Friday, June 23, 2006
What a Joke
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page has become a complete embarassment on the immigration issue. They have yet to offer an editorial that provided any meaningful insight on the issue, but instead they have preferred to issue silly ad hominem attacks on those the paper has decreed as "anti immigrant."
The latest bit of bluster comes from today's lead op-ed. True to form, the editors attack rather than argue. For example:
Republicans came to this strategic epiphany after concluding that Representative Brian Bilbray won his special election victory in California this month by demagoguing immigration. But all that election really proved is that a GOP Beltway lobbyist could keep a seat in a 60% Republican district so long as he outspent an opponent who committed the final-week gaffe of encouraging immigrants to vote illegally. Replicate that trifecta around the country this November, and Republicans wouldn't need to campaign.
Yawn. So Bilbray's principled stand against the influx of illegal immigrants is nothing but "demagoguery." Wow. That's just so deep. And of course the paper is so self-satisfied with its "progressive" stand on open borders that they can't even see how they completely contradict themselves in one paragraph. They openly admit that Busby's "gaffe" in encouraging illegals to vote may have had an impact. And why is that, oh so wise opinion makers? Could it have anything to do with the fact that many Americans are troubled by the illegal immigration issue, and Busby's comments merely affirmed their feeling that some lawmakers and potential lawmakers are fumbling this issue very badly? Well, I guess that would just make them a bunch of ignorant, anti-immigrant racists according to the WSJ's enlightened editorial board.
Against all common sense, the editors encourage the Republicans to pass a bill that most Americans oppose simply so that they can claim that they did something. Well whoop-de-freaking-doo. I'm sure that passing a toothless bill that will do more to encourage more illegals to enter our country is just what the country is clamoring for. This is the sort of brainless political advice that would make Dick Morris and the Main Street Republicans proud.
Sorry, no deal. Sometimes doing nothing is in fact better than doing something, especially when that something would make our southern border even more meaningless than it already is.
Oh, and as for the suggestion that taking a hard line on immigration will cost the Republicans their majority status - I know you're a bunch of libertarians, but that doesn't mean you have to dabble in hard drugs. Methinks there a few more issues that imperil Republicans, and this is one issue that can actually salvage the party - if it does the complete opposite of what the Wall Street Journal advises.
