The National Journal reports that John McCain got a bit testy at a meeting of Hispanic business leaders when the talk turned to immigration. "You people made your choice," he reportedly spat. "You made your choice during the election." Keep it classy, Senator. Without McCain, however, it's unclear where reformers turn. Most of the Bush administration's failures centered around bad things they decided to do or good things they decided not to do. Immigration reform is one of the few instances where the Bush administration attempted something worthwhile and failed to achieve it. And it's a meaningful failure because the political system was in rare alignment: A pro-reform Republican president willing to provide cover to a pro-reform Democratic Congress. That was, not coincidentally, the same alignment that allowed President Reagan to pass the 1986 reform through the 99th Congress. Immigration is one of those issue where neither party can risk full ownership of reform. And as such, it's unlikely we'll see any action on it for quite some time.
