Wrong About Rove?

Still lots of immigration debate in the blogosphere. National Review's David Frum , the former Bush speechwriter who broke ranks over the Harriet Miers nomination, says:

"The cat is out of the bag. Pro-enforcement conservatives by now well understand that the president's call for enforcement is a sham - and if the House joins in the sham, it will cost House Republicans votes, not gain them.

"I wondered last week, not very seriously, whether the president did not quietly wish for a Democratic House. Almost surely he does not. But it is true that if the Democrats do gain the House, the stars will align for a huge new amnesty -- and a huge further increase in migration flows, with the very concept of 'legality' fading into meaninglessness.

"I don't know whether any hope remains to save the House GOP. But if it does remain, then the best tactic for survival is for the House to go into outright opposition to the president and the Senate on immigration: drop the pretense of a compromise, frankly acknowledge that a philosophical difference exists, fight and defeat the president's bill - and ask conservatives around the nation to rally to their local Republican candidate for Congress as the best way to send a message to an administration that on this issue has put itself on the wrong side of both its supporters and good judgment."

Matthew Yglesias takes issue with a Republican congressman's rhetoric:

"Jim Sensenbrenner on Face the Nation: people who hire illegal immigrants are '21st century slave masters . . . just as immoral as the 19th century slave masters we had to fight a civil war to get rid of.'

"Mark Kilmer at Red State calls it 'a dangerous analogy.' John Podhoretz sees 'insane moral equivalence.' Even John Derbyshire thinks it's 'dumb.'

"But this isn't a new kick for Sensenbrenner. Here he is in March 2006: 'Those who hire large numbers of illegal aliens are the 21st-century slave masters. And in my opinion, that's just as immoral as the 19th-century slave masters we had to fight a civil war to get rid of.'

"Has he said it before? Has he even thought for a minute about this analogy? As Jonah Goldberg ('absurd and more than a little depressing') observes, the only way this could begin to make sense is if someone's covered up 'some sweeping historical episode in which millions of Africans snuck into the country for the "opportunity" to be slaves.' Now anyone can say something thoughtless, but as I say Sensenbrenner's used the analogy previously. And he's the House GOP's lead guy on immigration issues."

We all love anecdotal leads in which some average person serves as an example of some larger trend. But the Beyond Borders Blog digs into one recent case:

"The LA Times ran a story about a woman who runs a landscaping business:

"Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour. She can't find them.