WHO WILL OFFER TANCREDO THE VP SLOT FIRST-- ROMNEY OR GIULIANI?

Giuliani's and Romney's little hissy fits about who is more xenophobic and anti-immigrant and  a better mirror image of the Republican Party's Know Nothing base is threatening to blow up into a major brawl. A story on it in today's Wall Street Journal, begins by asking "Are Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani competing for the Republican Presidential nomination, or for the job of vacation replacement for Lou Dobbs?" And the answer, regarding these two who felt the CNN/YouTube debate wasn't dignified enough for them is that "It's hard to tell these days as the candidates attempt to one-up each other's anti-immigration rhetoric."

Uncharacteristically, the Journal damns both Republicans, although clearly tilts away from Flip Flop Mitt as the worse of two evils.

Mr. Romney has faulted the former New York City mayor for not directing the local police to harass illegal-alien janitors, cooks and bus boys, thus making the Big Apple a so-called "sanctuary city" for the undocumented. Mr. Romney apparently doesn't think the NYPD has anything better to do with its time, though given the record drop in violent crime during the Giuliani years, which coincided with an increase in immigrants to the city, he might reconsider that notion.

Mr. Giuliani has responded by slouching toward Tom Tancredo, unveiling plans to tackle the immigration problem with ID cards, physical barriers and patrols along the Mexican border. But Mr. Giuliani's previous support for these newcomers, who've helped to revitalize New York over the past two decades, makes his more recent rhetoric seem like a gambit to neutralize Mr. Romney's appeals to the restrictionist right. At least Mr. Giuliani still stresses his interest in giving foreigners more opportunities to enter the U.S. lawfully.

Both candidates, however, ignore the reality that more security measures will have limited effect if not paired with a guest worker program that gives foreign nationals more legal ways to access job offers in the U.S. The same goes for the Bush Administration's recently announced plans to step-up "interior" enforcement. Taking U.S. employers to the woodshed won't fix the illegal immigration problem, and it could do real economic harm.

Remember, despite the neo-fascist editorial page, the Wall Street Journal, in the end, is a mouthpiece for the Greed and Selfishness wing of the GOP. They represent the interests of the moneyed class and Big Business. Immigration for these folks is always cheap labor. Slavery would be preferable but too crude to speak of openly in polite society.

Yesterday's NY Times featured Romney on the rampage against Rudy over their immigration mud wrestling match. Flip Flop has a new attack ad out accusing Giuliani of "flouting immigration laws" while he was mayor. Giuliani claims Romney did the exact same thing in Massachusetts.

Lost amid the back and forth on this issue between the two camps is that both Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney have moved significantly rightward in their tone on the immigration issue over the years to the point that they are now trying to out-tough each other.

Back in 2005, Mr. Romney spoke positively in a Boston Globe interview about comprehensive immigration reform proposals being floated by Senator John McCain and President Bush that were quite similar to the Senate measure that failed so spectacularly this year and that he had harshly criticized.

And from his vantage point at City Hall, Mr. Giuliani often defended illegal immigrants and advocated measures to ease their path to citizenship.

But the politics of the debate has shifted dramatically, becoming one of the dominant issues among Republicans seeking their party’s nomination, and the two candidates have adjusted accordingly.

If Giuliani and Romney sound-- even unconvincingly-- more and more like Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter, it's because they've watched McCain's front-runner status turn to dust, not because of his extremist position on the occupation of Iraq-- the GOP base (though no one else) likes that-- but because of his somewhat moderate position on immigration reform. In fact, the Arizona media reported yesterday that this race is likely to be his last hurrah. "A new statewide survey shows that if the Senate election were held today, the Republican incumbent would be defeated by Gov. Janet Napolitano-- that is, if Napolitano would choose to run for the seat. The Democrat governor cannot seek a third term... If they went head to head, Napolitano would get 47 percent of the vote, compared to 36 percent for McCain, according to the poll."