Thread: Dems' embarrassing inaction on immigration

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Shameful silence

Dems' embarrassing inaction on immigration

September 22, 2006

You can't really blame Democrats in Congress for not wanting to talk about the thorny subject of illegal immigration or present their ideas for solving the problem. After all, they're in business to make friends and, no matter what they say, they're going to upset people.

What are we saying? Of course, you can blame them – and you should. These people aren't back in high school, running for student body president, desperate to be popular and afraid to offend anyone. They're grown-ups and they're serving in Congress. They aren't allowed to duck tough issues. They're supposed to tackle them head-on. That's their job. That's what they're paid to do.

We might disagree with what they say. Or we might agree with what they say. But, either way, they have to say something.

Well, on immigration, Democrats are like Sgt. Schultz from “Hogan's Heroes.” They say nothing. They know nothing.

That became embarrassingly obvious when Democratic leaders in the House produced a 25-page booklet laying out what they want to accomplish if they win control of the chamber in November. Absent was any mention of immigration reform beyond everyone's favorite pain-free sound bite: border security.

According to an article in The Hill, the weekly newspaper that covers Congress, Democrats are terrified that the issue – specifically, any mention of the need for comprehensive reform – will cripple them in conservative districts in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona, where they need to win if they stand a prayer of recapturing the House. So it makes sense to a lot of Democrats to do what they did, and leave the issue out of their agenda altogether. Don't ask, don't tell.

Yet it doesn't make much sense to Hispanic Democrats, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who openly criticized the leaders of their own party for taking a vow of silence on the immigration issue. The Hispanic leaders say that Hispanic voters, having carried plenty of water for Democratic candidates in the past, now deserve to know where Democrats stand on an issue that Hispanics have made clear they care a great deal about.

Bravo. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is exactly right. This is shoddy treatment, and Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for what amounts to an abdication of responsibility – not just to Hispanics but to the nation and the body in which they serve.

Democrats say the agenda was meant to be a consensus document, in that the only issues addressed are those on which Democrats agree. That would be a fine excuse, if not for the inconvenient fact that the agenda dives headfirst into the Iraq War, about which there is certainly no consensus among Democrats.

The only good thing about this painful episode is that, for those who think it's time to change the mascot of the Democratic Party to something that better reflects the temperament of modern-day Democrats, this makes the choice obvious. The mascot shouldn't be a donkey. It should be a chicken.

The Democrats think that if they keep their heads down, their overwhelming support on S. 2611 will adequately convey where they stand without having to actually talk about this leading up to the election. But, it's really too late for them - they have already defiantly betrayed the public's trust on this issue.