He also should have made border enforcement a key priority of his administration far earlier in order to defuse criticism that promises to restrict illegal immigration were empty. ~Morton Kondracke

Well, yes, he should have done that, but he didn’t because those promises were empty.  Since he failed to enforce the law, why should the failure of the amnesty bill surprise anyone?  Why should we be treated to an ueber-centrist’s hectoring about legislators being “terrorized” by voters (note to Kondracke: terror is not what we normally call the process by which citizens make their wishes known to representatives in a peaceful fashion)?  The only way there was going to be enough support for that or any bill like it was if there was confidence that the government was both willing and able to enforce the law.  In reality, it wasn’t even willing.  So, yes, Mr. Bush should have made enforcement a top priority.  He should also have rejected anything remotely resembling amnesty, he should never have started the war in Iraq and he should also not run the executive branch as badly as he has, in fact, run it.  Come to think of it, Americans should not have re-elected him, but we’re past that point.

Kondracke rattles off the “cowardice caucus,” which is basically a list of ’08 Senate election incumbents, plus purple-state and populist Democrats.  What this tells me is that the Senators most sensitive to the public’s mood on the issue and most responsive to the public opposed the bill, because there were enough bad provisions to create massive opposition across the spectrum.  This is actually something close to how a deliberative, representative system is supposed to run: neither momentary passions nor narrow interests should be able to overwhelm the institutional checks against both.  Federal legislation must possess sufficiently broad support that it can overcome the many obstacles that our system has placed in the way on purpose.  This is supposed to ensue a greater measure of consent in the making of laws and the prevention of the instability of purely democratic government.  For the most part, the political class does what it wants and the rest of us are along for the ride, but every so often they run into a brick wall of public outrage.  This is a good thing.  We need more of it, and fewer of Kondracke’s “solutions.”