Something strange is happening aboard the National Review Alaska cruise. This troubling dispatch dropped into the NRHQ inbox yesterday: 
Either Jonah Goldberg has entered Witness Protection, or he's gone full Rachel Dolezal. We'll keep you posted. Kasich Is In. Whoop. Everyone relax. We're saved. Republican candidate No. 16: Ohio governor John Kasich. As the sole candidate from a must-win swing state, Kasich is likely to make waves. And, of course, he has credentials -- executive experience as governor, legislative experience as an 18-year member of the House -- and a promising approval rating (hovering around 60 percent). But what he brings to the table policy- or personality-wise is, well, less clear. He is notorious among many conservatives for expanding Medicaid, he has proposed a tax on fracking, he has said he is open to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. And he is known, too, for his short temper, recently vented against . . . health-care wonk Avik Roy. But if winning conservatives is not your plan, then Kasich is looking good. I'll leave the wrap-up here to Allahpundit: Every national primary needs a Jon Huntsman figure who'll sneer at conservatives and at whom conservatives will sneer right back. That's Kasich. They share a common strategy, betting everything on a surprise win in New Hampshire, and they have at least three key advisors in common, including noted tea-party enemy John Weaver. Kasich, in fact, has been more combative with his right-wing detractors than Huntsman ever was, despite the latter's reputation. They're peas in a pod. Ask President Huntsman how well that strategy worked. Katie Steinle Was No Outlier Katie Steinle's murder by Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant deported five times from the States, has led the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing not-so-subtly titled "Oversight of the Administration's Misdirected Immigration Enforcement Policies: Examining the Impact on Public Safety and Honoring the Victims," held this week. Senators heard testimony from the family members of Americans killed by illegal immigrants. For example, Laura Wilkerson: My son's name was Joshua Wilkerson. On November 16, 2010, he was beaten, strangled, tortured until he died. He was tied up, thrown in a field, and set on fire. His killer, Hermilo Moralez, was brought here illegally by his illegal parents when he was ten years old, so he fit the 'DREAM' kid description. He was sentenced to life in prison, which means it will be 30 years before he's up for parole. He'll be a 49-year-old man, who I don't expect to be deported. And I just hope he doesn't come to live in your city. There's much more where that came from. Via Fox News: A Massachusetts woman killed as she slept in her bed by a bullet fired through her ceiling would be alive today, if the men accused of shooting her had been deported, according to anti-illegal immigration activists. Mirta Rivera, 41, a nurse and grandmother from Lawrence, was shot July 4 from an upstairs apartment where two illegal immigrants lived despite being under federal deportation orders, according to the Boston Herald. Dominican Republic nationals Wilton Lara-Calmona and Jose M. Lara-Mejia both had long histories of sneaking into the U.S. . . . Lara-Calmona, 38, was deported in April 2012 and arrested for re-entering the country last November, the Herald reported. Lara-Mejia, 35, was nabbed crossing the border in August 2013 and ordered deported in April 2014, but apparently ignored the ruling. The suspects and a third roommate, Christopher Paganmoux, were charged with trafficking heroin and cocaine after police investigating the shooting found drugs in their home. Meanwhile: In Norwich, Conn., Jean Jacques, 40, a Haitian illegal immigrant who got out of prison in January after serving 17 years for attempted murder, has been charged with stabbing Casey Chadwick, 25, to death and stuffing her in a closet last month. I know, I know: #notallundocumentedworkers. But this is the point at which the president's "prosecutorial discretion" argument falls apart. As a matter of pure practicality, it makes sense to prioritize the deportation of the violent, etc. But the administration has done its best to use that argument from practicality to obscure the matter of principle here -- which is that all illegal immigrants are, by definition, criminals. That's what "illegal immigrant" means; it's not a slur, it's a fact. The current administration (with the help of "sanctuary" jurisdictions, etc.) has done its best to advance the notion that the "real" problem is the fraction of illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes, and that the rest are lawbreakers we can tolerate. But the default position of a nation of laws must be against lawlessness -- even lawlessness committed by those with compassionate motives. We can, and ought to, expel the Wilton Lara-Calmonas and Jose Lara-Mejias, certainly, but it's delusional to think that, as long as we countenance the lawlessness of millions of people inside the United States, we will ever truly be rid of them. Who Doesn't Trust Hillary? Everybody. Finally: Take presidential polls with that proverbial grain of salt -- but this one does seem important. Via CNN: Hillary Clinton trails three top Republican presidential candidates in head-to-head matchups in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, a new survey shows. The latest Quinnipiac University swing state polling released Wednesday shows the Democratic frontrunner trailing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in each of those states. . . . In Colorado, Clinton trails Rubio 38%-46%, Bush 36%-41% and Walker 38%-47%. In Iowa, she trails Rubio 36%-44%, Bush 36%-42% and Walker 37%-45%. And in Virginia, Clinton has the narrowest margins between her and her Republican opponents, where she lags behind Rubio 41%-43%, Bush 39%-42% and Walker 40%-43%. But here's the real problem: In Colorado, only 34% of voters said they see Clinton as honest and trustworthy while 62% said they don't. In Iowa, the numbers were 33% to 59% -- a drop from 45% to 47% in April. And in Virginia, Clinton did best, at 39% saying they trust her to 55% saying they don't. Look at those Colorado numbers again: Two-thirds of folks polled don't trust Hillary Clinton? This is a yuuuuuuuuge problem for the Clinton campaign. Unlike with Republican candidates, swing voters can make these sorts of judgments about Hillary because she's a known entity (for godssake, she's been strutting her pantsuit across the national stage for three decades). And no matter how many re-re-re-introductions the Clinton campaign performs, it's the same old Hillary. Which means that, on the subject of Herself, voters are likely to take their cue from Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy: "My good opinion once lost is lost forever." It's not obvious that, at the end of the day, left-leaning swing voters will vote GOP. But they may not vote at all, and that could be just as bad for Democrats. We can hope. ADDENDUM: Today's entry in the Annals of the Regulatory State: The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers is accusing the Department of Energy (DOE) of a politically motivated drive to increase dishwasher efficiency standards, which are so bad that they would cause consumers to re-wash dishes, erasing any efficiency gains. Rob McAver, the group's head lobbyist, said regulators are going too far and the new rules will allow only 3.1 gallons to be used to wash each load of dishes. . . . Some of the group's members, which include companies like GE Appliances & Lighting and Whirlpool Corp., tweaked their models to comply with the DOE's December proposal to ratchet up standards. They then ran standard tests with food stuck to dishes. "They found some stuff that was pretty disgusting," McAver said. We're cooked. Put a fork in us. If you can find one that's clean. | 
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