By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
In response to the SCOTUS striking down 3 out of 4 provisions in the Arizona Immigration Law Alabama GOP lawmaker’s are spinning faster than a pole dancer at Uncle Bubba’s Kitty Kat Lounge.
Here are the facts as I see them, Alabama’s Immigration Law is history, toast, keput, out-a-here, finished, and to quote our friends from across the border adios HB56 and its bambino.
Naturally, politician being, what else, politicians, are portraying this as some kind of win.
How so, giving police the right to ask for someone papers when they pull them over or are questioned about a certain matter, this is the big win? Big whoop, the police can’t do much more than say, “Oh, I see you are here from Mexico, hope you enjoy your stay, drive safely and have a nice day.”
Sorry my friends that is not a win.
If the Supremes had not upheld that portion of the law then the next thing you know the police would have no right to check your driver’s license, hey, it may even be unconstitutional to make us buy driver’s licenses in the first place. (I hate the Commerce Clause).
If in the Iron Bowl your team scores one touchdown and the other team gets three they win. No bragging rights for you. It would seem our friends in politics don’t understand, so they spin.
If you want a believable spin how about this, “We got our butts kick, dang activist judges, that is why we need a conservative president in November, because these darn activist judges, kicked our butts.” Keep saying that until you believe it, because that’s going to sound better and more plausible than the first try.
And please let’s not try the “Alabama Law is different than the Arizona law,” because it is not that different. It was written by the same guy and while he had learned a few things since writing the Arizona one, he still got it wrong according to the SCOTUS. While a trip to a big box store is enough to convince even a modest elitist that the voting population is not paying attention, I am not so sure that all this “we won, zero to three, is going to sell even with them.”
Scott Beason, the Dems, Luther Strange and others included we here at the Alabama Political Reporter said wait and see what the SCOTUS rules before passing the son of HB56. Why did we say that? Because we believed to pass a new law was a waste of taxpayers money and time. Restraint is a quality of good leadership, so is admitting mistakes but that is not the politician’s nature. While few believe that the federal government is doing a good job enforcing immigration law and I am one, in this decision the SCOUS has once again affirmed that states can only go so far.
And of course I am not finding anything unusual in the political response of spin to win.
Hey, here’s an idea, the feds are allowing tons of illegal drugs to enter our country through Mexico, what about sending the Texas Rangers and a Alabama Sheriff’s posse down to Mexico to enforce the law. Good idea? Well, maybe not, but it could be great spin.
