Three By Kaus
06/07/2007
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Mickey Kaus has been on fire over the immigration bill, with no time for any other obsessions, so that if you want to know, for example, what Ron Burkle's up to, you'll have to read Newsweek:

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Reid charged, "People are looking for excuses on the Republican side to kill this bill." I'm not sure thats true—and Reid's threat to pull the bill looks to be a negotiating ploy. But if it were true, it would be understandable Welfare reform faced similar legislative obstacles in 1996. The difference is that voters supported welfare reform by a 2-1 margin. Only a conspiracy of elites could prevent it. This is the inverse situation: only a conspiracy of elites can foist Sen. Kyl's "grand bargain" off on the public. That may be harder to do these days with, you know, the Web n all. ... 10:17 A.M.kfs "Killer Amendment" strategy. - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine

BloggingHeads.tv [Video] Watch Mickey explain "the horror of it all" to Robert Wright.

The LA Times, where he compares Bush's immigration reform ideas and attitudes to his attitudes toward the Iraq War. Immigration — Bush's domestic Iraq | The rigid thinking leading us to failure in the Mideast spawned 'comprehensive immigration reform.' June 4, 2007

Here are the ten reasons he gives—he explains them in detail, read the whole thing, but these are the basics:

1. They're both ideas Bush had when he came into office.
2. They both have an idealistic basis.
3. They both seek, in one swoop, to achieve a grand solution to a persistent, difficult problem.
4. Both envision a complicated, triple-bank-shot chain of events happening on cue.
5. Both depend crucially on pulling off difficult administrative feats.
6. In both cases, the solution has failed before.
7. In both cases, some Bush plan enthusiasts may not really mind a chaotic end result.
8. In both cases, less grand, less risky alternatives are available.
9. In both cases, Bush's sales pitch excludes these middle alternatives. 1
0. In both cases the consequences of losing the grand Bush bet are severe.

 

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