A few days old but rescued from obscurity by CNS News. Come on now: As much as you may hate him, surely a little respect is owed here for having the sheer balls to invoke Christian teachings to justify a vote that many grassroots righties are bristling at. It’s bad enough that he’d cross the aisle to support Kagan — but then to bring JC onstage for a celebratory high-five? Audaciously audacious!

Speaking of audacious, NRO poses a question to the man known as Grahamnesty: Aren’t you pushing this birthright citizenship amendment simply to help broker an amnesty deal? To which Graham says, yep:

FOSTER: Isn’t a bit of this, frankly, strategic? Aren’t you looking for ways to bring conservatives on board with the more comprehensive immigration reform that you favor? Is that fair to say?

GRAHAM: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that I need to go home to South Carolina and say: listen, I know we’re all upset that we have 12-14 million people illegally. I’m going to have to be practical. We’re not going to deport or jail 12-14 million people. A practical solution is not awarding this citizenship on day one, but to allow them to stay here on our terms, learn our language, pay a fine, hold a job, and apply for citizenship through the legal process by getting in the back of the legal line.

That to me is a practical solution. But, I have to be able to say, as part of doing that, we looked at all the incentives that led to the 12-13 million coming, and we changed them. That we did secure our border, unlike any other time in the past, that we now have laws that make it possible to verify employment; we now have a temporary worker program that will allow people to come here and work on our terms temporarily, and help our employers with labor when they can’t find American labor. I have to be able to say that, because I think most Americans are willing to clean this mess up. They’re not willing to perpetuate it.

Does that mean he won’t support an amnesty bill unless and until a birthright citizenship amendment passes? No, of course not. What this really is, I’m sure, is a way for him to prove his enforcement bona fides to conservatives at the eleventh hour, in hopes that they’ll back a deal negotiated by a guy who really wanted a birthright amendment even though he couldn’t actually get one. Think it’ll work? Ahem.

For what it’s worth, his approval rating among Republican likely voters in South Carolina stands at a pretty shiny 54 percent. That primary challenge ain’t gonna be as easy as you think. Exit question via the Right Scoop: When do Democrats start applying the Golden Rule to Republican judicial nominations? Because Obama sure didn’t do it for Sam Alito.