This time.com story I have out today grew from conversation after conversation on the Hill with Democratic aides who were flabbergasted at the Obama Administration’s focus on immigration reform. “Like a dog with a bone — a bad bone,” one aide said to me. “It’s just crazy – it makes no sense,” said another. Most of them fretted about what it would meanfor the midterms to take on the Arizona law — largely popular in the West — while pushing for immigration reform at a time when all anyone wants to talk about is the economy.
Finding a vulnerable western Democrat to talk to me about their woes on the record, though, was like looking for Nemo off the coast of Louisiana. Michael Bennet practically ran away from me in the Senate and none of my calls to the Colorado delegation were returned. The New York Times had better luck at the National Governor’s Convention in Boston. That said, I found no shortage of aides willing to talk about how insane they think the White House is being and why it’s bad for their bosses. And when I finally did get a Colorado Dem to answer my call, she expressed confidence that President Obama has realized the error of his ways and has course corrected. “I think they understand that the most important issue out West — and I think across the country — is jobs and the economy,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak. “I think you’ll see them focusing on that.” Obama may stop talking about immigration, but it’s too late to take back Attorney General Eric Holder’s lawsuit — and he’s talking about a potential second suit — which is sure to keep the issue far too close for the comfort of most Western Dems.