A lot of people like to say that the GOP is getting unresponsive - that they are just up there in DC doing their thing and not caring about what rank-and-file GOPers want. The actual truth of the matter is that politics is always like that - when pressure is not applied to government, nothing gets done.

We on the right want a lot of things - Social Security reform, deeper tax cuts, more regulatory reform, etc, etc, etc...but we aren't exactly mobilising ourselves and getting into it, now are we? One thing we did do, however, was get organized around the border security issue...and it worked:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday that the Senate will tackle border security and interior immigration enforcement before turning to the broader question of immigration reforms and a guest-worker program.

"It is a separate issue, but it's one that people understand," the Tennessee Republican said of border security. "It's an immediate issue, it needs to be addressed more aggressively, we need to do that."

Speaking with The Washington Times by telephone after a helicopter tour yesterday of 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, Mr. Frist said he does not know whether an immigration bill can pass this year because of a heavy workload, but the Senate will pass a bill before adjourning next year.

Now, don't get me wrong - if the pressure goes off, then the Senate will just pass some meaningless fluff and leave it at that. But the fact that Frist is making border security and internal immigration enforcement shows what just a little bit of well-organized pressure can accomplish. We have to keep the pressure on this issue, and take the lesson learned and apply it to other issues.

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