Rahm and Immigration

What on earth is Rahm Emanuel thinking? Why is he telling Democrats to run to the right of Republicans on immigration? Why is he supporting the Shuler/Tancredo bill that criminalizes illegal immigration? Does he not want the Democrats to win?

Seriously, Republican racism is sending hordes of Latino into the Democratic party for the next generation. Yet, Emanuel, concerned about looking soft on the issue for the 2008 elections wants the Democrats to throw immigrants under the bus.

Policies like this are the worst thing about the Clintonians, of whom Emanuel is a prime example. They seem to assume that minority groups are in the Democratic pocket and thus can be betrayed by policies without any damage. This is of course, absurd. Bush received significant percentages of the Latino vote in both 2000 and 2004. If Latino don't see the Democrats as significantly different than the Republicans on the issue most important to them, they will either not vote or will vote based on other issues such as ending abortion that do not necessarily favor the Democrats.

What is doubly shocking about this is that the Republicans just found out this week in Virginia and Kentucky that attacking immigrants does not lead to electoral victory. Is Rahm Emanuel the only person not to see this?

Terrible. Just terrible.