How many flip-flops can one writer have, before he can hear readers sigh?

When a commenter told me in the previous entry that Rod Dreher had supported Mark Krikorian’s immigration plan, published at National Review Online in 2005, I assumed that Dreher had supported the plan in 2005 and had gradually moved to his now out-of-the-closet let-illegal-immigrants-take-over-America posture in the two years since then. To my surprise, I find that Dreher expressed support for the Krikorian plan just three weeks ago, on December 7, 2007. In a further irony, Dreher expressed his support for the restrictionist Krikorian plan, which he has since reversed, in the same article in which he denounced Mike Huckabee as a flip-flopper on immigration!

And in yet a further flip-flop, the Dallas Morning News, of which Dreher is assistant editorial page editor, has just endorsed the flip-flopper Huckabee for president.

- end of initial entry -

Ken Hechtman writes from Canada:

Speaking of flip-flops on immigration, what do you make of the biggest flip-flop of them all?

John McCain has another spot up in New Hampshire, responding to Mitt Romney’s ad that attacked him over illegal immigration. The ad has two points—that Romney is being disingenuous, and that McCain himself has learned some lessons on the issue, and won’t be bothering grassroots Republicans over it anytime soon:

“Before I can win your vote, I know I have to win your respect,” McCain says. “And to do that, you know I’ll always be straight with you. And on this issue, I’ve learned that we’ve got to restore trust in government, and secure our borders.”

Stan Greenberg was right. Amnesty is shaping up to be the gay marriage of 2008. Anybody who’s still for it destroys not just himself but his whole party brand.

LA replies:

I wouldn’t call this a flip-flop. When you’ve fought a fight with all you have, which is what McCain did, and you’ve lost, and not only lost but been badly damaged, and you say, “Ok, your side won, you’ve beat me,” that’s not a flip flop.

It was the same with President Clinton and homosexuals in the military. He fought as hard as he could to get that through, and the entire establishment and the society opposed him, and he lost. Yet ever afterward, the left bizarrely accused him of selling out. He didn’t sell out, he was beaten. The left is so much in a world of their own that they couldn’t grasp this.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 30, 2007 05:00 PM | Send