Opinion

ELIOT’S MIRACLE MACHINES

Just last Friday, Gov. Spitzer hung a plea for his dubious drivers-li censes-for-terrorists plan on the claim that it would impose “the strictest set of security measures” in America.

Oops. A news report yesterday said that, when tested, fake IDs routinely slipped past Spitzer’s supposedly super-smart “state-of-the-art document-authentication machines,” as the gov calls them.

“The machines are supposed to work,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying. “They don’t.”

Well, that’s not very reassuring.

Nor did Spitzer deny it.

Rather, his aides canceled a press conference meant to show off the new gadgets. And the governor said only that “when the technology is tested, implemented, ready to go, then we will begin” the program.

The state won’t roll out the devices, Spitzer promised, until they’ve been “tested and verified from every possible perspective.”

Now there’s an odd notion story: Eliot Spitzer – Mr. Flexible.

It’s about time.

Now, if he’d only step back and see just how dangerous his plan is and why 72 percent of New Yorkers oppose it, rather than pooh-poohing the “fear-mongering” of the “rabid right.”

But then, how is it that Spitzer can be so confident that his “technology” will ever address the concerns about the plan – in which applicants would get licenses regardless of their immigration status?

“With the new anti-fraud security measures . . . our ability to prove a person is who they say they are will increase, not decrease,” Spitzer boasted.

He talked of “document-scanning and -authentication machines,” “radio-frequency identification chips,” an “enhanced identification verification unit” and his “highly effective . . . facial recognition technology.”

“Each of these security measures,” he claimed, has “proven out on their own.”

Apparently not.

And if Spitzer was unaware of the devices’ failures, how can New Yorkers trust him when he says his program will boost security?

They can’t.

Indeed, even if the gadgets work flawlessly (let alone, at all), the fact is that his plan is to let illegal immigrants get licenses that will help give them access to a range of activities – driving, boarding planes, renting apartments or Ryder vans – that could prove deadly if they’re terrorists.

If Spitzer thinks fixing a few bugs in some newfangled machines will make his plan less dangerous, he’s mistaken.

He needs to scrap it altogether.

It’s as simple as that.