Opinion: How the Left Continues to Play With Hispanics’ Emotions
By Israel Ortega
Published December 05, 2010

Nov 30: Senate majority leader Harry Reid speaks about the DREAM Act. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

If there was ever an award for political theater, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–Nev.) would be this year’s winner. All politicians promise the moon, of course, but Reid’s relentless drive to appear to be doing something about enacting immigration legislation this year is Academy Award material.

What puts Sen. Reid and other liberals head and shoulders above the rest is their shameless insistence that they have the power to enact sweeping immigration legislation with a flick of a switch. The worst part is, they’ve convinced many Hispanics they can deliver.

President Obama’s promise to the Hispanic community to enact immigration legislation in his first year in office is well known. Many Hispanics who pulled the lever for him in the 2008 presidential election believed that promise.

Yet despite holding a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate and a majority in the House of Representatives, the president chose to not to push forward any immigration proposals, concentrating instead on a health care bill the people didn’t want. As President Obama knew well, his own party is divided on immigration. And the reason for that is that a majority of the country opposes another sweeping piece of legislation. The president himself has stated that this is a country of laws, where the rule of law is vital to ensure our freedoms and liberties.

But, in a cynical move to lock in the Hispanic vote in future elections, Sen. Reid apparently is overlooking the fact that the votes aren’t there for “comprehensiveâ€