McCain withdraws his support for the DREAM Act
The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) is a no-brainer no matter how you look at it.
It would grease the skids for tens of thousands of young illegal immigrants, most of whom were born in the U.S. through no fault of their own, who graduate from high school every year but are unable to qualify for college aid, let alone work legally. America is the only home they've ever known, and under DREAM they would receive permanent residency status and could go on to college or join the military while becoming eligible for citizenship.
DREAM once enjoyed wide bipartisan support, including that of George Bush and many Republican leaders. It has the support of the Congressional Budget Office, which says it would help lower the deficit, and the Pentagon, which wants to remove a roadblock to recruiting.
Although DREAM eked through the House this week with eight Republican joining Democrats, it faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where Republicans cowed by a xenophobic right wing afraid of anyone who is not a native-born Caucasian threaten a filibuster.
These senators include John McCain, who in his steady downhill devolution from being a mavericky conservative that I once thought I could vote for in a presidential election to a cranky amnesiac, now is against a bill that he had enthusiastically backed.
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