Our boy governor has a grown up grasp of political grandstanding, as he demonstrated in his O’Fallon speech Tuesday.

Obviously, he had taken a look at the latest Rasmussen poll, which had him three points behind Jay Nixon (46-43), and had zeroed in on the most obvious way to ingratiate himself with Missouri voters:  “74% of voters favor a state law making it illegal for businesses to hire illegal aliens.”

So Blunt promised to crack down on contractors hired by the state if they employ illegals. That’s crack down as in, conduct random onsite inspections of companies contracting with the state and, if the inspectors ask for documentation for workers that might be illegal, require the contractors to provide it within thirty days. 

Or else.  “Else” being:

“If the state uncovers illegal workers the first step will be to work through ICE and authorized state law enforcement to take appropriate action,” the release said. “Next, tax credits recipients may be subject to action by law and policy, including the five year ban from accessing any state programs as provided under current law.”

Blah-da-blah, blah-da-blah. Cover your mouth when you yawn. 

The governor calls it a “tough new strategy”–maybe even tough enough to undo the damage caused when the state got caught contracting with Sam’s Janitorial Services, a company which employed dozens of illegals with falsified documents.

But his tough talk would be more believable if he hadn’t opposed an amendment by House Democrats (on the economic development plan) to require that companies that hire illegals pay back any tax credits they’ve received.

Instead of Blunt’s “may be subject to action by law and policy” (what the?!), the Democrats provided a specific penalty.  And he shot them down.