George F. Will was last heard offering a false choice argument on immigration, supporting the Bush line that we have to either give amnesty to illegal aliens or conduct mass deportations.

Now, he's back with "Calculating Immigration Politics":

The cost of this, paid in the coin of lost support among Latinos, the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority, may be reckoned later, for years. Remember this: Out West, feelings of all sorts about immigration policy are particularly intense, and if John Kerry had won a total of 127,014 more votes in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, states with burgeoning Latino populations, he would have carried those states and won the election. But for now, the minds of Republican candidates are concentrated on a shorter time horizon -- the next 4 1/2 months.

Some questions:

* Arizona's Prop. 200 got around 46% of the (largely mythical) Hispanic vote. Wouldn't Kerry have won AZ if he'd supported that proposition? And, if he'd highlighted what Bush's "guest" worker scheme was designed to do, wouldn't he have won Ohio? So, if he'd supported what's in the best interests of the country, wouldn't he be president today?

* Should the GOP embrace a racially-biased immigration scheme that encourages massive immigration from one country? Should the GOP help a foreign government obtain even more political power inside our country?

* Is it really true that supporting our immigration laws will lose support among Hispanics? Or, does that only apply for those on the left side, and would they ever vote for the GOP anyway?

* If people of one racial/ethnic background think they have a right to bring as many other people of the same race/ethnicity as they into the country, isn't it in our best interests to disabuse them of that notion?

* Can the GOP ever out-pander the Democrats? No matter how much the GOP "reached out" to those Hispanics who support bringing everyone of their same race into the country, couldn't the Democrats always undercut the GOP's position? For instance, the GOP might support taking discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and giving them to illegal aliens. The Democrats could counter by offering voting rights to everyone who's been here for more than 2 weeks. How would the GOP counter that?

Similar questions for Will here and even at (gasp!) Powerline.