Eliot Spitzer throws it into reverse

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday night he is giving up on his plan to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. The opposition is just too overwhelming, he told the New York Times.

The New York Times didn't argue with him about that:

"Mr. Spitzer’s abandoning of his plan comes as a poll released Tuesday by Siena College found that seven in 10 New York voters who had heard about the plan — and more than 80 percent of the 625 registered voters polled had — opposed it. It also found that for the first time, more people viewed the governor unfavorably than favorably."

Governor Spitzer could have saved himself a lot of grief if he had kept up with America Wants to Know, which read the tea leaves in June of 2006 and published a post titled, "A wall and a bus ticket: The new shape of immigration reform."

Political forecasting aside, it's mystifying that so many otherwise-savvy politicians don't understand why it's such a big deal to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

So here's a concise explanation for politicians who would like to understand why seventy percent of registered voters are against the idea.

1. We should take our laws seriously or we should take them off the books. People who are in the country illegally should not be given an official government document or identification card that recognizes their residency in the country as if they have some kind of a legal right to be here.

2. It's a bureaucrat's daydream that illegal immigrants will "come out of the shadows" and admit on a government form that they are in the country illegally. A more likely outcome is this: illegal immigrants will produce phony documents and get driver's licenses under false names. Instead of adding to security, driver's licenses will add to security headaches. Soon, thanks to political correctness and anti-discrimination laws, no one will accept anyone's driver's license as a form of identification, and national ID cards will be forced down our throats.

There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Tune in next week when we'll explain to politicians why they shouldn't drink the stuff under the sink.


Copyright 2007


Editor's note: You might be interested to read "How to Get Congress to Foot the Bill for Illegal Immigration, and Fast" at www.SusanShelley.com.

.