John McCain is, happily, still fighting for amnesty. I say, "happily," because I don't think it's going to work, but it will probably sink his presidential campaign, which is good news for conservatives.

But, here's the latest spin from John Kerry's first choice for Vice President,

"The status quo is de facto amnesty - fact," the Arizona senator said. "So for us to do nothing and celebrate the fact that we stopped this legislation, well then those who have a better idea can give it to us. We can consider it and move forward."

A comprehensive plan supported by McCain, President Bush and a group of bipartisan senators fell 15 votes short of the 60 needed on Thursday in a critical test to limit debate and allow a vote on the measure itself. As a result, many in Washington have declared major immigration changes are dead for now.

McCain, though, said it was possible to pass a bill.

He spoke after a town hall event in Newton, where immigration dominated discussion and McCain spent much time defending the stalled proposal.

Opponents of the legislation, he said, are not listening to the public.

"People want us to resolve this issue. The majority of Americans support a comprehensive approach to it," McCain said."

Let's take it a step at a time, shall we?

To begin, let's take the "de facto amnesty" remark. According to John McCain, we must give the illegal immigrants amnesty, because if we don't, it's "de facto amnesty" because we haven't caught and deported them yet. Ehr, what, the hell is he talking about? By this same logic, we should allow every burglar to be able to skip prison time if he admits he committed a crime and pays a small fine because, since we haven't detained him yet, he's being given amnesty for his crime.

Who even came up with this nonsense for him?

Next, McCain asks for a better idea -- well that's extremely easy. Build the fence, increase the number of people in the border patrol, crack down on employers of illegals, enforce the existing laws, and as an added bonus, block any illegal caught committing a crime or crossing the border illegally from ever becoming an American citizen or a guest worker. If you do that for say 3-5 years, not only will we regain control of the borders, most of the illegals will self-deport because they won't be able find jobs. In short, it's a great plan that would work wonders -- unless your goal is to keep the illegals pouring into the United States so they can act as cheap labor or become voters one day.

Then there's the idea that most Americans want a comprehensive approach. Well, that's funny because we just had a comprehensive immigration bill up in front of the Senate and the public opposed it 2 to 1. Moreover, the public preferred no action over passing the bill by a margin of 49% to 32%, according to Rasmussen. Furthermore, Rasmussen also found that,

"72% of Americans believe it's Very Important to reduce illegal immigration and enforce the borders. Just 29% said it was Very Important to legalize the status of those illegally living in the country today."

Of course, John McCain and the rest of the pro-amnesty crowd already know that and if they were really into "straight talk," they'd be willing to admit that they're interested in maximizing the number of illegals coming into this country, not stopping them from coming here, as the American public wants.

I consult for the Duncan Hunter campaign.