That’s Mickey Kaus’s question, the answer to which is Yes. Among other things, Mickey hits Kyl’s acceptance of legalization for today’s illegals but insistence on the “temporary means temporary” fantasy regarding future imported labor:
Kyl seems to be acceding to an unjustified amnesty for illegals-in-place while letting conservatives get bought off by equally unjustified restrictions on future guest workers. Easy politics, terrible policy.
Unlike Kemp, Kyl is a serious man and a valuable public servant, but he risks making a colossal, career-tainting error. There is no possibility that any deal he cuts in exchange for amnesty will pan out as advertised, and the result will be that the Dems will get their huge and growing poverty constituency and Kyl will get the blame. He still has time to walk away, since the Senate vote has been delayed til Monday. But if he permits this to happen (and it is in his power now to permit it or stop it), he earns the moniker “Amnesty Jon.”