‘Stunning reversal’ on licenses

Two months ago, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed that the state issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. His state's junior senator, Mrs. Bill Clinton, infamously declared in a recent Democratic candidate debate that she "understood why he's doing this."

As a result, Mrs. Clinton spent the next week -- just as Gov. Spitzer has spent the past two months -- getting whacked like a birthday pinata.

Though he still acted defiant -- which is to say, "uncomprehending" -- Gov. Spitzer showed up in Washington on Wednesday, admitting defeat and anxious to drop the whole thing.

Gov. Spitzer was elected last year with 69 percent of the vote. In part thanks to his tone-deaf stand on illegal immigrants, his public approval rating recently tumbled to 33 percent. In liberal New York.

Nine in 10 New York voters have read or heard about the governor's driver's license plan, according to the Siena New York poll. They oppose it by a margin of 70-25. Even Democrats oppose the plan, 55-36.

"The move represented a stunning reversal for him and a relief to nervous Democrats watching Republicans feast on the debate," reported Newsday on the governor's surrender.

And there's the point. Democrats had been insisting this issue could harm Republicans in the coming election, because President Bush was unsuccessful in pushing another amnesty measure and has now fallen back on at least partially enforcing the law.

Democrats would fare much better at the polls, according to this thinking, with their "compassionate" plans to grant amnesty to anyone who's managed to sneak into the country ahead of all the English-speaking architects, engineers and Ph.D.s patiently waiting in line in Estonia, Romania, India and Liberia.

The public would much prefer such compassion to the attitude of the nasty old Republicans, who can't seem to see the benefit of handing out brand new voter registration cards to those who have snuck into the country.

Funny thing, though. It doesn't seem to be working out that way.