Spitzer Tucks Tail Between Legs, Exits Stage Right
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Does anyone else remember how Eliot Spitzer was all super-aggressive and unwilling to back down and stuff? He was simultaneously hated and adored for being that way and rode that hate/adoration into the NY Governor’s mansion last year with everyone talking about higher office down the line. Well, he may have fucked that up. Last week, he waded into the immigration debate by coming out sort of in favor of the federal government’s Real ID program and today, because he’s getting criticized, he’s going to run away from his plan.
Are you smart enough to be a citizen? While it’s long been accepted that ignorance of history is what keeps America strong, it seems that immigrants are all expected to pass a civics test to become citizens and get Tom Tancredo off their backs. And they just updated the whole thing. So now everyone has to answer brand-new questions about Abe Lincoln and the lady from the old dollar coins (not the Indian, the other one) and, uh, 9/11. 
The complete failure of our president and our legislature to do anything about immigration — and after so much time and money was spent convincing Americans who’ve never seen a Mexican that something needed to be done about them! — has led to an unprecedented surge in old-fashioned republican democracy at the local level, with state legislatures consdiering over 1,404 immigration measures this year. That’s right, since the federal government failed us, the states are stepping up to the plate, just like our founding fathers intended. When it comes to legislating xenophobia and denying rights to thousands of disenfranchised people, no one does it like these United States of America. 
A petulant little girl tried to shame the President at a Cleveland Q&A on Tuesday. Jessica Hackerd, 13, had Bush right where she wanted him. Defeated and confused, Bush had just finished his rambling remarks when young Jessica pounced. She went right for his weak spot with a pointed question about the recently-defeated immigration bill, the final nail in the coffin of the President’s domestic legacy. 
The 4th or 5th defeat of the immigration bill yesterday also turned out to be the unceremonious death of President Bush’s second term. 
The White House and Congress may sort of be at each others’ throats these days, but there’s one thing that unites the Democrats, Republicans and Cheneys: utter fealty to their global corporate masters. Sadly, conservatives and union members and the downsized and downtrodden don’t understand this, so all these “voters” scream and yell and protest and say “shamnesty” or whatever. 
