In my 2002 book Invasion (p. 71, 76), I noted the open-borders obstructionism of former Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan), who fought to block the implementation of two different tracking databases–one for foreign student visa holders and the other for all temporary visitors (which was mandated by Section 110 of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act). Abraham led efforts to starve the first database of funding and crusaded several times to kill Section 110 altogether. On September 11, 2001, neither of those databases was in place. To this day, they remain incomplete.

Now, Fred Thompson has gone and hired Open Border Spence as his acting campaign manager:

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson, who hasn’t officially entered the presidential race, is shaking up his campaign staff, replacing his acting campaign manager with a former Michigan senator and a Florida Republican strategist.

Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett said acting campaign manager Tom Collamore, former vice president of food and tobacco giant Altria, still will advise the campaign. Collamore has helped organize the campaign for Thompson, who has not officially jumped into the race.

Thompson has established a “testing the waters” committee that allows him to raise money for a presidential bid. He is expected to formally kick off his candidacy in September, after the Labor Day holiday.

“The Friends of Fred Thompson have made a number of changes as they prepare to enter the next phase, adding new experience and political strength to the organization,” Rozett said.

Replacing Collamore will be Randy Enright, who has served as Florida regional political director for the Republican National Committee, and Spencer Abraham, the former senator who lost his bid for re-election in 2000 to Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Bad, bad move. If the Fred campaign is trying to win over grass-roots conservatives, this is a dumb way to do it.

Debbie Schlussel has followed the soft-on-terrorism career of Spencer Abraham. Yikes.

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