Allahpundit
HotAir.com
December 30, 2009
Why not? What do they have to lose? They’ve already pissed away independents and re-energized conservatives thanks to ObamaCare. Might as well use next year to check as many boxes left on their agenda as they can before they take their beating. Amnesty, cap-and-trade, transferring Gitmo detainees to the U.S.: Pour it on and hope that progressives and Latinos will react by turning out in numbers just high enough to keep the House in Democratic hands. Even if it backfires, how bad can the damage be? They lose 35 seats instead of 30?
In fact, this may help them pass ObamaCare next month. What other way is there to read this except as a signal to Blue Dogs — and Harry Reid, whom Pelosi expects to take the lead on this — that The One’s fully prepared to sacrifice them on the altar of his liberal policy wishlist? Now they can grit their teeth, vote yes on whatever he wants them to, and fall on their swords nobly next November. We’ll miss you, Dingy.
Senior White House aides privately have assured Latino activists that the president will back legislation next year to provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States…
Whatever proposal Obama puts forward will probably meet equally determined opposition. Another complication is the calendar: Midterm elections are in November, and polls show that the public is more worried about joblessness and the fragile economy than anything else.
So embracing an immigration bill is a gamble for the White House, which already has a packed agenda for 2010: economic recovery, global warming legislation and tougher regulation of financial institutions…
No one anticipates that a core element of the Democratic base will defect to the Republican Party in November. But even a significant drop in turnout — which often happens in nonpresidential elections — could frustrate Democratic efforts to preserve their congressional majority.
The article continues at HotAir.com
