Border bungling

Whip-cracking Sen. Hillary Clinton (call her Hillary Buchanan) wants a “border czar.” In a letter this week to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mrs. Clinton, New York Democrat, wrote: “National security and, in particular, security at our borders, must continue to be paramount.”

Catch No. 1: Mrs. Clinton only wants a border czar for the border between the United States and Canada, though the vast majority of illegal border-crossers come from the south.

Catch No. 2: Though stipulating that national security must be “paramount,” Mrs. Clinton also insists the Bush administration “be sensitive” to “tourism and the regional economy” — so she opposes a quite reasonable Homeland Security plan to require passports of travelers entering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.

Imposing this security measure on short-term visitors would put needed pressure on both of our neighbors to shore up their identification validations. Entry into this country is a privilege, not a right. Yet, border dominatrix Hillary opposes the rule.

Now, before my fellow conservatives get all outraged about Hillary’s politically calculated double-speak on border security, here’s another catch: President Bush has the exact same position as Hillary. When he learned about the passport requirement plan earlier this month — a plan he signed into law last December as part of the so-called intelligence reform bill — he worried it could “disrupt the honest flow of traffic.” After expressing ignorance about his own policies, Mr. Bush ordered State and Homeland Security to reconsider the passport rules. What a pair: Sen. Conniver and President Clueless. Pick your poison. Either way, we’re committing national suicide.

I have said often the only thing saving the Republicans on the immigration issue is the Democrats’ stupidity. No more. Hillary may only be playing dress-up on border security, but that’s far more than most of the cowering Republican elite in Washington is willing to do. And she’s not alone among Democrats beginning to exploit the White House’s vulnerability.

Sounding positively O’Reillyian, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, complained that an agricultural illegal alien amnesty bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig, Idaho Republican, and defeated last week would have been a “huge magnet” for illegal immigration. Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, sponsored a successful amendment funding Border Patrol agents, immigration investigators and interior enforcement agents the Bush administration shortchanged.

And as Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald reported on our group Web site, The Immigration Blog (www.michellemalkin.com/immigration): “Maxine Waters, who represents South Los Angeles, erupted in a tirade against Hispanic and black gang members last week” on illegal alien gangs. Railed Ms. Waters, California Democrat: “Why isn’t anyone talking about the Mexican mafia [a gang of illegal Mexicans that controls the California prison system]?” she thundered. “I don’t care if you’re pink or purple or white or black or brown, I want you out if you’re committing crimes.” There is no excuse not to control the border, she said. “I’m a liberal with a capital ’L,’ ” she said, “but I’m sick of it.”

This week, following the successful Minuteman Project of citizen border patrols, hundreds of citizen lobbyists descended on Capitol Hill to send the same message. They are led by some of the nation’s most influential conservative radio talk shows in every major market — including organizer Roger Hedgecock from San Diego, Melanie Morgan from San Francisco, “The John and Ken Show” based in Los Angeles, Lars Larson in Portland, and Michael Smerconish in Philadelphia. On their agenda: fixing the nation’s broken deportation and detention system; ending policies that give illegal aliens sanctuary; strengthening interior enforcement; and shutting off illegal alien magnets, including health, education and Social Security benefits.

One participant reported the staff of Sen. Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, refused to admit her to his office. But the reception from Beltway Republicans hasn’t been much warmer. And the White House won’t meet with pro-immigration enforcement leaders such as Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, and the House Immigration Reform Caucus.

As long as the elites in both parties continue behaving like scared monkeys, Americans will be forced to take homeland security into their own hands. We are all Minutemen now.

Michelle Malkin is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of “Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores” (Regnery).