What were they thinking?
Ever read a historical account of a political compromise and wonder, What were they thinking?
well, here we have a textbook case of embracing a wedge issue for short term political gain, knowing that it is inciting the worst implusles of the mass audience, the racist, hateful, anti-immigrant scapegoating that american politicians embrace eery time they are in trouble. Think anti-chinese riots in the 1880s, see-no-evil ignoring of lynching in the twentieth, and of course the anti-immigration laws of 1924.
Here we go again.

The GOP Walks A Border Tightrope: "The difficulty for Republicans, though, is that their short-term political interests -- winning in November -- are arguably at odds with their long-term viability as a majority party. Their base is demoralized about the party's performance and riled up about immigration. Pushing for tough restrictions and resisting anything that has the whiff of leniency toward those who entered the country illegally may be the best way for Republicans to get their voters to the polls in November. And the recent protests, as unnerving as they are for Rove's dream of a GOP-inclined Hispanic electorate, also have the perverse effect of further enraging those already inflamed about immigration.
'White suburban voters who voted for George Bush are disaffected now,' says Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio. 'Would I rather be talking about immigration reform with these voters or the war? Immigration reform or gasoline prices? Sometimes, in order to avoid or avert the tidal wave, you have to do things that short-term make a little more sense than they do in the long term.'"