“The policies of the United States are simply moronic and self-destructive.”

Those were Lou Dobbs’ opening words when Leslie Stahl interviewed him on the CBS program 60 Minutes last night at 7 PM EDT.

As the long-time host of MoneyLine, Lou Dobbs made reporting on business and economics fashionable. As a champion of capitalism and friend of corporate CEOs, he described the benefits that accrue to all of us when corporations flourish. But the excesses of greed, highlighted by the Enron scandal, caused a sea change in his approach. He became concerned about the erosion of the middle class, the backbone of American society.

He began to realize that corporate cost reduction and profitability strategies such as “free trade,” outsourcing, and permissiveness toward illegal immigration were endangering the American way of life. He became an outspoken critic of illegal immigration on his CNN program Lou Dobbs Tonight. He noted in particular the burden of providing food stamps for illegals falling on the American taxpayer and the overcrowding with non-English speaking students degrading our school systems. He certainly touched a nerve with the American viewing public. His ratings have doubled in the last two years.

Accused by detractors of no longer being a legitimate journalist because of his well-known political positions, he describes himself as an “advocacy journalist.” Journalism is, after all, supposed to be reporting the facts. And if a newsperson gets the facts right, what difference should it make if the viewing public knows what his personal viewpoint is? One might argue that this is a more honest approach than that taken by so-called neutral mainstream mediacrats with their not-so-well-hidden liberal bias. Lou Dobbs says simply, “I … insist that the audience know where I come from.” How refreshing!

As a farmboy growing up in rural Texas and Idaho, Harvard graduate Lou Dobbs worked alongside Mexican immigrants in the fields picking crops, and describes them as honest and hard-working. His quarrel is not with immigrants but with illegal immigrants, an important distinction. Farming is in his blood — he currently lives on a farm in New Jersey with his wife of many years and his mother and her parents. It is a large and loving American family, steeped in traditional values.

During a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic caucus, the disingenuous congressmen accused Dobbs of racism. They asked if he had ever eaten a taco or an enchillada, as if that were a rational measure of political motivation! Clearly they hadn’t done their homework. Lou’s beloved wife Debbie is Mexican-American.

Lou Dobbs has never advocated deportation for the estimated eleven-to-twenty million illegal aliens already living here. Nevertheless, he was asked if he thought such a thing is possible. He replied, “I think this country can do anything it sets its mind to.”

Here’s one clue that those soaring viewer ratings have influence with the big network executives. Lou Dobbs has just joined the CBS Early Morning Show as a weekly commentator.