http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3395977/

Immigration endgame


• April 7, 2006 | 12:22 AM ET

It's been immigration all week, and I managed to get Bill Frist on a podcast interview this morning. (Direct link here, dialup link here, iTunes link here). Frist was quite strongly against amnesty for illegals.

Now there's a compromise bill, but Mickey Kaus isn't very impressed. Frist, meanwhile, defends the compromise on his blog.

So where are we headed? I don't see the people who are angry about illegal immigration being satisfied with this compromise. That means it's likely to be a contentious issue going into the 2006 elections, and possibly even the 2008 elections. I suspect that we might see a third-party challenger in 2008, which would probably spell disaster for the GOP, though I suppose he/she could pick up some disaffected Democrats too.

As I've noted below, I'm somewhat conflicted on this issue, but the tendency to ignore the "illegal" part of illegal immigration seems like political dynamite to me.

Or maybe I should just sneak into the Senate chamber and start voting as an "undocumented Senator," one who's willing to "do the jobs American Senators won't do." It could be fun...