Maryland Dixiecrats Cave On Licenses for Illegals

In addition to its history as the home base for generations of pecksniffers and thimbleriggers like Marvin Mandel and Spiro Agnew, our Maryland also has a tawdry reputation as the most lawless and defiant state on the East Coast when it comes to respect for our immigration laws.

In most states, it is the Democratic party that proposes endless new benefits and privileges for illegal aliens, on the theory that "no human is illegal."  But in Maryland, the cheap labor lobby also supports the Democrats, claiming Maryland is in desperate economic straits because of all the unfilled "jobs Americans won't do."  But even California doesn't raise taxes to pay for public benefits for resentful foreigner invaders like we have.

The moral bankruptcy and clueless politics of the party of  Martin "Lucky Charms" O'Malley, Mike "Puddinhead" Miller, and Steny "Mr. Good Pork" Hoyer may have its limits, which seem to be defined by election year opinion polls showing 55 % of the voters in this bluest of blue states oppose instate tuition for illegal aliens and 75% oppose drivers licenses for illegal aliens.

Last week, O'Malley was calling for special driving certificates for illegals that would be good only in Maryland. This dangerous crackpot scheme brought the public wrath down on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer when he floated same idea last year.  This week, O'Malley caved on REAL ID. Now he says he doesn't want Maryland to be the only state on the East Coast to aid and abett illegal alien driving, although he promises that Maryland citizens will suffer at the DMV because they refused to cave in to the illegal alien invasion.

Senate Boss Miller is equally craven. He is calling for the classic "sweep it under the rug" scam beloved of clueless politicians everywhere: Appoint a state task force to "study" the impact of illegal immigration and then decide if Maryland will respect the law or not. 

In a landmark case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals compared this kind of pandering on immigration to the passive resistance to federal civil rights laws practiced by die-hard segregationist southern Democrats in the 1950s and 60s. It is astonishing and deeply disturbing to realize that insider politics in border state Maryland have remained closer to their Dixiecrat oligarchic heritage than in any state in the old Deep South.

It is the civic duty of the minority party to complain, complain, and complain about the corruption, cronyism, and folly of the Dixiecrats, for however long it takes for the public to realize that they've had enough of generations of Democratic pandering.