EDITORIAL TAKING A LOW ROAD REAL ID SHOULD RISE OR FALL ON ITS OWN MERITS.

REGARDLESS of what one thinks about the so-called Real ID bill, members of Congress should be able to vote the legislation up or down on the basis of its merits.

But that's a choice they won't have.

The legislation, which would effectively prohibit states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, would further hamstring states' ability to grapple with the illegal-immigration mess that Washington has created. And, in an act of all-too-common political duplicity, Republican congressional leaders have rolled the measure into an $81 billion Iraq war appropriations bill.

So opponents of the Real ID Act now face a needless dilemma: Do they vote for legislation they consider harmful, or vote against it, thereby putting themselves on the record as opposing the delivery of key supplies to our soldiers overseas?

Real ID or, for that matter, any piece of legislation ought to be able to pass on its own. Combining unrelated pieces of legislation to force a yes vote is an abuse of power that undermines representative government.

This is cheap politics at its worst.