Brace yourself. I have something good to say about George W. Bush.

But I’ll probably end up taking it back.

Bush went to Orange County, California, Monday. He talked about immigration. And he spoke out clearly against the anti-immigrant demagogues in his own party:

“I know this is an emotional debate…but one thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings.”

He’s right. Right many Republicans have lost sight of that.

Bush went on. He dismissed one of the demagogues’ favorite proposals:

“Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic. It’s just not going to work.”

Way to go, George. I give you an atta-boy.

But here comes the part where I take it back.

It turns out he was talking to 300 business owners. It turns out he was telling them they shouldn’t be penalized for hiring illegal immigrants.

In other words, this wasn’t a heartfelt speech about immigrants who are “decent human beings.” It was about a key political constituency that makes decent political contributions.

Well, I tried to say something nice.