BUSH GETS IT SERIOUSLY WRONG: The president's quest for "middle ground" on immigration brings to mind Chesterton's observation that the world has divided itself into progressive and conservatives. "The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition." Everything Bush said last night was predictable, not because the White House leaked most of it in advance but because this failed approach has been America's policy for more than two decades.The president's immigration "solution" amounts to little more than shoring up the status quo, and that is unacceptable if America is to have a future as the kind of nation our founders had in mind. Yes, America is a "nation of immigrants" but the distinction between legal and illegal is crucial and must be kept at the center of the debate. The president would have hit a home run if he had said something along these lines:

"Our great and immediate priority must be enforcement and protecting our borders. Some will say a "comprehensive" approach is required, and I agree we must come to terms with those who are here illegally, but too often that language has meant: amnesty now, enforcement later, which really means enforcement never. Those days are gone. Today we must act to secure our borders."

Bush couldn't say that because he doesn't believe it. When push comes to shove, Bush too often reverts to his family's Rockefeller Republican status. Meanwhile: Michelle Malkin offers an excellent round-up here, emphasizing how and why Bush's approach is "too little, too late." Deborah Saunders explains that what's needed are big time sanctions against employers. Wes Pruden insists Bush has sided with the GOP's corporate wing over its conservative wing. Tom Tancredo warns: "If the president thinks (the House will now approve a guest-worker program), he's confusing us with the Senate. The American people understand that blanket amnesty is not a pre-requisite for border security." (If Tancredo is correct, his party will remain in control of Congress next year. If Tancredo is wrong, Frist and Hastert will get to move into the small offices their party occupied for decades.) The truly important issues — the big, powerful, transcendent issues — go well beyond the specifics of immigration and America's southern border. Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm's warning about how cultures commit suicide is more timely than ever. Money quote on how to destroy a nation:

[Start by turning] America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."