BILL FRIST ON THE IMMIGRATION DEAL.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt is not happy. Just keep scrolling. Whether or not this is a good bill — which I’m not sure of one way or another — it’s likely to be political disaster for the GOP. Can you say “death wish?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey counsels calm: “As I wrote yesterday, this is about as good as we will get in this Congress. In fact, the Democrats probably had enough votes to pass something much more like a wide-open amnesty, given a few Republican votes in support of that and the relaxed attitude of the White House on immigration reform. The GOP did a pretty good job of holding the line and forcing the Democrats to include the border-first triggers, the reduction of the family interest, and the rest of what Kyl managed to retain. It’s not great, and it’s not even very good. It’s not bad, though.”

The big problem is the GOP leadership’s loss of credibility on this subject in recent years. As reader C.J. Burch emails: “Various boosters would have been better off explaining to the boostees that the fence should have come first. Would a fence have been merely a symbolic gesture? Probably, but its construction would have been a sign that Repubs weren’t cynically saying one thing and doing another…like they’re doing now. Like they did on the judges. Like they did on spending. Like they did on pork. Like they did on ethics reform. Like they’re doing with Iran. Like some of them are hoping to do with their support for the troops. Etc., Etc. ad infinitum. ” Indeed.

And Ace seems a bit upset.