Rig--


Poor Dornan. Pobrecito.

Democrats will be tougher on illegal immigrants in 2008? Why? There's nothing in it for them--and if they set out a reasonable path to citizenship they stand to lock in the Hispanic vote for the foreseeable future. And results in the 2006 election have already indicated that Republicans, through their restrictionist stance, lost the gains they had made from 2000 to 2004. Hispanics may be conservative as regards patriotism, education, and religion--all approaches Bush took successfully in 2004---but a perceived campaign against them--and that's how they look at Tancredo's push, trumps all the rest. And I am talking, of course, of Hispanic voters--that is, already legal.

And as I said earlier, unions will also see the benefit of a path to citizenship for illegals--if the approach I cited is taken.

The business community is already not smitten with restrictionists. Just today, the WSJ pointed out that, thanks to tighter border enforcement without opening up legal immigration, crop losses in California are likely to be 30% this year--nobody to pick the crops. Growers are already moving chunks of their operations south of the border. If the US won't import foreign workers to help harvest US crops, we'll be buying the same crops harvested by the same workers--but they won't be US crops. Or we'll pay a lot more for scarcer fruit and vegetables. Prices soaring at your grocery?--ask Mr Tancredo. Most Americans may not really like the idea.


Tancredo and his followers will be progressively isolated.

The only thing that can save them is a depression--with its attendant xenophobia.

I'm sure you're not hoping for a depression.