Why the Heritage Foundation is getting its butt kicked by Cato

You don't have to go much farther to understand the ideological break up of the Republican Party than the Heritage Foundation's support for an internal US passport. See Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns. Cato, on the other hand, is right: a national ID card is more about illegal immigration than national security.

And Mr. "Shared Responsibility" Chertoff should be credited for being able to say without smirking that he's part of a Republican administration and that: "This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes." Which, of course, means that those of you living in those 20+ states opposed to this plan will either have to suck it up or start using your US passport to board planes, trains and buses.

Chertoff, of course, assures us that our privacy is guaranteed and that the government would never abuse this information. In other words, he's from the government and he's here to help. (Makes you wonder what Reagan would think of his party these days...)

So I guess this means that if I'm in favor of small government and opposed to unfunded mandates, I'm a Democrat?