I understand that GWB has been less than clear on what his immigration policy details are, but THERE IS NO WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL as of yet.
As you will soon see, My friend Sabertooth will post a laundry list of columns from pundits, but there is no Bush Proposal, just speculation of what might be in his proposal. I am 100% against any kind of amnesty for those who broke the law, and I will send my letters to the White House and my Represenatives in Congress expressing my objections to any such proposal. So I agree with Sabertooth and all the others against rewarding criminals, but I refuse to get my knickers in a twist over speculation, I'll wait till Bush announces his proposal to Congress and react to it then. All this knashing of teeth before any such proposal is even on the table for review is IMHO a complete waste of emotion
Similar to his "both/and" statement on Gay Marriage, perhaps?
Rove or Card are the likely 'leakers'...with full Prez approval. Hence, whether merely a 'trial balloon' or an anticipatory leak to create 'buzz' for the Prez so he can take 'credit' for the positive voter response the brain trust is hoping will result.
It is not hard to see where, in purely Machiavellian (i.e., triangulating) terms, they are coming from: They are trying to head off the growing juggernaut of the Mexifornian vote and co-opt them from the RATS. It would appear that the strategy of trying to 'appease' the rabble-rousers among the Mexicali rights crowd has not worked for the last 3 years. GWB is drawing, selectively, the wrong lessons from his experience in Texas. These illegals will not suddenly...or even in our lifetime...switch parties. They are coming from a solidly adverse national mind-set that has grown increasingly anti-American in its biasses. Re-orienting these 'Mexican Patriots' into anything approaching 'Republican' will be a much bigger problem than he or Rove concieves. They have an entitlement mentality. Zogby did a poll of Mexicans. About 65% think they are entitled to cross the border into the U.S. Southwest...that they 'own it', and that U.S. national claims are 'illegitimate'. By going down this 'Open Border' slippery slope...and playing to this festering Mexican political malignancy, GWB is rushing the U.S. into either a possibly calamitous confrontation with a neighbor that may become open hostility, or may result in the unthinkable...subversion and guerrilla war, perhaps secessionist insurrections in the SouthWest. If we were simply four-square for defending our sovereignty...and our laws...we would restore the proper respect of our neighbors to the south. Leniency, as do all appeasements, only back-fires.