Popular Opinion vs. Reason

What would happen if they conducted a popular opinion poll on what 2 + 2 equals? What if the current popular opinion was that it makes 5 1/2?

That's what I've been asking myself as I've seen many in the blogsphere (I don't like the term "blogOsphere." So sue me.) bemoaning the situation with the proposed new head of the Department of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik, who had to withdraw from consideration due to having had an illegal alien as a nanny in his employ.

To read some of my fellow conservatives, one might get the impression that Kerik was a martyr, just the latest whipping boy of the left. Some who proclaim themselves to be Rightwing are coming to Kerik's defense and basically saying that hiring an illegal alien is no big deal, and after all, it's such a good thing to hire illegal aliens! After all, everybody hires them, don't they? Then these supposed conservatives recount anecdotes wherein people look at it with pride because they have hired scofflaw aliens who "struggle to learn English" and make something of themselves here in America.

Please. Please spare me the violins and the Valentines for all the poor law breaking illegal immigrants, won't you? For the love of God, you are starting to sound like limousine liberals! These illegals are taxing the system and the taxpayers past the breaking point, to say nothing of the crime and blight that accompanies them. So, some of you live in border states and are getting all misty eyed about your lawbreaking amigos and amigas. Isn't that just special? I live in Arizona, a border state, and went to the trouble of learning Spanish (in addition to other foreign languages) but I have had more than enough of the coddling of criminals and the pooh-poohing of the law. When you pooh-pooh our immigration laws, you poop on the entire law. Don't you see that? Don't you "get it"? How gross and graphic must I be to get you to wake up?

Fortunately, there are at least a couple of conservative bloggers who "get it." Thank you, Lord, for Michelle Malkin and La Shawn Barber!

From Malkin, we are treated to this gem that proves she "gets" that 2 + 2 = 4:

I find it annoying that Bernard Kerik is getting praised in some quarters for "coming clean" and "accepting responsibility" for his "mistake." From all accounts, including Kerik's own, President Bush's aides asked him upfront about the nanny question several times during the vetting process and he did not come clean.

Kerik didn't just make some minor clerical error. He misled the White House. So, stop making him a martyr.

YES!

And from La Shawn Barber:

So Kerik, Bush’s choice for Homeland Security chief, employed an illegal alien to take care of his kids. First of all, the president supports the employment of illegal aliens to the point where he wants to grant them amnesty. Only if Bush were hard-line anti-illegal immigration would this episode be truly embarrassing.

Hear, hear! You know, if you wish to sparkle as a conservative, take a cue from Malkin and Barber.

Otherwise, when you call yourself a conservative but keep coming up with emotionally based popular opinion conclusions that 2 + 2 = 5 1/2, people won't take you seriously anymore. People will question your logic. People will doubt your claims of conservatism. People will think that you've just lost your sparkly marbles.

Bottom line? Kerik mucked up. Get over it. Furthermore, those that would defend the hiring of illegal aliens had better re-examine their concept of right and wrong, not to mention their concept of right and left.

You've been told and NOW YOU KNOW.