I’m trying hard to convince myself that this is actually a devilishly clever scheme by Graham to set a political trap for Democrats by pushing the issue now.

But I’m losing the argument.

“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO on Tuesday. “One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.”

For the past six months, Graham and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — who meet with Obama at 3 p.m. Thursday — have worked on a reform framework. Their plan, which hasn’t been introduced yet, includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (a liberal must-have) while sweetening the pot for moderates by proposing tough new safeguards, including a biometric national ID card for workers…

Graham said he wants a greater sense of direction to break the cycle of distrust that doomed comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush administration, despite the support of a Republican president and major party figures like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“I think moderate Democrats have to come on board before you get Republicans, and Republicans have to come on board before you get Democrats,” said Graham…

The hope … is to build a consensus around a measure that could pass sometime in the not too distant, non-election-year future.

They know they’ll never get Blue Dogs to commit this year, so the idea is … what? To woo a bunch of centrist Democrats now who might very well end up being tossed out in November anyway? Even if they brought a few around, is there even a single Republican who’d move an inch on this with the tea party crowd watching suspiciously? McCain supposedly hasn’t so much as spoken to Graham about it and top RINO Susan Collins says she’s “not even thinking about it.” The best I can do to justify Graham’s lobbying is to imagine that it’s kabuki designed to impress upon Latino voters how reluctant The One is to fulfill his promise to them. (“[D]elay obviously adds to disillusionment,” says amnesty shill Robert Menendez.) See, it’s the Republicans who want to get to work on this, so open-borders advocates should vote (or rather, not vote) accordingly in November — never mind the fact that watching the GOP inevitably backtrack from that posture if/when the bill does come to the floor next year will only irritate amnesty supporters more. Is that what he’s up to, or is he … really this intent on cramming legalization down America’s piehole? I want to believe.