Here's the Detroit Free Press's interview with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (via KausFiles):

Q: With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues as health care and immigration?

A: On immigration, there's been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. ... We'll do that. We have to get this economy stuff figured out first, so I think we'll have a shot at doing something on health care in the next Congress for sure.

Q: Will there be as much of a fight on immigration as last time?

A: We've got McCain and we've got a few others. I don't expect much of a fight at all. Now health care is going to be difficult. That's a very complicated issue. We debated at great length immigration. People understand the issues very well. We have not debated health care, so that's going to take a lot more time to do

What to make of this?

• A couple of years ago, a technician who deals with Senators daily told me Reid is pretty ga-ga most of the time, perhaps from his amateur boxing days, so he may be just rambling. But everybody else seems to think he's totally on top of the things, so what do I know?
• Or, it's true. If so, why would Obama and the Democrats want to walk into their Stalingrad, trying to shove amnesty through in the teeth of unemployment rocketing upwards? If Bush couldn't pass it during the phony prosperity of the Housing Bubble, how is going to pass during the Crash? And as a higher priority than health care? Are they nuts?

Well, one possibility is that the Democrats don't get how the politics of economic collapse work when it comes to immigration. It's not as if they've allowed themselves a free, wide-ranging, penetrating debate on the subject of immigration. Most Democrats are superstitious ignoramuses on the topic, intellectually emasculated by political correctness.

Another possibility is that far-seeing Democrats are thinking: Now or Never for amnesty. They've been saying for years: "You can't deport 12 million people." Well, unless the U.S. government does something quick to stop the illegal aliens from leaving, quite a few million illegals are going to self-deport themselves over the next few years because it's a lot cheaper to be unemployed in sunny Mexico than in, say, Denver.

A few sharp cookies on the Democratic side may realize they'll be waving adios to part of their Permanent Majority unless they "put them on a path to citizenship" early in 2009 while the media's chant of "Obey Giant Obama" hasn't yet worn thin and before the public has a chance to realize just how deep this recession will be. Then the illegals will be free to go home but they'll also be free to come back to the U.S. legally when the economy picks up in 2015 or whenever. But if they vamoose before the Democrats get a chance to put them on the path to citizenship, then, when the Border Wall and E-Verify are finally working, the Democrats could find themselves bereft of millions of votes a couple of decades down the road. So, Obama has to work his bipartisan magic with McCain NOW. The media will wet themselves with delight in forgiving McCain for his rampant racism in putting up token opposition to The One.