As political desperation goes, tonight’s presidential prime-time address on immigration policy is rather dire. It was particularly telling over the weekend when one [tag]Republican[/tag] House member told the New York Times, “Karl Rove seems determined to secure the border.” Not [tag]Bush[/tag], not [tag]DHS[/tag], but [tag]Rove[/tag].
The new-found presidential interest in the issue, in other words, is purely political. Frantic and out of options, Bush is apparently slated to tell the nation tonight that he will send [tag]National Guard[/tag] [tag]troops[/tag] to help [tag]secure[/tag] the [tag]border[/tag]. By emphasizing “enforcement,” the president hopes to tell his base, “See? Sure I’ve never shown an interest in border security before, but now I’m listening.” But if the Bush gang thinks they’re likely to score a few points on the issue, they’re only fooling themselves.
Tonight’s speech is aimed at assuaging House Republicans who have insisted on tougher enforcement measures against workers illegally in the country. If the House contingent feels action is being taken, White House officials hope they may yet sign off on some version of Bush’s [tag]guest-worker[/tag] proposal, which would provide a way for undocumented [tag]immigrants[/tag] to stay here legally if they pay back taxes and penalties.
Back here in reality, the president’s approach has no allies, especially among members of his own party. Some Republicans recognize that the National Guard is already strained and border patrol duty isn’t in their job description; other Republicans believe Bush’s plan won’t go far enough.
Governors along the southern border don’t understand why Bush hasn’t delivered on promises for additional border [tag]patrol[/tag] personnel before now, and no one understands what Bush means when he says the National Guard deployments will be “temporary.” (Of course, Bush has never been about exit strategies.)
Nearly a month ago, Time’s Mike Allen reported that new White House chief of staff Josh Bolten believed immigration would be part of the “Bush comeback” strategy, which also help the GOP keep Congress. At a minimum, the focus would help placate the president’s far-right flank, stopping Bush’s free-fall in the polls.
Given the reactions today from conservatives, it’s wishful thinking.
After reviewing a couple dozen conservative blogs’ post on the subject, this one seemed to summarize the right’s take going into this evening’s Oval Office [tag]address[/tag].
Bush knows the majority of Americans oppose [tag]amnesty[/tag] for illegal aliens and dislike him for pushing it, so he’s going prime-time to offer the people a few
crumbswords of encouragement. […]I predict that his speechwriters will insult our intelligence and present unsustainable and bad argumentation supporting amnesty for border jumpers, including the strawman “We are a nation of [tag]immigrants[/tag]!” and the claim that deporting millions of illegal criminals is impractical. He’ll toss us a half-chewed border enforcement bone to throw us off the trail.
I’m not that hungry. Are you?
Derbyshire also summarized the conservative perspective.
If the preview in this morning’s edition of America’s Newspaper of Record can be relied on, the President’s speech on immigration reform tonight will be the milk-and-water leaky-bandaid stuff we expected. No border wall, no attempt to deport or attrit the illegal population, nothing on birthright citizenship, a “guest worker” scam-o-rama (foreigners fly in, pick up sheaf of bogus documents for $100 to “prove” they’ve been here 5 yrs, get on the “path to citizenship”). Let’s face it, GWB is a dyed-in-the-wool open-borders fanatic. We can expect nothing from him in this area.
Kevin predicted that the Republican base will “see right through tonight’s speechifying.” It seems they’ve already started.