Belated Kudos for Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer has put himself in the running for the first annual "Immigration Heroes" end-of-year superstar list, coming soon from Open Border Central. NY Governor Spitzer made the mistake of proposing a constructive change in New York's driver licensing policy -- a change that would have
made undocumented immigrants eligible to get a license.

The good sense behind Spitzer's proposal was that it's better to have people driving with a license rather than without one or with a fake one. For one thing, they're able to get insurance.

A colossal outcry poured forth, led by Lou Dobbs. Now, I've never actually watched Lou, but I've heard an awful lot about him. Apparently, he's the know nothing who preaches against immigration from CNN, the TV news equivalent of Tom Tancredo.

Spitzer struggled, flirting with a compromise proposal that would have altered the licenses for the undocumented, making it impossible for them to board planes. Still the plan failed.

The highpoint in the furor for me came early on, when the dreaded New York state county clerks denounced the Spitzer plan. It's the clerks who in many counties process DMV applications.

The second peak moment -- more widely reported -- was when Hilary Clinton bobbled a question about the Spitzer proposal during one of the Presidential debates. Congratulations to Hilary for at least thinking about the issue, even if she ultimately didn't have the political courage to back Spitzer.

Spitzer's brave stand on the driver's license issue reminded me of another bold position taken by a New York governnor: Mario Cuomo's unwavering and politically inconvenient opposition to the death penalty.

Congratulations to Craig Trebilcock

Golden Venture advocate Craig Trebilcock has scored another victory for sanity. Craig was part of the legal team in a civil suit against a Kansas church group that showed up at the funeral of a marine killed in Iraq with placards stating "Thank God for IEDs" and "Fag Troops" (see the coverage in The Baltimore Sun). The small Kansas church has targeted military funerals around the country for its protests, forums to express its view that US losses in Iraq are God's way of punishing us for allowing gays in the military. A federal judge awarded $11 million in damages to the soldier's family.

I'm not quick to advocate anything that restricts freedom of speech -- but crashing a funeral is such an egregious infringement on the rights of the grieving family that a punitive aware seems justified.

The news coverage didn't mention it, but Craig must have been particularly effective in making the case because he himself is an Iraq vet.