Bipartisan Bungling on Borders

Whip-cracking Hillary Clinton (call her Hillary Buchanan) wants a “border czar.” In a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y., wrote this week: “National security and, in particular, security at our borders, must continue to be paramount.”

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I have said often that the only thing saving the Republicans on the immigration issue is the Democrats’ stupidity. No more. Hillary may only be playing dress-up on border security, but that’s far more than most of the cowering GOP elite in Washington is willing to do. And she’s not alone among Democrats who are beginning to exploit the White House’s vulnerability. Sounding positively O’Reillyian, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., complained that an agricultural illegal alien amnesty bill sponsored by GOP Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and defeated last week would have been a “huge magnet” for illegal immigration. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., sponsored a successful amendment funding Border Patrol agents, immigration investigators and interior enforcement agents that the Bush administration had shortchanged.

And as Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald reported on our group website, The Immigration Blog: “Maxine Waters, who represents South Los Angeles, erupted in a tirade against Hispanic and black gang members last week” on illegal alien gangs. Railed Rep. Waters:

“Why isn’t anyone talking about the Mexican Mafia (a gang of illegal Mexicans that controls the California prison system)?” she thundered. “I don’t care if you’re pink or purple or white or black or brown, I want you out if you’re committing crimes.” There is no excuse not to control the border, she said. “I’m a liberal with a capital ‘L’,” she said, “but I’m sick of it.”

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