Jack & Jill Politics

Just as with ACORN, I think everyone needs to understand that there may be more to this story than meets the eye. The Bush administration specializes in half-truths and straight-up fiction to promote their version of events. Rep. John Conyers is already on the case and has written a stern letter to Homeland InSecurity Chief Michael Chertoff.

TPM has the best read on this story, which is nothing more than a steaming pile of Bush:

The Associated Press was the first to confirm, in a story posted this morning, that Onyango is her illegally after her request for asylum was rejected by an immigration judge four years ago.

But note the way in which AP seems to have obtained the information. High up in the story, it reports:

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.

In other words, it looks like someone in the Bush administration leaked the information, with the goal of throwing a last-minute wrench into Obama’s campaign. And someone else confirmed it, with similar motives.

On the record, of course, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, is telling reporters it can’t comment on any individual person’s immigration status. It would appear to be a violation of department procedures, at the least, to leak such information.

We’ve seen this same tactic used recently by the Bush administration. Earlier this month, law enforcement sources leaked the news, also to the AP, that the FBI has begun a nationwide investigation into ACORN. Again, the obvious purpose of the leak was political — to bolster a Republican campaign to stoke fears about voter fraud, in an effort to de-legitimize an Obama win. The Justice Department still has not confirmed the existence of the investigation.

What’s the real story here? After all, they probably wouldn’t allow “Aunt Zeituni” to stay in public housing if her case weren’t still in process, right? The line for public housing is typically long and competitive – and there are an awful lot of forms to fill out. We’re not likely to know the real story before the election because the ICE isn’t supposed to share any info about people’s cases. Convenient for the GOP – spread a lie, then block folks from learning the true state of affairs.

The line for public housing is too long. Unfortunately it’s sadly true about the state of America that they’d have booted her out of public housing by now if she was really illegal. Leave it to the Republicans to smear a little old lady in Boston to try and take Obama down. It won’t work though. The American people right see that this doesn’t add up to much of a story. It’d be great for Palin and McCain to try and hammer Obama about this. It will only alienate the Republican party further from an increasingly diverse American population, particularly the Latino vote.