For the next six months, John McCain will be the most powerful Senator on Capitol Hill. Maverick no more, McCain should seize his newfound stature within “the world’s greatest deliberative body” to take five steps necessary to convince Americans that he has finally learned his lesson about our nation’s dangerously porous borders.

If McCain is serious about border security (he recently called the “virtual” fence in Arizona a “disaster”), here’s a short list of things McCain can do NOW to prove that he is truly willing to work with us. (McCain will never be one of us when it comes to the illegal alien invasion of this country, but, as I used to tell my clients when I was practicing law, “Half a loaf is better than none at all.”)

1. Fund The Fence. Yes, I know the Constitution requires that spending bills originate in the House of Representatives. But McCain, as the second-highest ranking minority member of the Senate Commerce Committee, is in a position to link the funding and progress of other politician’s cherished projects with real support for a REAL fence. [Note: I would prefer a wall].

A congresswoman from New Jersey is carrying a bill for her state’s pharmaceutical companies? She’ll have to agree to fund the fence if she wants McCain’s support in reporting the bill out of committee. A Democrat senator wants to add an “environmental protection rider to a trade bill? If he agrees to fund the fence, maybe there’s something to talk about. You get the picture.

And, while he’s at it, McCain can introduce the Senate version of H.R. 5124, Rep. Duncan Hunter’s bill to require the government to build at least 700 miles of 14-foot-high, double-layered fencing WITHIN SIX MONTHS.

Action on the fence, more than anything, will convince Americans that McCain has seen the light.

2. Demand Chertoff’s Resignation. The one man who symbolizes the abject failure of this Administration to secure our borders is Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. McCain should call for Chertoff’s immediate resignation.

This is a win-win-win issue for McCain. Many Americans dislike Chertoff because of his department’s intrusive and ineffective airport security measures, including the insipid Shoe Carnival. (Thank goodness Richard Reid didn’t hide a bomb in his underwear). A demand for Chertoff’s resignation would distance McCain from the White

House on the issue of border security – appealing to voters with Bush fatigue. Since a sitting senator can’t unilaterally remove a Cabinet officer, McCain would receive credit for taking a strong position even though he wouldn’t be able to follow through until Inauguration Day.

Chertoff is particularly loathed by enforcement-first conservatives because Chertoff is the point man in the Administration’s masterplan to NOT build the border fence. Chertoff advocated the smoke-and-mirrors “virtual fence” which – surprise! – does not work. Continued...