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March 16, 2007
Does the Democratic Leadership Really Want an Illegal Alien Amnesty?
Yes and no.
Yes, ideologically, the leadership of the Democratic Party would like nothing better than to grant amnesty to every illegal alien in the United States who isn't a violent criminal or a committed terrorist. But, no, they aren't particularly anxious to pay the political price that an illegal alien amnesty would entail.
Increasingly, it seems that what they would really like is to offer a bill that appeals to the assortment of ethnic and political interest groups on the political left, and then blame the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans for killing it. The Democrats are first and foremost committed to maintaining their newly reclaimed congressional majority and capturing the White House in 2008, and granting amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens does not appear to be the best strategy for achieving those ends.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which is conducting the hearings process on this year's version of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill, takes a backseat to no one when it comes to accommodating illegal aliens. Sen. Leahy is also a man who can barely disguise his contempt when uttering the name George W. Bush. So what can we make of the fact that the person Sen. Leahy wants to be the Salesman-in-Chief for the new McCain-Kennedy legislation is none other than George W. Bush? Who better to serve as a virtual human shield than a lame duck president from the opposing party with an approval rating hovering around 30 percent?
The Democrats have polled and focus-grouped this issue from every conceivable angle, and apparently come to the conclusion that no matter what they call it, or how they package it, the American public spells McCain-Kennedy: A-M-N-E-S-T-Y. The Democrats are just not going to take the heat for this one, unless they've got the president and congressional Republicans marching in lock step alongside them.
Leahy is so committed to this policy of mutually assured political destruction that earlier this week he threatened that he would not even schedule a mark-up of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill without firm assurances of political cover from the White House. "We're not going to waste time on something that the minority, they're going to shoot down," Leahy stated. Sounds more like someone trying to cover his political you-know-what, than a powerful chairman preparing to flex his political muscle.
Posted on at March 16, 2007 02:57 PM