The New York Times reports today that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D) has dropped his plan to issue licenses without regard to immigration status.

His original, correct decision to break the tie between driver licensing and immigration status met with hails of derision from anti-immigrant groups and his political opponents. He attempted to quell the outrage by agreeing to sign New York up for the federal government’s “REAL ID” national ID system, but this did not please anyone. So now he’s back at square one.

He said the state would put on hold the plan to adopt the Real ID, which has been championed by the Bush administration. The governor said he wanted to wait until federal regulations for Real ID licenses were issued next year before deciding how to proceed.

Now that he’s - ahem - studied the issues, one hopes he’ll recognize that REAL ID is costly, privacy-invasive, and ineffective, and he’ll decline to involve his state in the national ID program.