Hello—I go by See-Dubya on the web, and I used to guest-blog here for Michelle back in 2008. Then I retired from blogging, but I’m coming back just this once to tell you about my trip to 7-11.

It was actually only near 7-11; I didn’t go in. The parking lot was too crowded. It was raining and it was early in the morning and my windows were fogged up but I pulled in across the street, turned my headlights off, and one of the three or four dozen men who were hanging around the lot (despite the miserable downpour) came out to see me. One little guy in an orange shirt and a ball cap, who looked to be in charge, came up to my window, but I just smiled and waved him off and fooled with my phone. So he smiled and went back to leaning on his truck. I think he thought I wanted to pick up some day labor.

I wasn’t, but hat’s understandable: this particular 7-11 has a reputation as a place to pick up day labor. It has had that reputation for at least ten years, probably longer. Every time I’ve driven by there, there the laborers are. There’s a lot of places like this in America today, probably some of them 7-11s, where day laborers gather in hopes they’ll get picked up for a job.

This particular 7-11 (you can see the sign, and the workers, in the background, through the monsoon) is in Falls Church, Virginia, on the Leesburg Pike, just down the road from the Dar al-Hijrah mosque. Ten years ago, a charismatic imam named Anwar al-Awlaki manned the pulpit there, and a U.S. soldier named Nidal Hasan listened to his sermons in the congregation.

In fact just a little over ten years ago a couple of worshipers from Dar al-Hijrah drove up to this particular 7-11. They weren’t really interested in hiring the day laborers so much as getting someone to help them acquire forged identification. That turned out to be a fellow named Luis A. Martinez-Flores, himself an illegal immigrant, and he walked the two Arabs, Hani Hanjour and Khaled Almidhar, through the process of getting Virginia ID cards—after which they returned to this particular 7-11, withdrew $100 from the ATM, and handed it to Mr. Martinez-Flores.

Around five years ago Michelle went to this particular 7-11. She talked about what had happened there on her then-new website called Hot Air. Her video isn’t there anymore, but it made quite an impression on me. Now that I live in Northern Virginia, every time I drive past that particular 7-11 I point it out to my family. I don’t want them to forget why that particular 7-11 is special. That’s where Hani Hanjour and Khaled Almidhar ten years ago used the ID’s they bought so easily at this day labor bazaar to board American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles, and then to take it over and fly it into the Pentagon. They had also, according to Martinez-Lopez’s federal indictment, used these ID’s to procure ID’s in turn for three other 9/11 hijackers. “In all,” notes the 9-11 Commission report, “the five hijackers based their Virginia identification documents on the residency information of one bribed Salvadoran.”

You would think the first thing that the newly-formed Department Homeland Security would have done would be to raid this particular labor market, frequented by illegal aliens and the document fraudsters that enable them to feign legitimacy, and shut it down for good. This is the site of our immigration policy’s greatest, most shameful failure, after all. Of course, ten years on, it’s just business as usual and the shame and failure continue unabated. There’s no marker to commemorate what happened there. You’d never know anything historically significant had happened there ten years ago.

You’d have no indication at that particular 7-11 what a petty, commonplace, wretched little conspiracy was committed, and what a dreadful, monstrous crime was thereby abetted. That was where and when our self-deception about the illegal labor market and the security risks it presents caught up to us. Everyone should know this place. Everyone should vow that what happened there will never be permitted to happen again.

But everyone won’t know; the memory is fading. Like the pictures of the man jumping from the Twin Towers, like the pictures of the rejoicing Middle East, this is one story that you never see in the “respectable” media accounts of what happened a decade ago.

I just drove by there the other day to remind myself. And ten years later it looks like nothing has changed, especially not the policy permitting this market to occur. When Michelle made her video for Hot Air five years ago we were in the midst of debating President Bush’s new policy of amnesty for illegal immigrants, a policy which was just beginning to erode the support of his conservative base. And today the current President has just recently opened yet another door to illegal alien amnesty.

One more thing remained the same: Writing in Human Events about that particular 7-11 in November of 2001, Timothy Carney and Terence Jeffrey noted that Fairfax County police cars often stopped there in the mornings and kept an eye on the crowd. And sure enough, this week, right there in front of that particular 7-11, in the midst of the mob of day laborers (no doubt enjoying Fairfax County’s ongoing status as a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants,) there was parked a Fairfax County police cruiser, just waiting, watching the traffic. Hoping, perhaps, to find some illegal activity going on.

Keep watching! Another ten years, and you may start to see something.

[This post was written and researched on my own time, on my own equipment. Opinions are strictly my own.]

The DREAM Act mob is on the march again — and this time they have a prominent left-wing journalist leading the charge. My syndicated column below spotlights the serial law-breaking of former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas, who is now an illegal alien activist clamoring for amnesty with the backing of the radical Tides Center, a project of George Soros and the former chief organizer of ACORN, Drummond Pike. (Hey, maybe they’ll hire Obama’s grousing illegal alien aunt Zeituni Onyango as a senior fellow.)

Vargas’s splashy revelations in the New York Times come — no coincidence, of course — amid a renewed push for the DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout.

Remember: This is a brazen “down payment” on a larger shamnesty.

Remember: This is nothing more than a 2.1 million future Democrat voter recruitment drive and a massive open-borders entitlement program for untold numbers of multi-culti ethnic tribalists who pretend to embrace assimilation for show.

And remember: The CBO score estimated that the last, failed DREAM Act bill would increase projected deficits by more than $5 billion in at least one of the four consecutive 10-year periods starting in 2021.”

Citizenship is a privilege, not an entitlement.

Want part of “no” doesn’t the open-borders lobby understand?

***

“Undocumented” folly: A liberal reporter’s illegal alien sob story
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

With great fanfare and elite media sympathy, Jose Antonio Vargas publicly declared himself an “undocumented immigrant” this week. “Undocumented” my you-know-what. In the felony-friendly pages of The New York Crimes — er, Times — the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned illegal-alien activist spilled the beans on all the illegal IDs he amassed over the years. He had documents coming out of his ears.

The Times featured full-color photos of Vargas’ fake document trove — including a a fake passport with a fake name, a fake green card and a Social Security card his grandfather doctored for him at a Kinko’s. He committed perjury repeatedly on federal I-9 employment eligibility forms. In 2002, while pursuing his journalism career goals, an immigration lawyer told him he needed to accept the consequences of his law-breaking and return to his native Philippines.

Following the rules would have meant a 10-year bar to reentry into America. Making false claims of citizenship is a felony offense. Document fraud is a felony offense.

Vargas, who frames himself as a helpless victim, freely chose instead to secure yet more dummy documents. He used a friend’s address to obtain an Oregon driver’s license under false pretenses. It gave him an eight-year golden ticket to travel by car, board trains and airplanes, work at prestigious newspapers, and even gain access to the White House — where crack Secret Service agents allowed him to attend a state dinner using his bogus Social Security number. (Reminder: Illegal aliens were able to get through White House security under the Bush administration, too.)

At least Vargas tells the truth when he says he’s not alone. Go visit a 7-11 in the D.C. suburbs. Or the countless vendors in MacArthur Park. Or any of the 19 cities in 11 states from Massachusetts to Ohio to Kentucky where a massive, Mexico-based “highly sophisticated and violent” fraudulent-document trafficking ring operated until February 2011. “Undocumented workers” and “undocumented immigrants” have plenty of documents.

The persistent use of these open-borders euphemisms to describe Vargas and countless millions like him is a perfect illumination of the agenda-driven, dominant progressive media.

They’re as activist inside their newsrooms as Vargas is out in the open now. Bleeding-heart editors were hoaxed by a prominent colleague, exposed to liability, and yet still champion his serial subversion of the law. San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein bragged that he was “duped” by Vargas, but endorses his “subterfuge” because Vargas’ lobbying campaign for the illegal-alien student bailout known as the DREAM Act “just might lubricate the politically tarred-up wheels of government and help craft sane immigration policy.”

Who’s insane? The Vargas deceit is not an object lesson about America’s failure to show compassion. It’s another stark reminder of America’s dangerous failure to learn from 9/11.

Time and again, security experts have warned about how jihadists have exploited lax immigration and ID enforcement. Driver’s licenses are gateways into the American mainstream. They allow residents to establish an identity and gain a foothold into their communities. They help you open bank accounts, enter secure facilities, board planes, and do things like drive tractor-trailers carrying hazardous materials.

It’s been nearly 10 years since several of the 19 9/11 hijackers operated in the country using hundreds of illicitly obtained fake driver’s licenses and IDs. Most states tightened licensing rules, yet Vargas easily obtained a driver’s license not only in Oregon, but more recently in Washington State. He again used a friend’s residence to pass muster. Washington State’s licensing bureaucracy still does not check citizenship. The man sitting in the White House campaigned to keep driver’s license laws as loose as possible for the open-borders lobby. He appointed illegal-alien lobbyists to top federal immigration positions. His head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement just signed a memo pushing the DREAM Act through by administrative fiat. And the privacy of illegal aliens still trumps national security.

I ask again: Who’s insane?

Vargas believes his sob story is an argument for giving up on immigration enforcement and passing a mass amnesty. It’s a sob story, all right. Homeland security officials across the country should be weeping at the open mockery Vargas and his enablers have made of the law.

You remember the illegal alien driver’s licenses championed by disgraced former NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer, right?

The ones that tripped up Hillary Clinton?

Well, some vigiliant GOP lawmakers in NY remember them, too. And they’re trying to make sure they don’t wreak havoc on election results next month. Officials held a hearing today on thousands of licenses issued to non-citizens under illegal alien-friendly Spitzer’s tenure:

With Election Day right around the corner, the Republicans are bringing back an issue that brought them national media attention: Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s long-dead plan to let illegal immigrants get driver’s licenses.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, an outspoken Hudson Valley Republican (particularly when it comes to all things immigration-related) who won a bitter GOP primary battle last month, and Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, who sued over Spitzer’s license plan, are holding a public hearing in Manhattan Thursday on “massive voter fraud potential” caused by the issuance of 23,000 licenses to non-citizens during the former governor’s tenure.

From the press release announcing the hearing, which will be held at the Metropolitan Club:

“Section 5 of the Federal Motor Voter Act requires New York to provide individuals with the opportunity to register to vote at the same time that they apply for a driver’s license or seek to renew a driver’s license.

By law, none of these 23,000 foreign visitors are eligible to vote, yet now many are registered because they hold Spitzer licenses. A public hearing will be conducted on October 16th in Manhattan to assess what can be done at the local, state, and Federal level to secure these 23,000 licenses and scrub the voter rolls of ineligible voters.”

They’re not the only ones who should be investigating.

A criminal complaint was filed against a Brazilian man and a Kazakhstan woman after federal agents arrested 10 illegal immigrants in an investigation into an alleged smuggling operation involving fake documents to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.

…

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones said investigators learned several illegal immigrants living in New Mexico were charging thousands of dollars to help other illegal immigrants travel to the state to get licenses.

Hmmm…why would illegal aliens from all over the country travel out to New Mexico for this particular service?

New Mexico, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and Washington do not require drivers to prove legal status to obtain a license.

In 2003, Gov. Bill Richardson signed a measure into law that allowed foreign nationals , including those living illegally in the country , to obtain a driver’s license. His office has said one of the deciding factors in signing the bill was public safety.

Applicants for a New Mexico driver’s license who don’t have a Social Security number can present identification such as a tax identification number, a foreign passport or a Matricula Consular issued by the Mexican government.

It’s possible that these illegal applicants were just overstaying their tourist visas. There’s a quote from the director of New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Department pointing out that “These are foreigners who got into the country using some sort of identification, and clearly were not on some kind of a watch list unless they used fake documents to get into the country.” He’s also spinning this as a case of sharp-eyed clerks catching the fraudulent documents before it happened. That’s not going to fly, because of the inconvenient fact that it’s worked before:

ICE agents believe Kulekhov and Galiullina transported at least 30 other immigrants, mostly from Brazil, from New Jersey to New Mexico to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses, and allegedly charged each person $3,000.

But the FBI says that at least some of them were from unspecified countries “associated with special national security concerns”. Whatever that means. Probably not Brazil, right?

Meanwhile, bear in mind that both Democrats have burned their bottoms by publicly vacillating on this licenses-for-illegals scam.

McCain, too. And if you look at item number ten on this list, you’ll see McCain’s still flirting with disaster in this department today.

As a reminder, here’s why these illegal-ID rings matter.

_______________________

{Post by See-Dubya}

* Hunter Javens, 9, Cottonwood.
* Jesse Javens, 13, Cottonwood (Hunter & Jesse were brothers)
* Emilee Olson, 9, Cottonwood
* Reed Stevens, 12, Marshall.

My Fox Twin Cities reports:

Funeral arrangements are set for three of the four bus crash victims:

Visitation for Emilee Olson will be Saturday from 6:00-9:00 and Sunday from 1:00-2:00, followed by a funeral — all at Christ Lutheran Church in Cottonwood.

Mourners will gather for Hunter Javens, 9, and his brother Jesse Javens, 13, on Sunday from 5:00-8:00, then from 10:00-11:00 on Monday morning. The gatherings will be a Lakeview School, with a funeral service following.

Arrangements for Reed Stevens, 12, are pending.

As I noted yesterday, a memorial fund has been set up:

Memorial Fund for Families of Bus Crash Victims
United Southwest Bank
P.O. Box 288
Cottonwood, MN 56229

Keep the families of these children and the others injured in your prayers.

***

The illegal alien van driver arrested yesterday was charged today with vehicular homicide and other crimes:

The woman appeared in District Court this morning in a wheelchair with one leg in a cast or bandage. Through an interpreter, she told the court that her name is Alianiss Morales, that she has been working in a Cottonwood cabinet shop for about a month and was living with her boyfriend in a Minneota, Minn., trailer but they broke up on the day of the crash.

Maes asked the judge to hold the woman without bail, citing her questionable identity. But the judge said that it would be wrong because none of the charges involve allegations of using false identification. However, the defendant’s attorney, Manuel P. Guerrero, of St. Paul, protested that the bail set — $400,000 without conditions or $200,000 with an assortment of conditions — was akin to denying her bail because of her financial situation.

Her next court appearance is set for April 21.

“She’s grief-stricken about the accident,” Guerrero said of his client. “She’s hurting about what happened to the kids.”

Federal immigration investigator Claude Arnold said this morning that Morales is not the woman’s name, and she is not revealing her real name. He added that she is in this country illegally, probably from Mexico.

Federal immigration spokesman Tim Counts said that the woman has been of “minimal helpfulness” to investigators, but “we will get to the bottom of matters.”

Maes told the judge that ICE officials had located an Alianiss Nunez Morales in Puerto Rico and investigators showed pictures to that woman’s grandparents of the woman in the Lyon County jail. They said the woman in jail was not their granddaughter, Maes added, which became the agency’s reason for being concerned about the jailed woman’s identity.

“Minimal helpfulness.” Doesn’t sound grief-stricken to me.

***

The Star-Tribune has posted the charging document and statements from “Morales” and the bus driver.

I repeat the questions I asked yesterday:

What did “Morales’s” employer know about her illegal status and when did the employer know it?

Has she evaded deportation orders? How many?

What didn’t local police ask about her immigration status when she pleaded guilty to driving without a valid license two years ago–and will the parents of the schoolchildren hold officials accountable?

The local Fox affiliate in the Twin Cities finally confirms what the local papers didn’t seem to want to mention about the horrible school bus accident that killed four children. It didn’t have to happen:

Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien.

Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she’s been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias.

23-year-old Alainiss N. Morales was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation. She was arrested by the State Patrol Thursday afternoon and is being held in Lyon County Jail. County Attorney Rick Maes told the Marshall Independent charges could come later Thursday or Friday…The van was driven by Alianiss N. Morales, 23, of Minneota. The Fox 9 Investigator found Morales pleaded guilty in Chippewa County in 2006 to driving without a valid license.

State Patrol officials said Thursday they were not immediately able to confirm if Morales was unlicensed, nor could they confirm whether Morales ran a stop sign. Lt. Mark Peterson said that was still under investigation, but that the investigation was “moving forward very quickly.”

The school bus was carrying 28 students. Cottonwood Fire Chief Dale Louluagie confirmed that 3 fatalities of the crash died immediately upon impact and the fourth victim died around 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

Minneapolis is a sanctuary city. In 2003, the city voted to bar police from asking about immigration status or enforcing immigration laws. The mayor, R.T. Rybak, even asked federal agents to stop wearing vests labeled “police.” St. Paul and Worthington are also sanctuary cities.

Open borders, deadly consequences. When will they learn?

More questions:

What did “Morales’s” employer know about her illegal status and when did the employer know it?

Has she evaded deportation orders? How many?

What didn’t local police ask about her immigration status when she pleaded guilty to driving without a valid license two years ago–and will the parents of the schoolchildren hold officials accountable?

***

Read about the four children who died in the crash here.

They were:

* Hunter Javens, 9, Cottonwood.
* Jesse Javens, 13, Cottonwood (Hunter & Jesse were brothers)
* Emilee Olson, 9, Cottonwood
* Reed Stevens, 12, Marshall.

A memorial fund has been set up:

Memorial Fund for Families of Bus Crash Victims
United Southwest Bank
P.O. Box 288
Cottonwood, MN 56229

A man is facing felony charges for impersonating a police officer and attempting to pull over a young woman.

His target was Fox 12 This Morning anchor Shayne Wells.

Wells was heading into work around 2 a.m. when she happened to notice that a car she’d passed kept following her too closely.

“That’s when he actually turned off his headlights and suddenly, up in the front of his car, red, white and blue lights started flashing at me,” said Wells.

Her first thought was that she was getting pulled over.

But knew she hadn’t been speeding.

“Something about it just didn’t feel right. I had seen the car when I passed it and it was a dark colored sporty vehicle with tinted windows and that’s not typically what you see with a police car,” said Wells.

So she called 911.

Dispatchers told her there were no officers in unmarked cars in the area making a traffic stop.

“I informed her someone was trying to pull me over. He attempted to pull me over three times, and followed me for about five miles real close,” said Wells.

The operator asked her to stay with the suspect, even if he tried to leave.

Wells did and ended up tailing him up the Eagle exit to a gas station, where Idaho State Police officers closed in.

What would Felipe Calderon say?

Officers say 17-year-old Israel Dominguez showed them a fake Mexican I.D. stating he was 21. He speaks no English and appears to be in the country illegally.

It’s unclear why he would have fake police lights at the time of the arrest. He even left behind the receipt.

“He said it was an accident and didn’t really mean to do what he was doing although he purchased the lights and hard wired them into his vehicle,” said Zimmerman.

Zimmerman can’t say exactly what Dominguez may have done if he had gotten her to pulled over.

Wells is just glad her mom always taught her to be alert and watch her surroundings.

“Well that’s what I was doing, so her words, they worked,” said Wells.

Dominguez was charged with felony impersonating an officer and not having a valid drivers license.

Background:

Oregon’s new drivers’ license rules took effect Monday, and the Oregon Legislature is considering placing the new rules in state law. That sparked demonstrations by groups supporting and opposing the new rules.

The new rules make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get an Oregon driver’s license, requiring a valid Social Security number and other documentation.

Opponents of the new rules marched around the Capitol in protest, saying the rules are unfair and would end up hurting families. Supporters of the new rules gathered on the front steps of the Capitol, collecting signatures for an initiative that would also limit driver’s licenses to citizens and legal residents. Oregon State Police stood between the two groups.

Sen. Barack Obama easily won the African American vote in South Carolina, but to woo California Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the red-hot issue of granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

It’s a huge issue for Latinos, who want them. It’s also a huge issue for the general electorate, which most vehemently does not. Obama’s stand could come back to haunt him not only in a general election, but with other voters in California, where driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants helped undo former Gov. Gray Davis.

Clinton stumbled into that minefield in a debate last fall and quickly backed off. First she suggested a New York proposal for driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants might be reasonable. Then she denied endorsing the idea, and later came out against them.

Asked directly about the issue now, her California campaign spokesman said Clinton “believes the solution is to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

“Barack Obama has not backed down” on driver’s licenses for undocumented people, said Federico Peña, a former Clinton administration Cabinet member and Denver mayor now supporting Obama. “I think when the Latino community hears Barack’s position on such an important and controversial issue, they’ll understand that his heart and his intellect is with Latino community.”

***

Teddy Kennedy’s all in. Let’s hear his Spanish anthem from last year’s shamnesty rally to celebrate…

***

I see that McCain is now hyping secure ID. More crooked talk. McCain worked in the Senate to thwart secure driver’s licenses and earned a “poor” rating from Numbers USA on the issue of driver’s licenses for illegals.

Flashback: 9/11 and 7-11…connecting the ID fraud and terrorism dots.

It is not a federal civil right.

Look for open-borders whining in 3…2…1…:

Starting Tuesday, the Michigan Secretary of State will no longer grant a driver’s license or state identification to first time applicants unless they can prove that they are in the U.S. legally and permanently.

The move by the state is the direct result of a recent ruling by Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox which banned issuing licenses to illegal aliens.

“If you are not here legally or permanently, then we will not issue a driver’s license,” said Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, at a press conference Monday at the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit.

“From now on we will not accept foreign birth certificates, just passports. No matter who comes in, they will have to go through the proper process and our anti-fraud department will go over documents, which is something we always have done.”

Just for fun, someone should ask Hillary about this at tonight’s Democrat debate.

Er, um, er, um.

***

Background on how Michigan Republicans allowed illegal alien licenses to be issued for five years from Debbie Schlussel here.

***

You know I’m happy to bash San Francisco when the moonbatty town deserves it, which is often, but you’ll pardon me for not getting overly worked up over the Bay Area sanctuary city’s decision to provide ID cards to illegal alien residents. The plan was approved today:

San Francisco will give resident identification cards to illegal immigrants under a plan approved on Tuesday amid a fierce nationwide debate on granting privileges to undocumented aliens.

In a 10-1 vote, the city’s board of supervisors — the equivalent of a city council — approved giving identification cards to all residents, including illegal immigrants. The move makes San Francisco the largest U.S. city to back such a plan.

Residents will be able to obtain the resident cards by presenting photo identification and proof they live in the city, such as a utility bill. It was unclear if the new cards, which will be accepted at libraries and health clinics, will carry photos.

Such a move had been expected from San Francisco, which is famously liberal. Earlier this year, Mayor Gavin Newsom said he would not allow city officials and employees to assist immigration raids by federal authorities seeking up people who had committed crimes or disregarded deportation orders.

San Francisco, which declared itself a “sanctuary city” in 1989, also this year launched a program to provide medical care to uninsured residents regardless of their immigration status.

Gavin Newsom is an open-borders dweeb. Bu who’s ultimately to blame for the spread of illegal alien IDs?

Congress and the White House have allowed these sanctuary cities to operate with impunity. And it is the Bush Treasury Department that set the precedent for illegal alien ID cards by approving the use of the matricula consular card over the objections of veteran law enforcement officers.

Before Republicans jump all over San Fran for approving security-undermining, phony baloney IDs to illegals, they might want to take it up with the White House first.

Spitzer plus Hillary plus open-borders plus campaign season equals comedy gold. Let’s play spot the spoof (make a guess before you click on a letter):

A) “I support Governor Spitzer’s decision today to withdraw his proposal,” Clinton said in a statement. “As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system.”

B) Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton today said she supports New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s decision to drop his plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens as vigorously as she had backed his effort to issue such licenses in the first place…“I didn’t say he shouldn’t do it, nor that he should,” said Sen. Clinton, “I only said I recognize that whatever he does I can understand because George Bush makes us all do irrational things.”

***
For some reason, I am reminded of one of my family’s favorite scenes from Shrek 3–Pinnochio’s interrogation. Always makes us crack up:

***

Ed Morrissey: People laughed at John Kerry for saying, “I was for the $87 billion before I was against it.” He looks like the Rock of Gibraltar next to Hillary Clinton.

Obama campaign: “When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

Yeah. That’ll happen.

Update 9:55am Eastern 11/14: Via the NYPost, which dubs Spitzer “out-of-gas Eliot:”

With his poll numbers collapsing, Gov. Spitzer pullled the plug today on his controversial plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

“New York state can not handle [the immigration issue] on our own,” Spitzer said. “I am withdrawing my proposal.”

“The federal government lost control of its borders. … and has no solution to deal with it,” Spitzer said.

“States, towns and villages still have to deal with the practical reality of that failure. In New York, that means 1 million [un]documented workers,” he said.

The embattled governor made the announcement after he met with the state’s heavily Democratic congressional delegation, which had grown increasingly critical of the plan.

In other words: It’s the feds’ fault that Spitzer’s bone-headed solution to their failure to enforce immigration laws was a security-undermining, electorate-alienating plan to reward the lawbreakers with drivers’ licenses giving them a free pass.

This may be the “least of his woes,” says JWF.

What do Dems do when they’re mired in political misery?Raise taxes!

***
Well, knock me over with a straw:

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to abandon a plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, officials familiar with the decision told The Associated Press Tuesday night.

The governor is due to meet Wednesday morning with New York’s congressional delegation, many of whom openly oppose the program. Debate over the issue also has spilled into New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The governor’s office signaled to New York lawmakers Tuesday that Spitzer will say at the meeting that he is shelving the plan and that immigration is a federal issue to be handled by Washington, according to congressional aides who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.

Allah breaks out a robot video.

Coincidentally:

A poll released this morning reports that for the first time, more New York State voters view Gov. Eliot Spitzer unfavorably than view him favorably and that only 25 percent of voters would be prepared to re-elect him if the 2010 election were held today.

The poll, by the Siena Research Institute in Loudonville, N.Y., also found that 70 percent voters who had heard about the governor’s proposal to allow undocumented aliens to obtain driver’s licenses continue to oppose it, while nearly two-thirds oppose his revised plan to issue three tiers of licenses.

Don’t celebrate too hard, though. Several other states continue to provide licenses to illegal aliens and it is the Bush administration that continues to approve the use of the illegal alien matricula consular card.

Spitzer’s retreat is a significant victory and a symbolic victory, but a small one in the continuing struggle between Sanctuary Nation and Sovereign Nation.

***

More from the NYT:

“I am not willing to fight to the bitter end on something that will not ultimately be implemented,” the governor said, “and we also have an enormous agenda on other issues of great importance to New York State that was being stymied by the constant and almost singular focus on this issue.”

Translation: Hillary made me do it!

Update 1:30pm Eastern Kerik pleads not guilty.

Here’s the PDF of the indictment.

Update 12:04pm Eastern. Kerik facing a cumulative 142 years in jail.

Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the indictment news: “I am not running as the perfect candidate.”

“Sad day,” prosecutors say.

Update 11:30am Eastern. McCain piles on: “McCain Says Kerik Reflects on Giuliani.” The problem is that this criticism of Giuliani’s bad judgement on vital homeland security and war on terror matters comes from Mr. “F*** You!” Shamnesty himself. Pot and kettle.

Update 9:14am Eastern. Kerik surrenders to authorities: “The U.S. attorney’s office said it would hold an 11:30 a.m. EST news conference with FBI and Internal Revenue Service officials in White Plains “to announce an indictment of a former public official.”

NYDN: Rudy Giuliani won’t say if he’d pardon Kerik as President.

***

We are all fallen, imperfect beings. The news of the federal indictment of Bernie Kerik is a sad moment, a cautionary tale, and an object lesson.

Sad, because Kerik rose from the child of a prostitute to “America’s cop”–and this nation loves such tales of success.

Cautionary, because it speaks to the fallibility of anointed heroes and the temptations of power.

An object lesson, because it highlights the flaws and vulnerabilities of GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani’s on the issues of corruption and immigration enforcement.

Here’s what I wrote back in December 2004 when Kerik was forced to withdraw from consideration as DHS chief because of his illegal alien nanny problem and his lack of candor about the debacle:

I find it annoying that Bernard Kerik is getting praised in some quarters for “coming clean” and “accepting responsibility” for his “mistake.” From all accounts, including Kerik’s own, President Bush’s aides asked him upfront about the nanny question several times during the vetting process and he did not come clean.

Kerik didn’t just make some minor clerical error. He misled the White House. So, stop making him a martyr.

It’s also interesting that some political observers on both the left and right are pooh-poohing the illegal alien nanny issue. I heard Geraldo Rivera ask Rudy Giuliani during a press conference yesterday why Kerik was in trouble over a “de minimis” issue. A number of other commentators on the Sunday shows echoed that sentiment. And John Podhoretz says Rudy Giuliani, who pushed the Kerik nomination, won’t suffer any blowback.

I disagree. I think the fiasco substantially damages Rudy Giuliani’s reputation as a homeland security leader (and 2008 presidential nominee)–not only because of his sloppy vetting of Kerik, but also because Giuliani’s own laxity on immigration (more here on his open-borders record ) will be difficult to ignore as a result of the Kerik taint.

A few other thoughts on Bernard Kerik’s withdrawal :

First, it puts an end to feminist complaints that only women nominees are penalized for having “nanny problems.”

Second, it keeps a white-hot spotlight on many of the issues raised by maverick House Republicans during the “intel reform”/border security debate, including the push for secure documentation, improved employer verification of Social Security numbers, and strengthening of penalties for immigration-related fraud.

Third, it puts a much-needed focus on the need to enforce federal employer sanctions. Why is it that the only employers who ever seem to suffer consequences for hiring illegal immigrants are Cabinet nominees?! In 2002, the federal government fined only 13 employers nationwide for hiring illegal immigrants. Enforcement of employer sanctions has been a nationwide joke for the last two decades.

And fourth, unfortunately, it virtually kills the prospects of getting someone with real homeland security enforcement experience to head DHS.

Since that post nearly three years ago, there has been little change on the homeland security and immigration enforcement front. Giuliani still refuses to acknowledge his aggressive, proactive protection of New York’s sanctuary policies.

Hillary Clinton’s botched illegal alien license answer gave the GOP some breathing room. But when the Dem-on-Dem “pile-on” dies down, we are still left with a leading GOP presidential candidate who positions himself as War on Terror strong horse–but who exercised extraordinarily weak judgement in recommending his corrupted ally for the nation’s top homeland security post, continued to rationalize it, and fails to see his own culpability in perpetuating open-borders chaos in NYC.

Three years ago, the conventional wisdom from many parts of the NYC-DC punditocracy was that Giuliani’s Kerik problem wouldn’t matter in the ’08 presidential election.

It does.

The grass-roots conservative base is sick and tired of cronyism and open-borders arrogance–two traits that dominate the Bush White House, two traits on naked display in the intertwined fates of Rudy Giuliani and Bernie Kerik, two traits that dangerously undermine public confidence and public safety.

If Republicans are going to decide that Giuliani is the best standard-bearer for the party, they better do so with eyes wide open and absolute candor. He is–at best–only marginally better than Hillary Clinton on immigration and border security. He was a bad judge of character at a key moment in the Department of Homeland Security’s history. And despite his lip service and cable TV-friendly talking points, he remains obstinately committed to non-enforcement of immigration laws when push comes to shove.

Caveat emptor.

Democratic members of Congress, having watched Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stumble on the question of whether states should give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, are growing increasingly agitated over Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to do so and are calling for him to shelve the idea.

The opposition is especially strong among Democrats bracing for the prospect of tough re-election battles next year in politically moderate and conservative regions of New York; they have begun to speak out on the issue and, in many cases, have disavowed the plan.

“It’s hugely unpopular,” said Representative Michael Arcuri, a first-term Democrat from central New York whom Republicans hope to defeat next year. “I don’t think it would be wise to move forward with it at this point.”

The governor’s aides have been quietly working to mollify lawmakers, and Mr. Spitzer will meet behind closed doors with members of New York’s Congressional delegation next week, according to staff workers on Capitol Hill and in Albany.

The reaction among some Democrats underscores how Mr. Spitzer, who just a year ago was viewed as a rising star nationally, has become isolated within his own party.

I wonder where all these people have been as illegal alien driver’s licenses plans have taken hold across the country. But we should take the election-year epiphanies where you can find them:

Representative John Hall, a Democratic freshman lawmaker whose district includes New York City’s northern suburbs, said he was worried that illegal immigrants who are able to secure licenses in New York under Mr. Spitzer would in turn use those licenses to obtain other forms of identification and other documents.

“I think it creates more problems than it tries to solve,” he said. “I would urge the governor to withdraw the plan.”

Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, a first-term Democrat whose district is in the Albany region, said she phoned the governor’s office a day after he proposed the initiative to say that she would not support it.

Ms. Gillibrand said the proposal was extremely unpopular in her district. “I’ve heard this nonstop for the last five weeks,” she said. There should be a national standard for licenses, she said, rather than allowing states to go in different directions. “I don’t think it should be implemented,” she said of Mr. Spitzer’s policy. “It’s not a good idea.”

Put that on a bumper sticker and send it to every Democrat AND Republican who has supported this dumb idea.