Bush was in damage control last night when he spoke to us from the Oval Office and now it looks as though he may have caused even more damage than before (A sure sign Rove must be under enormous stress).

First off Bush’s promise to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. He is saying we need to do this because it will take two and 1/2 years to train the additional border patrol agents we need. (He also meant that he will be out of office in 2 1/2 years so let the next President handle it.) This is already being met with great opposition from not just Republicans in Congress but also from the states. He has used the National Guard for his own little toy soldiers since he has been in office and removed them from being able to operate in their most valuable capacities – like after a hurricane hits.

Now Bush is saying that these National Guard troops won’t be actually patrolling the border or guarding detainees. Instead, he wants them used in behind the scenes, more administrative/support type duties. Of course it will be just a matter of time before they are ordered to guard the borders and cross that line. You know it is a bad idea when even Lou Dobbs says it is.

His guest worker program is also a joke. What he is doing is playing both sides of the fence here. He thinks he is fooling the left by offering this program but there is a fine print in there that is exploiting the workers. Basically these people come in and are under the control of their employers. If the employer doesn’t like them then they can easily say “hey your fired – go back to your country”. In other words it is more like an elaborate slave trade.

The interesting thing to watch is going to be the legislative end of the deal. The House and Senate already can not agree on a plan and if Senate caves to the House plan then we can expect much larger protest than the ones we saw a couple weeks ago. Of course the legislation means nothing with Bush in the White House. He will sign which ever bill he likes that passes (remember – Bush don’t feel the bill has to be approved in both houses to become law) and then add one of his “signing addendums” to it in order to make it fit his desires.