Watching the Walls, or, Hooray for the Two-Party System!

As Kerry noted below, on the agenda for the Senate today is consideration of a House-passed bill to construct 700 miles of good old American wall, to keep out people who might actually want to work for Americans or buy things from us. This story from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune has some wonderful insights into the range of choices two party's give us:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said they expect many Democrats to support the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

"Democrats are solidly behind controlling the border, and we support the border fence," Feinstein said. "This is all meant to box Democrats in to voting `no' and we're not going to fall for it."

Added Reid, "Democrats are for border security, and when the roll is called you'll find Democrats on that roll."
…….
[Repubican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho] and Feinstein said they will try to attach a bill originally written by Rep. Howard Berman that would legalize about 500,000 undocumented farm workers.

As of Tuesday night, however, it appeared unlikely that [Sen. majority leader Bill] Frist would accept any amendments.

Feinstein said she will vote in favor of the fence even if no guest worker provisions are included.

"We've got to get tough on the border," she said. "There's no question that the border is a sieve. What I regret is that it's not going to solve the problem."

Ah, but at least it will build a wall and protect Democrat asses on one of the strangest policy manias of our time: making sure people can't engage in mutually profitable agreements with willing Americans to sell labor or buy goods and services without having their papers in order, at any cost.