So one of the big stories today is that Mitt Romney still uses illegal immigrants to do his lawn work. I guess the wingnuts will disown Romney now – won’t they?

Let’s ask Erick at Redstate:

The Boston Globe has decided to stake out the Romney house and harass contract workers on their citizenship status. I find it highly ironic that a media company opposed to restrictive immigration policies and racial profiling would stand outside someone’s house and harass hispanic looking workers to find out if they are illegal aliens.

I actually give Governor Romney credit for giving the company involved a second chance. To be sure, I would not have publicly released the address and name of the company today as it just sets Romney up for a vendetta by the guy.

WHOA – what’s that? It isn’t bad that illegal immigrants did the work, but it is bad that it was reported? Now certainly Malkin is opposed to Romney doing this – isn’t she?:

And while it’s bad for police to ask suspected criminal aliens their citizenship status, it’s fine and dandy for journalists to ask lawn workers whether they’re here illegally…if it will embarrass a Republican presidential candidate.

For the record, Romney should have cut ties with the company a long time ago. Dumb decision. He should be embarrassed.

Oh so she is also upset that this got reported, but at least she is a little mad at Romney. Of course that doesn’t stop her from thinking this will turn into a partisan issue:

But not as embarrassed as open-borders zealots and Dems should be. Watch as they exploit this report and then turn around and attack everyone other than liberal MSM journalists who advocates the repeal of sanctuary gag orders or uses the same basic investigative techniques to report a story. (Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine a Fox reporter hanging out at the Virginia DMV where the 9/11 hijackers bought fraudulent ID for two months, asking the day laborers if they’re here legally, snapping photos and shooting video of the parking lot transactions, and then reporting the results to DHS for comment on air. The spit would fly, I guarantee it.)

Now my head is really spinning. Did Malkin miss the YouTube debate she made such a big fuss about? I thought Rudy was the one going on about this.

There is an underlying point in all this – hypocrisy. Now if it was John Edwards caught using illegal immigrants, the right would be attacking him nonstop (including Mitt Romney). So you and me can’t have illegal immigrants do our lawn work, but Romney can? As usually the talking points and outrage by Republicans smells of hypocrisy (see Larry Craig, Mark Foley, etc., etc. etc.) and their little puppets follow right behind them.

Malkin’s final reasoning there also has me baffled. Has anyone ever been sent to prison for refusing to answer questions from a reporter? Does her dense little mind distinguish the difference between police and reporters? She has developed a pure straw man out of this just to protect Romney.

So to these wingnuts Romney’s reputation trumps border security. How’s that for a credibility issue?

UPDATE:

Add Hugh Hewitt to the list of Romney apologists (as well as Captain Ed)!