Monday's immigration march may have made a lot of folks feel good, but here's one thing it did not do: Help the president make his case for a guest-worker program or a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants.
The march–which became a boycott, angering some conservatives–will give those opposed to President Bush's idea of a temporary guest-worker program ammunition to use against him. The march "complicates things," says a good White House source, but doesn't mean that all is lost.
I'm told the president will take what one senior adviser describes as an "increasingly active and vocal role" on the issue, largely because "he believes that a guest-worker program is the only way to get control of the border." Indeed, here are the president's immigration talking points: 1) securing the border which is 2) done through a guest-worker program, which 3) leads to a "strong commitment to the American tradition of being a welcoming society that also assimilates–and that means speaking English." Here's the big question: Will the president take on House Republicans who think otherwise? The answer, I'm told, is yes, because "it's important for President Bush to be the face of the Republican Party on immigration." Not only that, adds one Republican close to the administration: "This is an existential issue for this White House."
Whatever that means, it means it's important–because immigration has always been a signature issue for this Texas Republican. He may not have any political capital left to spend, but it's clear he intends to spend whatever he's got left on this.
Gloria Borger, a contributing editor at U.S.News & World Report, writes the magazine's On Politics column. Borger is also the national political correspondent for CBS and a regular panelist on the PBS public affairs program, Washington Week in Review. Borger is a 1974 graduate of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and is now a member of the university's board of trustees.
