Tuesday Editorial: Immigration pandering at its most obvious

No matter how the White House tries to spin it, Bush is getting himself into hot water over the immigration mess.  On one hand he wants to crack down on illegal immigration, and on the other he intends on giving those same illegals temporary work status.

I know both sides of this issue, and see validity in each of them.  But what President Bush is doing is political suicide.  Hispanic Americans, who so far have approved of Bush's work visa policy, are smart enough to notice that the President is now all of a sudden trying to take the opposite approach.  So which is it going to be Mr. President?  Pick a side on the immigration debate and go for it.  No flip-flopping!

If you look at the President's rhetoric yesterday, he is trying to have it both ways (NYT):

''The American people should not have to choose between a welcomingsociety and a lawful society.  We can have both atthe same time.''

Honestly, this quote is oozing with political pandering.  As a political science major, I have been taught on numerous occasions how to write in code (meaning that you spin rhetoric to conceal a message so that it appeals to two different political philosophies in a way that only they will understand, but at the same time not realize that it is also pandering to their opposite).  But the kind of political pandering that happened yesterday was rather obvious.  Bush is attempting to be the best buddies of both the "Minute Men" and first and second generation Hispanic Americans all at the same time.  It cannot work.  If it does, then I will be shocked.

Please, by all means, do not listen to the pundits on this issue.  In a nut-shell, President Bush is saying that the only way to get tough on immigration is by creating a guest worker program.  The problem is that he is attempting to sell this plan to the anti-immigration crowd, which will not work.  The only way it can is if the White House crafts its rhetoric in political code so that the two polar opposite sides in this debate do not know that the President is having it both ways.  With the White House's sloppiness as of late, I would be literally amazed if they pulled this one off.