No sleeping on this guy

Op-ed piece in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune gives some of the conventional wisdom regarding immigration reform with respect to both political parties. The CW held that two years ago when the immigration reform was last debated in Congress, Democrats weren’t sufficiently devoted to the cause and were merely content to use it as a wedge issue against the Republicans. Fair enough.

Fast forward, though, to just a couple of weeks ago when House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi reportedly told members of her Party that she was not going to act on any immigration legislation until the Senate took it up first. This leaves recently-introduced legislation from Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) in the lurch, thus shielding vulnerable freshman Democrats from this controversial issue.

The Op-ed fails to note that, given this series of events, whatever wedge issue may exist for the Republicans exists also for the Democrats. And doesn’t that speak to the general horribleness of all the legislation regarding immigration “reform” of recent vintage that the issue is a complete loser with the voting public for both parties? We can't recall, in our lifetime, a piece of legislation that was as opposed across such a wide-range of the political spectrum of the voting public.

No matter how much of a loser it may be, immigration reform (see also: Amnesty) is the Freddie Kruger of American politics – everytime you think you have killed it, it just keeps coming back. And just because the deliberative nature of the Senate makes it unlikely that immigration reform will gain any traction in the upcoming election year, don't expect it to really fade away any time soon.