Laughter: The Best Cross-Examination

Phase 1 of Eric The Red's war against Arizona (roughly akin to the fake-a-frontal-attack-while-sweeping-around-behind strategy Colin Powell used against the Iraqis in Gulf War I) is unfolding precisely as a long-time observer of this charade expected it would - with the federal judge laughing so hard she (probably figuratively) peed herself:

“Why can’t Arizona be as inhospitable as they wish to people who have entered or remained in the United States?” U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton asked in a pointed exchange with Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler. Her comment came during a rare federal court hearing in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona and Governor Jan Brewer (R).

Bolton, a Democratic appointee, also questioned a core part of the Justice Department’s argument that she should declare the law unconstitutional: that it is “preempted” by federal law because immigration enforcement is an exclusive federal prerogative.

“How is there a preemption issue?” the judge asked. “I understand there may be other issues, but you’re arguing preemption. Where is the preemption if everybody who is arrested for some crime has their immigration status checked?”

And where is the preemption when the feds already train local law enforcement in immigration law enforcement?

That's not to say that Bolton might not give Eric The Red at least an indefinite injunction against SB1070; she did leave herself wiggle room with "I understand there may be other issues...."  But to the degree that law and fact can trump partisan ideology, the White House is being slowly and searingly humiliated like a dessicated weenie in a convenience store rotisserie hot box, underscoring the purpose for this pre-emption gambit: as a bone tossed to the reconquistas who aren't going to get the Mexican Cession back, at least not in this cycle.  "Civil rights" will be the DOIR's real gambit, but it's difficult to sue for civil rights violation over a law that hasn't even taken effect yet.

Fascinatingly, its deterrent effect is preceding it:

Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor WendiVillasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving,” said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. “We have no alternative. They have us cornered.”

The two women are among scores of illegal immigrant families across Phoenix hauling the contents of their homes into the yard this weekend as they rush to sell up and get out before the state law takes effect on Thursday.

Truth is, the government always did have them "cornered".  It's just that they knew the government wasn't going to DO anything about them, so they saw no need to comply with a law that the federal authorities exhibited not the slightest intention of ever enforcing.  Now, in Arizona at least, that situation is changing, and the "targeted" extra-national population is adjusting accordingly.  Which is why the citizenry of so many other states are just as supportive of Arizona's stance and want their state governments to follow Jan Brewer's courageous example, because that's most likely where Arizona's illegals will be migrating next.

There are, after all, two compenents to "the rule of law".  If the law is not going to rule, it's as good as repealed.  All Arizona has done is expose that cynical Obamunist calculation and make it a lot harder to sustain - in court and out.