THE BUMILLER TREATMENT. Greg makes plenty of good points about Elisabeth Bumiller's piece. Even leaving aside the fact that Bush is currently shifting from the rosy pro-immigration stance Bumiller wants to highlight here, I'd add that it's also pretty remarkable -- or, I should say, not remarkable at all -- that she can write an entire explanatory article on the origins and context of Bush's personal views on immigration and never once mention that Bush's outlook also happens to be the outlook of American business interests. It's not exactly unprecedented to see Bush hewing to a position on a public policy issue that is similar to the position taken by big business. (Of course on this particular issue the business position is one that happens to overlap in several respects with many liberals' views, with guest worker programs being a major point distinguishing the two camps.)
On a more positive note, though, it is nice to see Bumiller refer to Bush's attempts to speak Spanish as "fractured Spanglish" rather than "fluent Spanish" like we've been hearing from mainstream reporters for years. That, at least, is progress.
--Sam Rosenfeld
