There are times when Navarrette makes sense and other times where he’s just a brown Lou Dobbs, but I guess I agree with him half of the time.

San Diego’s Ruben Navarrette seems to be asking the same questions as DosCentavos.  Will President Obama have the Presidential backbone to push through comprehensive immigration reform?

Given Homeland Security’s Napolitano’s statement which called for it, there was a lot of hope.  But much like Navarrette and many of us noticed, Napolitano and Obama seem to have left the work to Congress.  Let’s face it, when Democrats in Congress have been less than effective on the public option, can they be trusted with CIR without a Presidential prod to their backs?

Navarrette also reminds us of the good ol’ days when the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were pushed by the White House.

But then Napolitano punted, and thus accepted the status quo. Despite persuasively making the case for immigration reform and spelling out what reform should look like, Napolitano ended her remarks in retreat. “When Congress is ready to act,” she said, “we will be ready to support them.”

Come again? When Congress is ready to act? Congress is never ready to act on difficult issues that make enemies and threaten the comfy jobs of its members. Witness the complete abdication of leadership on one of the most difficult issue of all – fixing Medicare and Social Security. It’s true that, as a matter of constitutional law, legislation comes from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue and not the other. But it’s also true that the tough issues don’t get dealt with without firm leadership from the White House. Can you imagine, in the 1960s, Congress tackling the necessary but radioactive issue of civil rights without a nudge from Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson?

It’s time for leadership, rather than political gamesmanship.  It’s time, again, to do what is right.