Free Republic

While denying that Monday's massive demonstrations put pressure on Congress, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) voiced new optimism Tuesday about ending the stalemate on legislation to overhaul the immigration system. He predicted the Senate would approve a bill by the end of May. In another sign of movement on the politically charged issue, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), leading advocates of tougher enforcement, floated a proposal to give some illegal immigrants a chance to gain legal status — if the opportunity were limited to those who had married, had children or otherwise put down "deep roots"...

To borrow a term from computing, it is time to reinstall the U.S. Congress. Over time, a computer operating system such as Windows becomes corrupted by installing and uninstalling other computer programs, adding and removing hardware, attacks by viruses and other malware, and assorted other hazards associated with using a computer. Eventually the system becomes corrupted so badly that the computer must be purged of its contents, and the operating system and other programs must be replaced with a fresh, uncorrupted copy. Failure to periodically purge-and-replace leads to a broken, nonfunctional system. The computer analogy ought to remind you of...