http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/05/dobbs. ... cnn_latest

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hang on, the political thrill ride is about to begin. Are you ready? I know I am. And it's gonna be a hoot.

Our midterm elections are now two months away, and congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns are about to shift into high gear. After five weeks at home with their constituents, or at least some of them, our elected representatives are now back in session in Washington and fully armed with an understanding of the will of the people, ready to do the people's business.

Their first order of business? Why, to announce there will be no business done in this session of Congress on the critically important issues of border security and immigration reform. Can you feel the excitement?

Congressional and Senate Republicans have discovered that Karl Rove and his friend, President George W. Bush, not only don't have a clue when it comes to their favored "comprehensive immigration reform" plans, but also that Rove and Bush's alliance with open borders Democrats represents an axis of amnesty that their constituents simply won't tolerate.

Our do-nothing Congress and our do-nothing-right president aren't exactly wildly popular to begin with. And the Congressional Republican leadership has figured out that in closely contested races, any legislation approximating amnesty for as many as 20 million illegal aliens in this country will amount to wholesale defeat at the polls on November 7.

Even the pro-illegal alien and open borders lobby has finally arrived at the conclusion that the American people won't tolerate an illegal alien population demanding the same rights as American citizens. And the in-your-face enthusiasm of illegal aliens and their amnesty-advocate supporters has waned as the public understanding of the facts has risen.

This weekend, according to the AP, a pro-illegal alien rally in Los Angeles, California, drew fewer than 1,000 people, several hundred-thousand fewer than the rally held there just four months ago. In Phoenix, Arizona, where more than 100,000 illegal aliens and their supporters took to the streets in the spring, AP quoted organizers who estimated 5,000 showed up for a so-called labor solidarity march.

This trend was apparent all across the country this Labor Day weekend: AP reported only 3,000 people gathered in Chicago, Illinois. In San Francisco and Oakland the San Jose Mercury News reported crowds of only 3,000 and 2,500 respectively. And in Dallas, Texas, the AP reports only 500 people assembled for their demonstration. That's not exactly an overwhelming turnout.

But public knowledge of the costs of illegal immigration is overwhelming the propagandists of corporate America, ethnocentric special interests, the White House and President Bush's Democratic amnesty partners in the U.S. Senate.

The leaders of the nation's principal labor unions are obviously confused. They're now caught between trying to bolster their membership rolls by backing the Rove-Bush-Reid-McCain-Kennedy amnesty legislation and explaining to their existing members what they're doing to preserve the jobs and wage levels of American citizens. Add national labor leaders to the list of those simply out of touch with the will of the American people.

Labor leaders, Bush and Rove join Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who all apparently believe the interests of the illegal alien population transcend the law of the land and the interest of the American people.

Mahoney is enjoying precisely the same success as his fellow elitists: The illegal alien lobby that had been declaring "Today we march, tomorrow we vote" at every rally has not produced a tangible increase in new voter registration anywhere in the country.

The open borders lobby and amnesty advocates had hoped to form a new voter bloc to sway elections, but the Associated Press reports there's no indication of a new voter boom in Los Angeles; Chicago; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas, or any other city that held large pro-illegal alien rallies only months ago. This weekend's fizzled marches not only failed to energize significant numbers of people to register to vote, but they also didn't even persuade them to show up.

The leadership of this do-nothing Congress is right to do nothing in support of "comprehensive immigration reform," which are simply code words for illegal alien amnesty, open borders and the national interest be damned.

Two months to go.