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"He's using it as a political talking point to try to pacify and confuse the real scandals of his open border policies."

He is? Could you point me to where he lauded and used the number of 2000 new border agents for political points. I'm not saying he didn't, but I can't find a reference to it using Google.

Bush didn't write that law. The president doesn't write laws and doesn't pass laws.

If he pushed for this particular part of the law and has used that portion of the law to appear strong on immigration, then he is definitely failing to follow through.

I just don't remember him doing that.

He is suggesting funding additional agents. The fiscal year 2000 budget under Clinton has staffing levels at a little under 9000 border agents. They now have about 11000 agents. It sounds like the Bush administration has been increasing the size of the border patrol by significant amounts.

In my opinion it's still too little, and we should harass our congressmen to fully fund the 2000 border agent increase in the budget.

However, give Bush credit where it's due and blame where it's due. Criticizing him for things he didn't do isn't productive.

The 2000 new agents number appears to have come from Congress, not Bush. Congress provided the number without a budget. Bush apparently doesn't believe that adding that number is practical. I think it needs to be a higher priority, but I'm not going to call the President a liar because of something someone else threw out as a goal and he's not meeting.

" No wonder he and Clinton get along; they're cut from the same political cloth."

Actually under Clinton the Border Patrol increased from just under 4000 in 1993 to just under 9000 in 2000. The border patrol increased 122 percent in size under Clinton.

However, at the same time he tied their hands so they really couldn't enforce immigration law, so it was really expensive lip service to the issue, but at least we have the agents and the equipment to build on.

I suspect we have the Republican dominated congress to thank for the increase in size of the border patrol under the Clinton administration, and the Clinton administration for the ineffective use of that manpower.