I guess President Bush has been in an amnesty mood lately.

I am so glad Scooter Libby was around to oblige him.

Too bad for those 10-12 million undocumented. They thought they might get what the talk show hosts were calling “amnesty” but their Z-visas hit a dead end in the Senate.

Thank god, Libby, once again the consummate team player, stepped into the breach and saved the President’s image of the Compassionate Conservative.

Think about it – its not such a bad trade off.

How much more concentrated the compassion when focused on one deserving man than diluted among 10-12 million undocumented people. (Kind of like tax cuts, they have much more bang for the buck when it comes to the high-flying CEOs than the average guy getting a $150 refund!)

But hey, at least someone got to come out of the shadows.

We should all be grateful for that this July 4 as we ruminate on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Now I am sure some of those illegal immigrants must be thinking this is bait and switch just like well, we are going to Iraq to find yellowcake, I mean to establish democracy. But I would reassure them to be positive and see the silver lining.

In fact, maybe we can get that newly dirty word, “amnesty” back into the American vocabulary. Libby of course has not been pardoned. He just had his sentence commuted. The undocumented were not getting amnesty. They were getting Z-visas. I say, let’s just call a spade a spade and reclaim that word amnesty – for you, me, Libby and the undocumented. Can’t we all just get along?

If the public is able to swallow Libby’s commutation and eventual pardon, maybe we can start thinking about ideas like amnesty again. Libby, you could say is showing us the way. Shame on those who think he is getting it easy.

In fact he isn’t. He even has his own touchback provisions with his probation officers. A key difference is the undocumented would have had to leave the country to touchback according to one of the amendments. Libby is prohibited from leaving the country. So no little vacation in Mexico for him. He also has to issue written reports every month. Some would say the undocumented have it easier. No monthly touchbacks. No written reports. And their fine is smaller too.

You could say Libby has taken one for the team.

My cynical and uncharitable colleague says Libby had his sentence commuted not because President Bush wanted to throw a bone to the conservatives but because they were afraid he would spill the beans. That’s a canard.

What will they say next? The President was hoping the immigration bill would go through, so Libby could slip in there and walk away unnoticed, lost in a crowd of 10-12 millions.
I think as the immigration bill went down in flames, the President still wanted to show the country a flicker of hope, that with one stroke of his pen he could help someone rejoin the American family.

The question will be what will Libby do with his new lease on life? Once the undocumented are documented will they still want to pick lettuce, wash windows or baby sit our children for the wages they once had? No one knows that answer and everyone is scared to find out. But in Libby we have a small controlled experiment in “life after amnesty.”

As I said I think Libby might be a test run for a larger amnesty.

The immigrant rights movement might just have a new slogan.

Today Libby. Tomorrow 12 million undocumented.