By Lee Newcom
President Bush decided a couple of days ago to burn his bridge to the Republican base. While principled conservatives make principled arguments against this really, really bad immigration bill (a really good example HERE and below by Phyllis Schlafly reprinted on Illinois Review), Mr. Bush calls us names. Wrong party Mr. Prez, name calling is the Democrats' role.
Now we are in the lose/lose position President Bush has put us in. If the bill is defeated, as it should be, the Democrats' campaign against our nominee and candidates next year will tell Latinos we hate them, and quote George W. Bush. They will probably be successful. If it succeeds as-is, a very large section of the Republican base walks. The Democrats are successful again.
I think the only way to rescue this bill is posited by Hugh Hewitt today HERE. It's a compromise, but the only one that works and rescues victory from defeat (key elements: genuine enforcement, demand the fence and border security BEFORE any visas and address the problem of immigrants from terrorist countries). Only problem is, the Democrats are absolutely vested in not fixing the huge flaws in this bill. They have the majority and don't want to fix it.
Thanks Mr. Prez. Great judgment. Great judgment indeed.
