Interesting confluence of events:

1). Over at Hot Air, the esteemed Allah notes that President George W. Bush appears to be backing off the thus far only rumored initiative to secure the U.S. southern border with military support for the border patrol. Not much revealed in the Reuters story rises to the level of official policy statement, so it's probably best not to get too worked up about it just yet.

2). The president is giving a speech on immigration tomorrow night.

3). This just came in via e-mail from a listserv comprised of core members of the anti-illegal-immigrant conservative base - folks who are literally in the physical fray as well as the political one, and winning both, in the effort to reform policies on illegal immigration.

We need to get the word out to our elected officals.

We are watching you, and are not happy with what we see. November is a few short months away.

Your political future is in our hands, the choices you make now decide your fate.

What Bush fails to see at the border

TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Ronald F. Maxwell
April 6, 2006

Dear President Bush, Perhaps you know me from my work. I wrote and directed the movies "Gettysburg" and "Gods and Generals." Walking Civil War battlefields, soaking up the letters and diaries of that generation, re-creating the world of our ancestors -- all this has given me a deep appreciation for our country. My dad was with the Army Air Corps in North Africa while your dad was in the Pacific. My French mother was liberated in Tunisia and became a lawful immigrant to the United States. For an American, my story is unique and typical at the same time...

What is happening on the southern border is unprecedented. Not only in our own history, but in the history of the world. No country at any time anywhere has sustained the influx of tens of millions of foreigners across its borders. A wave of anti-American leftism is sweeping Latin America. A socialist radical may soon be elected as the president of Mexico, a country which officially encourages its emigrants to vote in Mexican elections, urging them to think of themselves as Mexican first and perhaps only. The eventual outcome is plain for anyone with eyes to see. This is invasion masquerading as immigration...

3). In Human Events, Congressman Tom Tancredo writes:

President Bush will deliver a televised address to the nation tonight on immigration policy. It is his first address from the Oval Office on immigration, and if it not successful, it may be his last.

4). Finally, I say the following: President George W. Bush, as we noted over two years ago, this immigration issue is a big problem in the eyes of many Americans, and it is a big political problem for you.

The chickens took longer to come home to roost than we anticipated.

But now that they're here, it's a veritable chicken blizzard, sir.

And now, tomorrow night's speech stands as the defining moment of your presidency. You will either lose the base, or keep them. If the former, you will likely get impeached after the Democrats win the House in November.

Here's how to NOT lose the base: Understand that weasel words are fatal when visceral issues are the core of the debate. Ixnay on the est-gay orker-way. Forget "path to citizenship." In terms of language and debate, the people who are concerned about illegal immigration are akin to someone with a knife stuck in their shoulder. They don't give a crap what anyone argues - they want the problem solved NOW. The knife in the arm is America's unsecured border. There are other problems that need to be solved, but that's the gaping wound.

Without a wall along the border's entire length, that wound remains open.

Your best move would be to spend 10 minutes of the 20-minute speech describing the physical characteristics of the "Southern Wall" or "Southern Fence": how tall, roads, watchtowers, etc. And the fact construction begins immediately.

A lot of very interested people will be watching, Mr. President. Heck, spend 15 minutes on the construction topic.

UPDATE: This, for example, is what NOT to say tonight, Mr. President:

The immigration reform bill that the Senate takes up today would more than double the flow of legal immigration into the United States each year and dramatically lower the skill level of those immigrants.

The number of extended family members that U.S. citizens or legal residents can bring into this country would double. More dramatically, the number of workers and their immediate families could increase sevenfold if there are enough U.S. employers looking for cheap foreign labor. Another provision would grant humanitarian visas to any woman or orphaned child anywhere in the world "at risk of harm" because of age or sex.

The little-noticed provisions are part of legislation co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida, which overcame some early stumbles and now has bipartisan support in the Senate. The bill also has been praised by President Bush, and he is expected to endorse it as a starting point for negotiations in his prime-time address to the nation tonight

No, here's what the Hagel-Martinez bill is: a starting point for the Constitution Party.

Who are they? Well, let's just listen to the president's speech tonight, first. If he takes my recommendation, there's no need to bother. If he says anything remotely along the lines of Hagel-Martinez, we'll delve in, all right - it will be our number 2 topic of all time.