Politics Now

Gov. Eliot Spitzer continued beating back what he called the “rabid right" for opposing his new policy to permit illegal immigrants to obtain New York State drivers’ licenses.

“The rabid right that wants to pile on and use this to demagogue the issue will not carry the day in the State of New York," Spitzer said in Albany today.

With his policy under mounting criticism, Spitzer has sought to characterize opponents as right-wing extremists who are anti-immigrant.

And just who are these opponents? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been known to tilt left on occasion. Toss in former Republican NYC mayor and presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani and former Democratic mayor Ed Koch, who sometimes even gets called the “L" word.

Some district attorneys have come out against it. The union representing federal border patrol agents says it’s dangerous. So, too, does John Lehman, a member of the federal commission that investigated the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks. OK, well, he’s a conservative.

Also in the “opposed’’ column are county clerks (a group not known as a bastion of conservatism, or liberalism for that matter), an assortment of Democratic lawmakers, a Democratic member of Congress, a Democratic county executive.

“Those who have ignored the issue of immigration for 20 years and now want to come back and say, ‘Oh my goodness, look at the problem that is out there.’ They are the ones who have created this," Spitzer said of the illegal immigrant problem.

“We’re governing. We’re not playing partisan politics," he added.

-- Tom Precious