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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-04-21

Actions, Not Words

Without much fanfare at all, the administration seems to be moving on a couple of pretty important issues.

First, from yesterday:

Federal agents raided a Colorado work yard and arrested 38 Mexican men - and 1,149 others nationwide - launching what the government cast as an aggressive campaign against employers who hire illegal foreign workers.

And then, from an hour ago:

The CIA has fired an employee for leaking classified information to the news media, an agency official said Friday. A federal criminal investigation has also been opened.

So in the last 24 hours, on two issues that the base is pretty riled up about--immigration reform and the ongoing, criminal resistance to the administration from within the bureaucracy--the adminstration has taken notable, direct action. No big Presidential presser, no big announcement from the White House podium, no rhetorical flourishes.

Just action.

That's what the supporters of this President have come to expect, and is just the sort of thing that might start to reinforce the base coming into the mid-term elections.

Now, if we could just put an end to the "catch-and-release" approach . . .

And on the other end of Pennsylvania Ave, someone else found his spine on the two-week Easter break:

Majority Leader Bill Frist intends to seek Senate passage of immigration legislation by Memorial Day, hoping to revive a bill that tightens border security and gives millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, Republican leadership aides said Friday.

In a gesture to conservative critics of the measure, Frist and other Republicans also intend to seek roughly $2 billion in immediate additional spending for border protection.

Learn the lesson, Senator: act on this, don't just SAY you're going to act on this.

It would seem there are three HUGE issues waiting for the GOP returning from vacation--immigration reform (stalled by Senate dithering), tax-cut extensions (stalled by GOP infighting) and judges (stalled by Sen. Specter). Were the leadership to come back on Monday morning and announce that NOBODY LEAVES for the summer and the early campaigning until all three issues were solved (or, well, you know, moved on), it would go a long way towards bringing the base back and improving the GOP's prospects for the Fall. At the very least, make enough of a show to force the Dems into several high-profile filibusters, which makes them look churlish.

More inaction, on the other hand, would only JUSTIFY what appears to be an impending Democratic sweep into power.

You don't get to have power unless you know both what you want to accomplish with AND how to achieve that.
Posted by: Michael / 4/21/2006 03:20:00 PM

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