Among W’s many noxious gifts to his party is the possibility that, after seven years of mixed signals from the GOP, the Democrats can get away with posing as tough on immigration. In Virginia, the Dems took control of the state senate, but are protecting themselves by pretending to embrace the state GOP’s immigration platform. In New York, Democrats limited the political fallout in local elections from Spitzer illegal-alien driver’s license plan by either explicitly rejecting their own governor’s position or telling him to stay out of their districts. And Rahm Emanuel a couple weeks ago spoke to Democratic hopefuls in Chicago and “demanded candidates inoculate themselves against expected GOP attacks by moving to the right on immigration.” (This from a man with a career grade of F on immigration.) Not to mention Democrat Heath Shuler’s enforcement bill, which now has 99 co-sponsors.
Even Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (quoted in the LA Times story linked above), understands the politics of the issue, though he desperately wants his party to ignore it:
“We’re tired of people trying to scapegoat the immigrants or Hispanics as a platform,” Baca said. “Republicans have done it, and Democrats have followed . . . because they’re afraid they’re going to lose their elections. But we got elected to represent all communities, not to vote based on whether we’re going to get reelected.”
Of course, getting reelected is a politician’s job, representing as it does the voters’ approval of his performance.