The grinch who stole immigration reform

By Ruben Navarrette,
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.

Just in time for Christmas, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given Latino voters a valuable gift: clarity.

So much of politics is masked in smoke and mirrors. If you convince Latino constituents that the other party is out to get them, you’ll become their BAF – best amigo forever. And so it is that most Latinos I know have been led to believe that on immigration reform, Republicans are inherently bad and Democrats are intrinsically good. And, they tell me, any day now, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats will discover their backbones and deliver what they’ve promised when pandering to Hispanic groups: comprehensive immigration reform that allows illegal immigrants to work their way to legal status, even if it means jumping through more hoops than Ringling Bros.

How gullible can you get? Democrats only care about one thing, and it’s the same thing that Republicans care about: re-election. And any controversial issue that might get in the way – gay marriage, “don’t ask, don’t tell,â€