Ted Kennedy joins forces with George W. Bush?

Rush Limbaugh agrees with the AFL-CIO?

If the political world has come unhinged over Immigration Reform, one thing remains constant, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is still against it.

This week on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Sessions gave competing arguments over a new push in Congress (as opposed to the old push about three weeks ago) for/against Immigration Reform.

Neither senator dug deep into the specifics of the legislation, and in fact it seemed they were talking about two different bills. Kennedy said the bill would fund border security, enact workplace enforcement and draw the illegal immigrants out of the shadows. Sessions said the bill brings us to the “brink of amnesty” and would not achieve any of those goals because … well, it’s just a bad bill and we need a national “mindset change,” whatever that means.

Sessions went on to argue that an immigrant ID card would not ensure accuracy, as immigrants could just give a false name — this opposed to the way we used to do things, where we gave Immigrants their false names when they got to Ellis Island.

Stephanopoulos played a clip of Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-Fla., arguing that resistance to immigration reform was simply politicized xenophobia (hatin’ on people who aren’t from around here): Instead of “Irish need not apply” signs, we would now have “Mexicans need not apply” signs. Sessions said Graham’s argument just wasn’t true. (Both senators seemed to have missed the point altogether. Indeed, Mexicans on pickup corners need not apply, just get in the back of the truck — that’s the job interview.)

At least Sessions did not go off the deep end, as did Pat Buchanan on Meet the Press. Graham may claim that brown is the new black, but not if Buchanan has anything to do with it. On this morning’s show, Buchanan argued (for real and for true) that we don’t need illegal immigrants here doing low-paying, low-skilled manual labor when we already have so many uneducated illiterate black people capable of doing the same things. Buchanan is the recent author of a book called State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. Apparently “Rebirth of a Nation” was already taken.

Regardless, Buchanan can make noise, but Sessions can make trouble for the president and the bill. While Sessions has supported most of Bush’s policies, especially the war in Iraq, he has been on constant antagonist to the president on immigration reform. Even still, Bush appeared with Sessions in Mobile last week to raise money for the senator’s reelection campaign. That $1,000-per-ticket event netted Sessions at least $900,000, bringing his total campaign coffers to almost $3 million.

It’s not clear whether an Alabama Democrat will pose a serious challenge to Sessions. Earlier this month, one rumored candidate, Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks, said he would not run for the Senate seat. Instead, Alabama Democrats are stuck with State Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile. Don’t know who she is? Don’t worry. If the conventional wisdom holds true, you never will.

On the program Sunday, Sessions addressed the Iraq Problem, saying again that the war could not go on indefinitely and that September could be the moment of truth. Last month, Sessions made news on Face the Nation, when he said Senate Republicans would not likely support the war after Gen. David Petraeus gives his report to Congress this fall.

“In the end, we will have to ask our selves what do we do and reduce our presence in Iraq,” Sessions said Sunday.

Sessions said he supports a “politically driven timetable,” and if that sounds like a timetable, deadline or benchmarks, well …

— Kyle Whitmire

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