The Sunshine Empire

Many of the reasons that people hate Washington are the reasons I love to follow politics. The political gamesmanship with regards to immigration on both sides is fascinating to follow leading up to this fall’s midterm elections. In 2006 the GOP was savagely damaged by the rancorous debate over immigration. With the growing power of the Latino vote, any party running afoul of them has a difficult road to hoe when it comes to winning a national election. Republicans are by all account heading for a recapture of the House of Representatives, and they have the memories of the 2006 debate fresh in their minds.

With the passage of Arizona’s immigration law the subject has come up yet again, but surprisingly many Republicans have learned their historical lesson. It’s striking to see luminaries like Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, and Jim DeMint’s boyfriend Marco Rubio coming out against the bill. Many others have gone the route of avoiding the issue completely. With Rubio the move is interesting because it seems he’s moving to the center now that he’s no longer in a serious primary campaign. Our orange governor is going the Joe Lieberman route having learned again from the lessons of 2006. Even Democrats can see the benefit of the immigration issue. Senator Lindsay Graham pulled out of climate change bill talks because of Harry Reid moving the immigration issue to the front burner. He understands that Democrats are hoping to generate Latino voter turnout based on resentment. This makes for what should be a fantastic summer for politics in America.