GOP HOUSE CAUCUS WANTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT: THEY'RE MUCH MORE BIGOTED, XENOPHOBIC & CRAZY THAN THE SENATE REPUGS

Michigan's Know Nothing Congressman Pete Hoekstra, an immigrant who favors pulling up the ladder

Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) is probably best known for the abysmal job he did protecting the nation's security as the failed chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He's a right-wing fanatic and total rubber stamp loon, the original kook who annoiunced that weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq (after seeing satellite pictures of a pomegranate juice dispenser) and who failed to follow up on the proof that his colleague and close friend, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a member of his committee, was selling intelligence information to the highest bidders.

Although Cunningham is no longer on the committee and no longer a congressman and in fact, is now rotting in prison, Hoekstra was never charged with any crimes in the case and it was all hushed up. But there's more to Pete Hoekstra than abetting treason. He's also a xenophobic and racist extremist. This morning's Hill carries a story about Hoekstra's latest foray into the kind of viciously divisive politics he is famous for. He introduced a resolution at the House Republican Conference that disapproves of the Senate's action on Bush's immigration bill. Never having veered away from his slavish rubber stamp posture, "Hoekstra said that while he preferred not to break with the president, the language and content of the Senate bill compelled him to vocalize his opposition."

His resolution passed the House Republican Conference by a large margin, despite the fact the Senate bill’s language has yet to be finalized.

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he has very serious concerns about the Senate bill.

During the discussion of the measure yesterday morning, LaHood attempted to block the Hoekstra resolution but was defeated soundly by a vote of about 114-23, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

According to a source, the failure of the LaHood motion prompted Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a supporter of the Senate bill, to say that the Hoekstra resolution “demeans the House.”

Yet Flake is in the minority in his conference in his support for the measure; 100 Republicans have already joined the House Immigration Reform Caucus, a fervent anti-amnesty group.

“There’s growing momentum on the House side to have our voices registered on the Senate immigration bill,” Hoekstra said during a press conference yesterday.

Hoekstra said the amnesty provision, no matter how strict the language, was a deal-breaker for most House Republicans.

“That’s why the fundamental bill has no credibility, and basically what we are saying today is it is dead on arrival in the House, we can’t have secret deals, this has to go through committee, it has to go in pieces,” echoed Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.). “A comprehensive bill will not pass the House.”

“The Z visa is unenforceable,” Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif) said, referring to a provision of the Senate bill that would put those in the country illegally on the path to citizenship.

During a press conference yesterday, Bush did little to help his cause when he told reporters that the bill included amnesty. White House spokesman Tony Snow issued a press release shortly thereafter stating that the president had misspoken.

Nothing confuses and divides Republican officials as much as the immigration issue. The ones perceptive enough-- a tiny minority-- who have understood how the GOP ceded California to the Democrats in order to celebrate their bigotry and hatred, understand that a Know Nothing approach could be the long-term death knell for the party. The Know Nothings themselves, whose spokesmen are the Hate Talk radio hosts the GOP has cultivated and nurtured are clamoring for the rest of America to bring it on. Today's Wall Street Journal, who can always be counted on to put the interests of corporate business above all else, recognizes the "danger for Republicans" if the bill fails. They are not blinded by the commercial potential of stoking the raw rage and racism which has made the GOP radio hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly at al unable, or unwilling, to understand that "this is a classic case in which pandering to the base will harm the GOP overall."

That's true most immediately for Presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, who continue to assail the bill as "amnesty." No doubt this gets applause in some Republican precincts. But in the near term, meaning through 2008, Republicans would be far better off helping President Bush and John McCain pass something that takes immigration off the table. If the issue remains central to the 2008 debate, it will divide the GOP and the media will play up the split. Given the passions that immigration evokes on the right in particular, the issue could easily drown out other domestic policy messages the candidates would prefer to run on.

The longer term danger is that the GOP is sending a message to Latinos that it doesn't want them in the party. And if that message sticks, Republicans could put themselves back in minority party status for a generation or more. Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority in the country, and their voting numbers continue to grow. Hispanics were estimated to be 8% of the electorate in 2006, compared with 6% in 2004 and 5.5% in 2000. Census data show that the number of Latino voters could rise to 10% or more by 2008. The demographic reality is that the GOP can't be a majority party with Anglo-Saxon votes alone.