Cinco de Mayo at the White House

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A year and a day have passed since President Obama got a little jump on Cinco de Mayo at the White House with a slip of the tongue on May 4: ‘Cinco de quatro,’’ Obama called that holiday-eve celebration last year -- Five of four.

On Wednesday, the White House celebration of the Mexican holiday honoring military victory over the French comes right on time, with the president planning to host a Cinco de Mayo evening reception in the Rose Garden.

It’s a nice, clear, warm spring day for it. The event, in modern American times, has come to revolve around not so much Mexican military heroes as a certain commercial persona known as Jose Cuervo. And on this certain celebratory Fifth, it seems that a fifth never quite suffices.

But in the midst of a stirring debate over immigration reform in Washington -- and an exploding debate in Arizona, where the state is trying to crack down on illegal immigrants -- it’s likely that the president also will have something to say Wednesday about his vision for comprehensive laws toughening the borders and creating paths for citizenship for many of the up to 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

For more details, see The Swamp

-- Mark Silva