Spineless Republican Presidential Candidates Howl At Immigration Bill

It's a good bet that the immigration bill "compromise" hammered out in the Senate won't survive, leaving us with a continued immigration mess.

Nonetheless, the debate is revealing, especially on the GOP side. What we're seeing, among the announced GOP presidential candidates, is a terrific display of spinelessness, other than John McCain, who long ago proved that, if nothing else, he's his own man.

For most gutless wonder, just look at Mitt Romney, a man who now believes nothing he formerly believed, and who, if he were to become the Republican nominee, would turn around and probably repudiate a goodly number of his current positions.

Romney is now Mr. anti-immigration, demogaguing up a storm. We think he'll enjoy a surge for awhile, but then he'll fade as his act gets old and people wonder if he really stands for anything other than getting himself elected.

Meanwhile, we'd like to know what the immigration hawks propose to do. They denounce the immigration bill's plan to naturalize many illegal aliens as a form of "amnesty," which it both is and is not. It is amnesty in the sense that it allows someone in the country illegally to nonetheless become a citizen without leaving and returning lawfully. It's not, in the sense that it in no way automatically grants citizenship to illegal aliens--they still have to jump through some serious hurdles. Yes, that's a compromise.

The immigration hawks, however, are mostly just tough talk. We couldn't deport 12 million illegal aliens--or even a fraction of that number--without completely militarizing the country, running massive concentration camps and destroying some pretty major segments of our economy.

The Curmudgeon does favor tougher enforcement of existing laws, including beefed up border security, to reduce the number of new illegals. And the immigration bill calls for just that. But, at the same time, we need to deal with reality.

Unfortunately, much of the anti-immigration rhetoric is just thinly-disguised bigotry. It's too bad that formerly "moderate" Republican presidential candidates are stumbling all over themselves to embrace that rhetoric.