Regarding Frist and Hastert's effort to blame the Democrats for not helping to soften Sensenbrenner's immigration bill and make illegal status a misdemeanor rather than a felony, there are only three relevant facts:
1) Sensenbrenner, the Republican author of the legislation, inserted this provision in the first place;
2) Democrats are the minority party, and did not draft this legislation and, on their own, could not have stopped changes to it;
3) The Republican majority voted to pass the bill complete with the felony provision, while Democrats voted to kill it.
If the right thought 1.6 million children shouldn't be considered felons because of where they were born, they could have voted no. As it is, the Republicans were simply against the felony provision before they were for it, and we know how well that explanation works.
