Kaus:
1) McCain seems to have conned a lot of Republicans into thinking he’s transformed his position on immigration–for example, Victor Davis Hanson, author of “Mexifornia,” [1] who now writes about “McCain’s won’t-make-that-mistake-again changed views on closing the border.” [2] This even though it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that McCain hasn’t altered his ultimate support for legalization of illegals (once he’s declared the border “secure”). [3]One reason we know this is because he’s said it–he said it again on Meet the Press yesterday [4], when asked if he’d sign the McCain-Kennedy “comprehensive” immigration bill as president if it came to his desk. Answer: “Yeah.”
No kidding.
And frankly, I think this the worst of his transgressions, going into this election. I can certainly understand him popping off on Rumsfeld, but I don’t have to like him for it. But this open borders nonsense, as Michelle has been mentioning for days now (And I note David echoing this morning) …. is unforgivable.
What I do not understand is VDH buying into it. Even assuming Hanson’s very generous (to the point of intentional blindness) read of McCain is correct, what we have is McCain trying to dishonestly play both sides of the street, given some of the articles up on Hernandez’ web site. [5]
And even assuming McCain denouncing these views, we then have a question of our ability to trust him to stick to the new respect for secure borders…. and not go marching off Maverick Lane, back down to Open Borders Boulevard.