Bush calls bill "amnesty," then beats hasty retreat

WASHINGTON — If there is one thing President Bush has been clear about regarding the immigration bill before the Senate, it is that the measure does not amount to amnesty. More than most people, Bush knows that "amnesty" has become a radioactive term in the debate.

But as the Senate prepared to resume discussion of the bill Tuesday, Bush inadvertently unleashed the slur on his own bill. Worse, he did it during a speech intended to give a final push to the measure.

"You know, I've heard all the rhetoric — you've heard it, too — about how this is amnesty," Bush told supporters of the bill at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that."

Say what?

Before long, an aide issued a rare retraction of the president's words.

"Earlier today, in speaking about comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush misspoke," press secretary Tony Snow said in an e-mail. "This has been construed as an assertion that the comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the Senate offers amnesty to immigrants who came here illegally. That is the exact opposite of the president's long-held and often-stated position."