You probably can make a good argument for giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. And you probably can make a good argument against it.

But you can't make both arguments at the same time. And you can't explain either in 30 seconds.

Which Hillary Clinton found out during a presidential primary debate in Philadelphia last week.

During a "lightning round" that required 30-second answers, NBC's Tim Russert said: "Sen. Clinton, Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer has proposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. (You) told the Nashua, N.H., editorial board it makes a lot of sense. Why does it make a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license?"

Clinton replied that what "Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform" and that New York needed to know who was driving on its highways.

Chris Dodd disagreed, saying a driver's license was a privilege and illegal immigrants should not get licenses.

And this is where Clinton went wrong: She tried to finesse her previous answer.

"Well, I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done," she said, "but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do (it)."

Ka-blam!

Her opponents now had all the ammunition they needed to attack her for being a double-talker. Lost in the controversy that followed the debate was any real discussion about what is wrong and what is right with giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

It is an explosive issue. In 2003, California Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in part for supporting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected on a platform of repealing such a plan.

Why should illegal immigrants get any privileges at all? After all, they broke the law to get here. Why give them anything?

Well, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the real test is what is best for the country.

In Plyler v. Doe, the court ruled 5 to 4 that states had to educate children who were in this country illegally.

To refuse them public education would lead to "the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare and crime," the court said.

So you could argue it is a good idea to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants because illegal immigrants will take driver's education classes, pass driving tests, buy insurance, register their cars and be better, safer drivers, leading to a better, safer America.

To which critics say: Yeah, right.

They say if someone broke the law to get into this country, he is not going to follow the law to get a driver's license.

Also, critics say, we are in a post-Sept. 11 world, where a driver's license is more than a license to drive.

It is a way to get on an airplane or into a secure building, and if we grant driver's licenses to illegals, we weaken our security.

And why would an illegal immigrant want any contact with officialdom, anyway? Why would an illegal immigrant go down to a motor vehicles bureau and sign up for anything?

To get work. If you need a driver's license to get a job, you are going to get a driver's license. Several states currently grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, and illegals line up for them because their employers demand it.

Could illegal immigrants get phony driver's licenses? Sure. Underage high school and college students do it all the time to get served in bars. But employers might submit licenses to a little greater scrutiny than bartenders do. So illegal immigrants will get legal driver's licenses if they can.

Which is part of the problem, critics say. What we need to do is stop illegal immigration at our borders and get employers to stop hiring illegal immigrants. That way, those here illegally will eventually leave.

A pipe dream, others say. There are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, and they are not going anywhere. They are part of American life and the American economy. And they are going to drive cars. So it is better to have them driving with licenses and insurance than driving without.

"It is a very difficult problem with no simple answer," says Bruce Morrison, an immigration expert. "So when it comes to solving the problem, we take to our respective corners and call each other names. This is politics in the 21st century."

To find out more about Roger Simon, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007, CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.