Watching the antics of the neoconservatives generally and the NRO gang in particular as they scramble feverishly to recover from the Amnesty/Immigration Surge Bill rout is like watching a rodeo rider, with one foot in a stirrup, hopping alongside a bolting mount, battling to get back astride.

Some astonishing contortions are going on—none more bizarre than Jonah Goldberg's latest You can't say that USA Today July 3 2006.

This essay is in fact excellent. Jonah has discovered the National Question and objects to its repression.

last week's defeat of the immigration bill...was, for good or ill, a milestone in America's transformation into a "normal" country. Normal countries have arguments about their national identity and immigration's effect on it. In normal countries, it's not illegitimate to suggest that too many immigrants, or too many immigrants of a specific origin, may upset the social peace or do damage to the national culture.

In America, however, to raise such concerns is to open yourself to charges of racism, bigotry, nativism and all-around hate.

He takes note of the constant effort to shut down debate:

Anyone who disagreed with this was automatically lumped in with the forces of bigotry and hate. Referring to opponents of the bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, "We've been down this road before. No Catholics, no Jews, Irish, need not apply. That's not the America I want."

He objects to the fraudulent economics:

At one point, the White House trumpeted a new study showing that immigration contributes about $30 billion a year to the economy. Even assuming the numbers are accurate, and leaving aside how it includes legal immigration which was never at issue that's still a trivial amount in a $13 trillion economy

He takes issue with the anti-WASP bigotry so common amongst the Bill's advocates:

In a piece last week on small-town America's revolt against the immigration bill, The Washington Post chronicled how elderly residents of Gainesville, Ga., were taken aback by the transformation of their bedroom community by a huge influx of Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrants, parking on the grass, failing to understand how flush toilets work and the like.

Of course, the Post couldn't help but point out that the bemused locals still have a monument to "Our Confederate Soldiers." Still, the Post was better than The New York Times, which in an earlier story cast grass-roots opponents as barely one generation removed from the cast of Deliverance.

And he resents the blatant double standard:

The point here is not to say that America has become "too Mexican." Though it's ironic that liberals who see nothing wrong with talking about America, the GOP, or various universities as being "too white," "too Christian," or not black or Hispanic enough should recoil in horror at such a thought.

The comment thread is full of applause, much of it clearly from people new to the controversy.

This is a pity and it is dangerous. This is the Goldberg who actively assisted in the redirection of National Review away from these questions and toward servile sycophancy towards the rising George W., a development which, as Neal Freeman has said, had a lot to do with the mess the country is in today. So much so, that in early VDARE.com days we rechristened it "The Goldberg Review".

Like the Senators voting against Cloture last week when they realized it was defeated, Goldberg and his friends only opened fire from their privileged locations in the MSM when they saw how the battle was going.

They are doing so because they fear losing their influence. And that influence, when and if regained, will not be used in the interests of this country

Tell Jonah Goldberg he is a fraud.