Immigration debate puts up a wall in the GOP: Republicans Eating Their Own

[133724]

Pursue Latino voters or please the party's base? The Senate overhaul bill reveals a split on what political road is best for Republicans.

WASHINGTON — The roiling congressional debate over a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants has rekindled a bitter fight in the Republican Party over the best strategy to restore the GOP to political dominance — with each side accusing the other of following a course that would destroy the party for decades.

...

Two conservative senators were booed by Republican crowds in their home states last week for endorsing the legalization effort. And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked the Bush-backed plan as the "Destroy the Republican Party Act."

...

Some argue that new citizens may be more likely to vote Democratic, so strategically it makes little sense to increase their numbers. Limbaugh, with an estimated 13 million listeners each week, described the Senate legislation as Democrats "getting a brand new electorate, reshaping it and being able to win election after election after election."

...

The grass-roots anger at the party elite was on display last week in Georgia and South Carolina, when Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were heckled by otherwise friendly Republican audiences for their support of the immigration measure. Graham was booed when he mentioned that Bush understood the politics of the issue and performed well among Latinos.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig27may27,0,4722393.story?page=2&coll=la-home-center

[whistle]

1. G.O.P. as a party is falling apart and I could not be more delighted

[TwilightGardener]

2. I hate little brown people! But I love big business profiting off of them! Oh, which to choose?

[tularetom]

3. The big bidness repubs are going to win this and the dumshits

will have no place to go. Maybe enough of 'em will sit out the '08 election to give the Dem president a veto proof majority in the senate.

[pingzing58]

4. Mexican nationals are fiscal conservatives; anti-tax and social programs;

hard working pull yourself up by your own bootstraps; and
right wing religious.  It's 4th and 5th generation Americans
of Mexican descent who remember the forced repatriation and
expulsion of Mexican Americans in 1930 (look up the
Repatriation Act) who fought for equal access to education,
etc., in the 1960's who are Democrats.  As Catholics we've
been pressured by our Bishops and traditionalist priests to
vote Republican for years now.  I will not vote Republican. 
However, I've had to confess voting for a Democratic
candidate.  Repugs don't have to worry about recent immigrants
voting democrat - they won't - just like the exiled Cubans in
the U.S. today.   

[SoCalDem]

5. May I offer?

#3 is the republican fork