ENDURANCE. The longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House is the current Speaker. Editorial writers at the Chicago Tribune note,

It is often noted that President Bush has never vetoed a bill. One reason: [Speaker] Hastert has never let a bill leave the House that Bush felt the need to reject.

They also have a suggestion.

The place, unfortunately, is still full of poisonous politics. We don't mean to blame Hastert for that. He has, for the most part, avoided the kind of venomous rhetoric that has become so pervasive in American politics. But an atmosphere of intense partisanship remains, and Hastert has done little to dispel that. That partisanship has no doubt contributed to the public's generally dim view of Congress. Hastert could go a long way toward changing that if he were, say, to negotiate a compromise on the intensely partisan issue of immigration reform.

There can be no compromise without a better understanding of the tradeoffs. That's a research project I'm currently working on. Any reform that makes entry more difficult imposes two costs: the cost of the additional fencing, and the lost cheap-labor subsidy illegal immigrants provide. But if the reform involves additional fencing as well as less burdensome legal application procedures for skilled migrants, a proposal I do not disagree with, there might be gains that offset the lost cheap-labor subsidies. (Economics in two words: "It depends.")