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Damage Done?
Phew. That must
have been Hillary’s first thought upon picking up today’s New York Times, which reports that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has dropped
his plan to provide illegal immigrants with drivers licenses. The plan became a
rallying point for Clinton’s
critics after she gave what many people considered an evasive answer at last
month’s Democratic debate. (It also gave her opponents their best
attack material yet.) Well, now that Spitzer has dropped the measure,
everyone can move on, right?
Yes, and George Bush can invite Kim Jong-Il, Nancy Pelosi, and
the ghost of Saddam Hussein to Crawford ranch for a tea party. I highly doubt anyone is going to let this go. If anything, the
death of the measure could hurt Hillary even more. At the time, her
half-support for the plan seemed like a smart hedge, even if it sounded a bit
bungled. But for the purposes of political attacks, she might as well have been
supporting it. And in the oversimplifying lens of hindsight, the measure could be an even greater liability now that opponents can refer to it as “the failed plan to grant licenses to illegal
aliens.”
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