Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: Obama's Submission To Unions

Mark Salter, John McCain's speechwriter and co-author, has a fascinating piece over at Real Clear Politics. The gist of it is:

Obama has never been serious about passing immigration reform. But he has been very adroit at using the unresolved issue to advance his own political interests.

He points out how lacking in detail (or anything, really, other than mockery of Republicans) Obama's speech in El Paso was this week. Salter's a fan of "comprehensive reform of our immigration laws," and worked for McCain during the meetings to get that passed in a previous Congress. While Obama always talked a great game, there were some problems:

In the meetings he attended, he would draw from his shirt pocket a 3x5 index card, on which he had written changes he insisted be made to the bill before he would support it. They were invariably the same demands made by the AFL-CIO, which was intent on watering down or killing the guest-worker provisions.

He knows who's boss! Unions are boss. In a later attempt to pass the legislation, everyone on the team agreed to fight any amendments that would threaten passage of immigration reform. Except for Sen. Obama. He not only wouldn't agree -- he even sponsored some of the amendments.

His actions were not the only cause of the immigration reform's failure to pass the Senate that year, but they certainly contributed to it

What we have, then, is a man who understands the political gains to be made both by claiming to want immigration reform while also knowing how much the unions he relies on for support oppose various provisions of same. Savvy, that one:

President Obama's speech Monday, like his disingenuous "support" of reform efforts in earlier congresses, is smart politics even though it hurts the cause of reform. But I never said he wasn't a smart politician. Just a very cynical one.