Arlen Specter’s Senate Judiciary Committee started its markup of an immigration bill, in response to the House passage of one in December–and nothing happened other than opening bloviations. Strangest of all was South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham, a supporter of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty, who said something to the effect that he likes seeing the large Hispanic workforce when he’s out on the golf course–fill in your favorite antebellum South Carolina joke here.

The comment that got reporters’ attention was Jeff Sessions talking about his own immigrant ancestors and how “Lincoln killed one of them at Antietam.” That was in response to Sen. Durbin pleading with his anti-amnesty colleagues for understanding because “there are four of us who are first-generation Americans”. Actually, he meant second-generation, i.e., children of immigrants, but his point is one that galls me–apparently only people with recent immigrant ancestry can have legitimate opinions on immigration. Now, I fit that category, but so what? This is like feminists saying only women should have opinions on abortion policy (and only certain women at that)–it’s something I’d expect from the left, but the open-borders Republicans play this card as well. The only WASPs whose views on immigration are considered legitimate by the smart set are those who, like McCain, want lots more of it, rather than less.

Oh, and the day before, Ted Kennedy said that Republicans had better support amnesty for political reasons: “The people on the other side are going to have to decide whether they want to alienate a whole, growing constituency in this country.” Any Republican taking political advice from Ted Kennedy deserves what he gets.