For now. Colin Powell had this to say about undocumented workers:
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says illegal immigrants do essential work in the U.S. and he has firsthand knowledge of that -- because they fix his house.
Powell, a moderate Republican, urged his party Sunday to support immigration generally because it is "what's keeping this country's lifeblood moving forward."
This points out another facet of the curious breakdown in the Republican party. On the one hand, you have a vocal and growing minority (yes, minority, even in the Republican party) of Teabaggers, screeching about scary government intervention in their homes and their health while begging the government to keep the scary brown people out of their backyards and hospitals.
Ironic, ain't it?
On the other are the corporatist and more socially moderate Republicans who see an opportunity to exploit a weakness in the social net of America and will move heaven and earth to do so.
In other words, they like progressivism, so long as they don't have to pay for it.
One side will win. The other side will appear to win. It's the only way the GOP can save any face in this dispute. My bet is the Teabaggers will be given the appearance of a win, then have the rug pulled out from under them. This is precisely how this movement evolved in the first place, from the angry Religious Right to the angry Ross Perotistas to the angry white men of the Gingrich "revolution" to the NASCAR dads and Security Moms who held their noses and voted for Dumbya.
Each time, they were thrown a bone. Each time, the bone had a string attached and was pulled away.
Rank-and-file Republicans are only slightly stupider than Democrats, but I digress...
I watch this with a curious fascination. For Democrats, this election hinges on one thing, and one thing only: get the goddamn vote out. Scare the hell out of moderates with the witchcraft of O'Donnel and the racism of Rand Paul, and point out in other states how it doesn't take much to have a new Joe McCarthy running a witchhunt through America.
Indeed, one of the talking points of the Teabaggers is to start an inquest into the Obama Administration.
Um, what?
You heard me. A duly elected President has committed no crime, not even a blow job from an intern has scandalized his office, has governed effectively and competently, has reached across the aisle only to have his hand slapped away time and time again, and the Republicans have the ink on a bill of impeachment drying on someone's desk!
THIS IS INSANITY!
And Republican moderates are powerless to stop it, or so it seems. Which is precisely why I feel it will be stopped. The invective Republicans are hearing from these insane Teabaggers is starting to build to a crescendo, and it truly is becoming a "you're with us or against us" choice. Which makes it impossible for the Teabaggers to maintain any control over themselves or the party.
Politics, the art of the possible, will always win over the art of the impossible. Cooler heads might prevail, but it might only be after a violent and ugly purge goes on in the party of the upstarts.
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are doomed, unless they can herd cats.
And yet, a very real possibility.
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