Timing is everything

I guess I'm not really expecting Drunky McStagger to roll over and play dead for the last couple of years of his maladministration, but trying to push forward his unpopular immigration policy at this point is kind of like a boxer taking punch after punch and coming out for the 10th round daring the other guy to hit him.

The president's relations with Congress these days have been soured by the war in Iraq. He is at odds with Democratic lawmakers over a bill to extend war funding in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On immigration, the White House has been quietly trying to build momentum.

Administration officials, led by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, have been meeting privately for weeks with Republican senators. That expanded to a meeting in late March with key senators from both parties.

Out of that session, a work-in-progress plan emerged — one described as a draft White House plan by officials in both parties and advocacy groups who got copies of the detailed blueprint.

The White House disputes that characterization. Spokesman Scott Stanzel said it was only a starting point, an emerging consensus of Republican senators and the White House.

Regardless, the floated proposal has already met opposition. Thousands of people marched through Los Angeles on Saturday, fueled in part by what they called a betrayal by Bush.

The plan would grant work visas to undocumented immigrants but require them to return home and pay hefty fines to become legal U.S. residents. They could apply for three-year work visas, dubbed "Z" visas, which would be renewable indefinitely but cost $3,500 each time.

The undocumented workers would have legal status with the visas, but to become legal permanent residents with a green card, they'd have to return to their home country, apply at a U.S. embassy or consulate to re-enter legally and pay a $10,000 fine.

That's far more restrictive than the bipartisan bill the Senate approved last year.

Yeah, charging undocumented aliens thousands of dollars in fees and fines is evidence of Bush's "compassionate conservatism." Sure. It's just further proof to me that the guy has absolutely no political sense whatsoever. Back in 2001, when he first stole took office, I remember thinking that he'd have to govern towards the center in order to appease an evenly divided country. Instead, he treated his court victory like a landslide mandate, and he's spent the next six years burying America under a mountain of debt, death, and diminished world standing.

And so he presses onward, oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of Americans opposes him and his policies; not unlike his hug-buddy John McCain on "60 Minutes" last night, who when asked why he continued to support the surge in Iraq when most Americans oppose it, said (paraphrasing), "Well, I think the majority of the people are wrong."

It's sad, really ... but what's worse is that the country has to endure another 21 months of Bush, the megalomaniacal idiot, in the driver's seat.