I'm sure that you've been wondering why George W. reminds me of Marcus Livius Drusus (the younger). Well, I'll tell you. Early in the first century B.C.E. Drusus realized that the Italian cities allied to Rome were getting restless in their second-class status. He introduced legislation that would have made all Italians Roman citizens. He was defeated, and murdered, by Senatorial elements who were hostile for a couple of reasons. In addition to wanting to keep the exclusive status of Roman citizenship, under the social customs of the times, the new citizens would come into the Roman polity as clients of Drusus, and therefore obliged to support him politically. That would have made him far too powerful, at least in the view of his foes.

George W. is now thinking about amnesty for some three million illegal immigrants from Mexico. While I support the idea, it's clear that W. is doing it because Rove thinks that it will oblige Hispanic voters to vote for W. He knows he needs to get a sizeable percentage of the Hispanic vote to legally win election.

Get it now?