In their defense, Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue could be right: It may be political suicide to support letting illegal immigrants get educated at North Carolina’s community colleges.

After all, even the sainted Terry Sanford lied in 1960. To beat segregationist Beverly Lake, Sanford had to say he supported desegregated schools.

And, to her credit, Perdue said the issue shouldn’t get involved in selecting a new head for the community college system.

But, years from now, neither Perdue nor Moore will look back with pride on their pandering to what is just plain old racism dressed up in new clothes.

Two politicians deserve credit for showing guts on the issue.

Governor Easley said:

“The people we are talking about were brought here as babies and young children through no fault of their own. They distinguished themselves throughout our K-12 system. Now, I’m not willing to grind my heel in their faces and slam the door on them.”

Of course, Easley’s not running for anything.

So the real Profile in Courage was Mike Huckabee. He had the guts to stand up in a Republican presidential pack that looked ready to form up a posse and track down a few illegal aliens for the scaffold. Here’s what Huckabee said:

“In all due respect, we’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We’re a better country than that.”

And we Democrats should be better than that.

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