Is That A Bit Of Leadership I Smell?

Yesterday we saw Spitzer bow to the local, state and national pressure to abandon giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. Not only did he take heat, but Senator Clinton did as well for not giving a straight answer until she could follow Eliot's lead. No one is particularly surprised at her actions because she is a follower. A follower of others, polls and focus groups. Now for Barack, he is a contradiction of sorts. He stumbles here and there, follows others here and there, but sometimes he'll actually take a stand, and he's doing it on this controversial issue.

From The Huffington Post:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Il, is standing by his support for granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, even after Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-NY, abandoned the proposal amidst rising political opposition.

"Obama said in the debate he supported it and he's standing by it," an aide to the Senator told the Huffington Post. "He supported a similar bill in the state senate as a law enforcement measure."

Obama's backing stands in stark contrast to the position taken by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, whose campaign now cites the issue as a basic policy difference between the two Democratic frontrunners.

Is it the right move, the wrong move, who cares, at least it is his stand and he's sticking to it. All along I've supported the plan, I'd rather people who are going to drive anyway have some preparation to be out on the roads. Sometimes you need to put your xenophobia to the side to make way for common sense. I'm glad to see that Obama sees it that way too.

Hillary On Drivers License Debacle, "Now I'm Against It"

Now hear this, Hillary has a third answer for the question asking if she supports drivers licenses for illegal immingrants. First she was for it, then she understood Spitzer's dilemma and now she's against it. I wonder if that has to do with Spitzer dropping the issue today? Or perhaps it was a focus group or a poll, it isn't like this woman has many principles.

From The Daily News:

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal. His difficult job is made that much harder by the failure of the Congress and the White House to pass comprehensive immigration reform. As President, I will not support drivers' 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."

Yeah we know Congress and the White House has failed the country on immigration reform (and nearly every other issue). I guess to her credit, she finally gave a definitive answer, as opposed to the last two within a minute of each other at the last debate. Of course, that is only because our Governor made the first move, we wouldn't expect any type of leadership from Mrs. Clinton, now would we?

Drivers' Licenses For All!

I love this guy....watch out, heavy sarcasm ahead!

Can Spitzer Make It All Go Away?

Finally, Eliot Spitzer has rescinded his bid to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. I was personally in favor of it, just as Hillary was or wasn't in his camp as well. Despite the Governor's good idea, he presented it in spectacularly bad form, since he managed to piss everyone off and throw his poll ratings in the crapper. Now he says he didn't choose to abandon the program out of principle.

From The New York Times:

The governor, who is to announce the move formally on Wednesday, said in an interview Tuesday night that he did not reach the decision easily. “You have perhaps seen me struggle with it because I thought we had a principled decision, and it’s not necessarily easy to back away from trying to move a debate forward,” he said.

But he came to believe the proposal would ultimately be blocked, he said, either by legal challenges, a vote by the Legislature to deny funding for the Department of Motor Vehicles or a refusal by upstate county clerks to carry it out.

“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.”

For a while there it seemed like he was going to go to the 'bitter end' with this but apparently the negative publicity that reached national proportions has gotten to be too much for the first term Governor. Even though his fight is over, the effects could linger for weeks, months or conceivably his entire term. For a man swept into Albany with tremendous popularity, he is certainly going to have to try hard to win back public support in New York.

Hillary Flip-Flops On Stage

Edwards and Dodd help point out to the audience that Hillary effectively flip-flopped on supporting Spitzer's plan to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. If she can do an about face in front of the cameras in such bold fashion, how are we going to trust her anywhere else?

Spitzer Calls Out Venomous Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs is an interesting figure on CNN to say the least. Every couple of months he goes on a particular crusade of some sort (kinda like Bill O) that generally involves illegal immigrants. He masks his thoughts with clever slogans like "protecting our borders" and other isolationist crap. He denies that he hates brown people, but you know when it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and is covered in feathers...it's generally a duck.

His latest jihad has been about our Governor Eliot Spitzer and his highly controversial attempt to give those immigrants drivers licenses. To Spitzer's detriment, he has been going about convincing New York and the nation about the program. Nevertheless, on the face of it, I'd rather have someone that can drive safely after learning how to drive properly than just getting in a car without a license.

Lou doesn't give a flying ____ about the safety of our roads, just keeping people out of the country that come from south of the border. Spitzer was asked about Lou, and gave him an appropriate New York response.

From Crooks and Liars:

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SPITZER: Look, I’m not going to demean myself by getting into a back and forth with somebody who on TV spews venom, hate and fundamental misinformation. Of course not. He knows it.

As I said, it’s beneath me, it’s beneath my office, to, in any way, involve myself with Lou Dobbs. And I think his knowing spread of venom is beneath CNN as well.

Good for Spitzer, now if he could only communicate as effectively with New York and its legislators as he did with Lou.