal to address this issue, particularly in a homeland security context, will be an anchor around the neck of whomever emerges as the GOP nominee to succeed him.

[Democrats like Hillary] should take an educational trip to some carpentry shops on Long Island. There, [t]he[y]'ll find legal immigrants being put out of business by illegal aliens working at competing shops down the street. The story repeats itself across the nation. The conflict isn't just between immigrants and natives. It's between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants.

The class-war aspects of uncontrolled immigration have begun to register with other Democrats. Consider the weird argument that illegal immigration is good because it keeps down the cost of lettuce, hotel rooms and restaurant meals. Of course, it does. It's odd that everyone expects to pay the going American rate for the services of lawyers and doctors. In this view, only the sweating classes are supposed to keep prices low....

This angle could generate some heat if the economy is slowing down a couple of years from now. But in tandem with the following, it could become lethal for GOP hopes of a dynasty at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue:

The border patrol is picking up increasing numbers of non-Mexicans, many from the Mideast countries we worry about. Polls show that homeland security remains a weak spot for Democrats, so a plan to stop the chaos at the border could help them. Here's the plan: Enforce employer sanctions. That would curb the market for illegal labor. Fewer economic migrants would come here illegally. The border police could then concentrate their resources on terrorists and criminals.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? And that's all Democrat really have to do, especially if Bush refuses to get serious about border control and enforcement of all the immigration laws - sound reasonable. Once in office Mrs. Clinton can forget all about whatever "centrist" promises she makes in this area (and any other, for that matter). She'll have years until she has to put on her moderate mask again. And if lax border security facilitates another mass casualty terrorist attack, "Madame president" will have a free pass on the entire national security issue just from fingerpointing at George W. Bush.

It's ironic that the president who has staked out a reputation for doing what's right regardless of the political consequences - and been rewarded handsomely at the polls for it - can have such a blind spot about an issue that ties so directly into his greatest strength and which would pose so comparitively little political risk to engage. And how tragic it would be for that blind spot to open the door back to power for an opposition that would proceed to undo all the progress that has been made to make America safer and more secure by transforming a strategic part of the world for the better.

For all the ridicule that has been directed at Bill Clinton's endlessly search for a "legacy," perhaps that's a subject to which his successor should begin giving a bit more thought. Because right now it isn't looking all that promising.