The Broome County Clerk, Richard Blythe (a Republican) appeared on the Tony Russell Talk Show on Friday, October 12 to discuss the impending policy change for DMVs by Governor Spitzer. (By the way, Talk with Tony is on 1290 AM Radio from 9-11:30 am Monday-Friday, and well worth listening to. Tony runs a good talk show.) Mr. Blythe indicated to Tony that the new policy changes by Governor Spitzer, which would allow illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses, is 98% “good stuff” and 2% “illegal alien stuff”. Apparently there are items in the policy change that have nothing to do with processing illegals that Mr. Blythe thinks are good. He may well be correct. His viewpoint is that since he’s an employee of the state he must obey the edicts handed down by his superiors. He also indicated that local DMVs are nothing more than conduits. That is, they take the information from applicants and it goes from the local DMV to Albany for approval or disapproval. The local DMV office does not grant or deny licenses–Albany does. This is pure semantics. Mr. Blythe, respectfully, it is the local DMV that enables (or not) whether someone will receive a driver’s license. You cannot “pass the buck” to Albany and absolve yourself from responsibility.

I don’t want to be too hard on Broome County Clerk Blythe. I do sympathize. It’s his job to follow orders from the “boss”–in this case the boss is the governor (Eliot “The Don” Spitzer) and the county executive (Barbara Fiala). But Mr. Blythe needs to remember he is an elected official. And when other elected officials decide to unilaterally change the law, or worse yet, demand subordinates do something harmful to citizens, it is incumbent on that official to STAND AGAINST IT. Mr. Blythe, you need to stand against this harmful policy. Your office needs to refuse to process or grant driver’s licenses to those without Social Security cards (i.e., illegal aliens). I appreciate your predicament–but know this–those who elected you to the office you hold will support you if you take a courageous stand. We will not forget your actions at the next election. I mean that not as a threat, but as an encouragement to do the right thing.

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