He begs Senators from his own party to see the bill as a national security issue, while failing to explain why this supposedly "law and order" administration that created the massive Department of Homeland Security, that orders a water bottle removed from my hand before I board a plane and that needs to detain indefinitely "enemy combatants," has not stopped the flow of people over the border for six years since 9/11. Why would any right-of-center Republican believe this legalization scheme to be first and foremost an "enforcement" measure, when it is plainly not that? Bush should stop debating the word "amnesty" and tell Republicans that 10-20 million people need to be legalized, and legal immigrants in endless queues need to be go first, and quickly to lawful premanent resident status.
Lou Dobbs is my least favorite champion of the anti-immigration extremists, but he plays right into the Democrats playbook when he attacks Bush, effectively telling the President to stand down. Thanks to Dobbs and anti-immigrant Republicans, public support seems to be shifting away from comprehensive reform, assuring the preservation of the status quo, or as Bush-McCain speechwriters would say, a silent amnesty.