That's the voice, I say, of common sense: the apprehension of what works and what doesn't work; what one deserves and another doesn't. Common sense says that, even in situations where the maintenance of law is imperfect, you don't engender respect for law by rewarding transgressors.

Ah. But that's common sense -- a commodity that modern politics instructs us not to worry about when large voting blocs want something, or think they do.

Group entitlement -- this I want, so gimme -- rests upon an assumption of inherent rights. Thus, I may not be here legally, but look how hard I work, and what if -- here's the kicker -- some day I get to vote?

The privileges and immunities of citizenship formerly got conferred after some exertion on the part of the newly arrived. It's been a long time since exertion cut much ice with policymakers more intent on playing ethnic politics than with insisting on some degree of performance prior to the conferral of rights. Not even in the public schools is there much sense of a duty, an overriding necessity, to perform on tests in order to qualify for advancement.

As for a driver's license, and what the possession of one signifies in terms of personal responsibility -- shall we just acknowledge that responsibility isn't the point in New York; that vote-courting and -counting is the point?

The present value of denying a request for the automatic fruits of citizenship or the proofs of personal responsibility is so low you have to stoop to notice it. Of course the New York Democrats can always make it lower, with a little help from the voters.