Columnist James Pinkerton has an interesting article premised on the idea that Clinton's support for drivers licenses for illegals is "a slow hemorrhaging" that will finish her off in the general even as it's ignored during the primaries.

He analogizes her situation to that of Michael Dukakis in 1988. Dukakis was way out ahead of Bush 41 in the national polls after having shrugged off attacks from then-Senator Al Gore on the topic of prison furloughs during the primary.

I'll cut to the chase, but you should read it all:

Now fast-forward to 2007. I'm long out of partisan campaign politics, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reminds me a lot of Dukakis. As he was two decades ago, she's from a big state, has a lot of money, is ahead in the polls - and she's been grievously injured. This time, the issue isn't prison furloughs, but driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in her "home" state of New York. Clinton has broadly defended Gov. Eliot Spitzer's unpopular plan, even as most New Yorkers have reviled it.

During the Philadelphia debate of Democratic hopefuls on Oct. 30, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, aiming from way back in the Democratic pack, took a stab at Clinton. Her position was "troublesome," he said, adding, "I think the American people are reacting to it."

Yes, they are, but not inside the "nominating wing" of the Democratic Party, which doesn't worry about illegal immigration. So just as Gore failed to get anywhere in criticizing Dukakis 20 years ago, Dodd is not destined to get any lift from his Clinton criticism.

But the country, of course, is bigger than a few lefty-dominated presidential primaries and caucuses. If Spitzer can't sell his licenses-for-illegals plan to New Yorkers in 2007, how can Clinton hope to defend that plan to Americans in 2008?

This may explain why she's starting to backpedal.

CROWLEY: If I wrote a story that said: "Absent a broad illegal immigration bill, Hillary Clinton agrees about giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants," is that correct?

CLINTON: No. What I have said is that I support what governors are trying to do. And governors are on the front lines because of the failures to get comprehensive immigration reform.

One of the moron-commenters at Ace's said it best:

There's talk about the provision targeting Latinos, but the truth is that there are a lot of nationalities / races living in the US who arrived here illegally or overstay their visa and remain here illegally.  While some opponents of the measure may just dislike Latinos, I don't believe it is fair to say that resistance to extending the privilege of driving to those present in the US under less than full legal status is because most of the intended recipients are believed (for whatever real or imaginary reason) to be Latino.

I see no reason to round up all these good people and send them home, but I also don't see a reason to provide them with DLs.  Further, I think the whole debate only benefits the xenophobes, racists, etc.  

You can see the problem in how it's phrased: "giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants" i.e., Those crazy liberals always wanting to give things to people who don't deserve them.

I know nuance is not something politicians can do these days, but to support this policy without harming themselves with xenophobic voters Dems have to present it as balancing conflicting societal needs, not as a good in itself. Hillary seems to be the one who's most trying to do this, but even her statements are consistently poorly expressed.

What it comes down to is maintaining some minimum standards of competence for drivers, which benefits everyone on the roads every day, versus upholding immigration laws that are being massively flouted anyway and not being adjusted to deal with reality because of cynical political calculation.

In the USA, the Driver License Agreement (DLA) is a new compact [...]The goals of the DLA are to require each state to honor licenses issued by other member states; [...]In addition[...]the Provinces/Territories of Canada and the States/Federal District of Mexico can participate in the DLA.