In case anyone is still wondering, the Bush administration really does believe America's borders need even less policing than they get right now, The Decider's Potemkin-village photo ops in border towns like Yuma notwithstanding. Phase One in the Bushite neutering of the Border Patrol is finding scapegoat Border Patrol agents to put in federal penitentiaries as punishment for doing their jobs. For emphasis, make sure you mix those defenseless agents into a prison population full of illegal alien gang-bangers, and see what happens…

Phase One is still ongoing, but President Bush must figure the prospect of telling your illegal-alien fellow inmates why you work for the Border Patrol still isn't deterrent enough to keep Border Patrol agents from patrolling America's border. Time for another brainwave that could spring only from the furrowed brow of The Decider or his twin brain, Ms. Rice (not-so-affectionately renamed by Bill Lind as the Tea Lady): Better to remove the Border Patrol from the border altogether!

So bring on Phase Two of the Bushite gutting of the Border Patrol, reported by the Houston Chronicle yesterday: lure Border Patrol agents away from the onerous (and counterproductive, in President Bush's eyes) task of securing America's borders. Instead, offer them a huge premium over what the Border Patrol can offer to go help secure the borders of a country Mr. Bush does care about: Iraq.[U.S. wants Border Patrol agents for Iraq |Firm seeks veteran officers to mentor Iraqis on immigration , By Steve McVicker April 30, 2007 ]

What could be in store as Phase Three? Filling the Border Patrol with affirmative action hires with roots and relatives in Mexico, and all the conflicts of interest that flow therefrom? Oh, I forgot, the feds have already been doing that for years…

Now the Democrats have tipped their mitt that they don't have the guts to impeach President Bush over his mendacious Mesopotamian misadventure, are any Congressional Republicans willing to buck the GOP party line and offer articles of impeachment based on Mr. Bush's criminal dereliction of one of his few explicit constitutional duties (Art. IV, § 3): to protect each of the United States against invasion?