In "Maybe It's Time for Cedillo to Let Arnold Take the Wheel", the L.A. Times suggests that Gil "One Bill Gil" Cedillo stops trying to get the current version of his driver's licenses for illegal aliens bill passed. Instead, he should allow the mark Arnold wants that would distinguish the bearer as an illegal alien.

Being the L.A. Times, it includes this bit: "Give Schwarzenegger credit: He's not one of these demagogic nativists who considers a driver's license a "benefit" - a "reward" for border-sneaking - and therefore should be denied to anybody here illegally." Let's ignore that; it is the L.A. Times after all.

What's worrisome is this bit:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) seems to see the larger picture.

"The way I look at it," he says, "is you can keep pushing the issue, but you've got to find common ground with the governor. Or it's just going be an exercise in civics.

"We're going to have to come back and have a serious discussion with him about 'the mark,' if that's the only way he's going to sign a bill. It's a tough pill for me to swallow, but at the end of the day, the need for the driver's license outweighs it.

"I look at it as a scarlet letter, to be honest with you. But we need for people to get to and from work."

Could those who push these bills live with the marks, and therefore call Arnold's bluff? Let's hope not.

Thankfully, SaveOurLicense might make all this moot by forbidding illegal aliens from ever getting a license in California. I see the bigger picture too, and it's closely related to our supposedly American representatives asking the Mexican Senate for help with this bill.

UPDATE: The DailyNews article "Nunez relents on licenses" seems to have much the same information as that above, with the expected addition that Nunez would prefer a mark that's visible only to "authorities."