Oh, John. You wacky maverick, you.

Republicans and democrats agree: Americans would look good with chipped ear tags. And they’d be ever so much easier to inventory.

Both [McCain and Schumer] also endorsed a new biometric Social Security card for use by all Americans seeking employment. The goal would be to thwart illegal immigration in the future by making it harder to forge a Social Security card and easier for employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

Not sure about McCain, that small-government republican, but Schumer and others have been beating the “tag’em at birth” drum for years. Supposedly it’s a measure to protect the children from the Brown Menace. In practice it always seems to involve giving the feds veto power on whether you’re allowed to work for a living. Never understood the attraction of that with supposedly freedom-loving conservatives who fear illegal aliens Über Alles.