Weigel

Chris Christie vs. a Romney Surrogate on Immigration. In 2008.

After Chris Christie’s silly little video with Cory Booker started to get pick-up, I got lost in a YouTube hole and found this 2008 vintage piece from Lou Dobbs – the classic, CNN vintage Lou Dobbs. Back then, Christie was no conservative hero. He was the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, who had the audacity to say that it was “not a crime” to exist in the United States as an immigrant.

What elevates the clip to greatness is the commentary from Dobbs’s expert: a “former Justice Department attorney named Kris Kobach.

That’s kind of a silly statement. Illegal aliens are not just standing here, being present, and doing nothing else. There are a multitude of crimes associated with the life of an illegal alien in the United States. That’s jiust the way our laws are written.

Since then, Kobach has helped Arizona and Alabama write laws that effectively turn all law enforcement officers into immigration enforcement agents. He’s also been elected Secretary of State in Kansas. Oh, and he’s a Romney adviser.