For John McCain, there’s no such thing as illegal immigration.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3125
by W. James Antle III
Welcome to John McCain’s Amnesty Apology Tour. In his quest to win the conservative primary votes that eluded him in his previous bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the four-term Arizona senator is presenting himself as a born-again border protector. The defeat of McCain’s “comprehensive” immigration legislation—painstakingly crafted with Ted Kennedy—is central to his conversion experience. “I got the message,” McCain vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail in South Carolina. “We will secure the borders first.” Cross his heart.
McCain’s minuet with the Minutemen has managed to persuade some primary voters. In South Carolina, he finished second among Republicans who listed controlling illegal immigration as their top issue—a result almost as incomprehensible as his first-place showing among antiwar Republicans in New Hampshire —running just 8 points behind Mike Huckabee, another newly hatched immigration hawk. McCain now insists that he never supported amnesty and that it is “absolutely false” to say he did.
Time for a little straight talk, as the candidate himself might say. No national Republican leader has a longer or more consistent record of advocating legal status for nearly all of the country’s 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants—not even George W. Bush. McCain’s nomination would push the politics of immigration to the left and potentially unravel the conservative consensus in favor of attrition through enforcement.
http://www.amconmag.com/2008/2008_02_11/cover2.html