Nice isn't good enough for ICE

Julie Myers is probably a nice young woman. She's an attorney who is the niece of soon to be retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Richard Myers. Or in other words, she's plugged in to the power structure of the Bush administration.

The president has nominated her to head up the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.

It's a bad pick. She isn't qualified. (In fact she is probably better qualified to head ICE than Michael Brown was to head FEMA, but that isn't saying much, is it?)

President Bush has a huge credibility problem with his base -- and with a lot of patriotic Democrats -- on the subject of protecting the nation's borders. It's a problem that requires a solution because this is an issue that could cause Republicans (and thus conservatives) real electoral heartburn in 2006 and 2008.

But that's just the politics. The true damage that is being done is by the overwhelming numbers of undocumented, illegal non-citizens who come trooping over the border each and every day. How many of these are persons of bad intent? Only a fool would say "none." A sane man would conclude that at least a handful of potential terrorists enter the country every month. As we discovered to our horror on 9/11, it only takes a handful to ruin a good day.

The president owes it not to his base but to the entire country to make a strong selection for this vital office. Someone with fire should head ICE.

Want to read more about it? Check out National Review's online editorial here, and Michelle Malkin's original broadside. BTW, Michelle would probably never accept the job, but she would be a perfect fit for it.