They’ve got balls alright — the balls to blatantly contradict themselves:

On Friday, Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, correctly denounced a border-fence bill as a concession “to the radical anti-immigrant right wing” of the Republican Party. It’s absurd to fence off 700 miles of the border and leave the other 1,300 miles open; besides, the government lacks the manpower to prevent migrants from defeating the fence with tunnels or ladders. But if blowing billions on this symbolism is a sop to right-wing nuts, why did 26 Senate Democrats vote for the bill while only 17 opposed it? (emphasis mine)

Simple: because, unfortunately for the somewhat more principled among the party (and for the US itself in the long run), enough of the public has an irrational fear of mexicans (not all of the illegals are mexicans, but the types so scared don’t know the difference) to swing an election.

What, you thought it was something less crassly self-serving?

In principle, there is legitimate reason for concern about border security as long as one exists — though, in the long run I’d rather it not be a factor.  The concept of borders, lines where simply crossing them can be illegal, is artificial, a political invention.  Problem is, you cannot make a border irrelevant without first making the politics that created it irrelevant, and those are raging out of control.  Despite the obvious root of illegal immigration being overly strict rules to LEGAL immigration, an overwhelming majority think levels of legal immigration should either remain the same or be decreased (not to mention they’re fast accepting a national ID card — might as well tattoo barcodes on our asses while you’re at it…).  So, rather than show a united front against what is not only meaningless demagoguery but a waste of money when we’re already racking up debt like crazy, the Democratic Party decided to press the “Me, too!” button.

People think they have to co-sign empty gestures of pseudo-populism to win elections.  It’s our fault, folks…