All hat, no border

Gerald M. from Dallas writes:

I think we can see the outline of the White House end-game to crush resistance in the House and push through the whole enchilada, as it were.

First, just as Bush opportunistically seized the role of Commander in Chief after 9-11, he has now assumed the title Warden of the Border after The Speech. Did anyone even think of a fence before he did? He tells us of huge numbers caught during his watch; he talks knowingly of catch and release, sensors, barriers, the humanity of it all. Grim faced as he looks south, surrounded by the Border Patrol, we see the historical analogy and cry out to our fellow citizens, “There stands W like a stone wall; rally ‘round the Texan!”

Yesterday, in his Yuma speech, Bush actually said (I kid you not), “You know, the congressmen up there in Washington should come down here to the border and see for themselves.” He then told his audience—as if they had no idea before—how important securing the border is, but stressed, over and over, that enforcement cannot be separated from amnesty and guestworkers, a kind of Holy Trinity of immigration reform. Anyone opposed to this configuration is a heretic. One doesn’t compromise with heretics.

The second part of the end-game is pure Karl Rove: attack your opponent at his strongest point. You wanted a wall? Now you’ve got one! Vote against comprehensive reform, you vote AGAINST the wall. You vote AGAINST national security and FOR illegal immigration. How will the voters back home feel about THAT?

It’s clever. Completely insincere, but clever. Especially the symbolism. He looks like the Marlboro Man, sans cigarette, strutting around, riding a dune buggy, squinting into the sun. The lawman, the guardian. The bastard knows how to strike a pose, I’ll give him that.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 19, 2006 09:25 AM | Send