Great Moments in Conservative Punditry: Mickey Kaus

It is always fun to point out how conservatives are wrong. Case in point is pseudo-Democrat Mickey Kaus. He deemed immigration xenophobia a great issue for Republicans to run on in the 2006 midterms.

Immigration has several characteristics that suggest it's a good locomotive for GOP victory in November: 1) Voters say it's an important issue; 2) A majority wants some sort of border-control action; 3) The GOP base feels intensely about it; 4) Many Congressional Democrats are--by ideology or interest group pressure--locked in to a pro-immigrant, non-tough stance (or if they strike a tough pose it seems just that). In all these respects, immigration resembles welfare reform, a key hot-button base-mobilizing issue for Republicans in the 1994 midterms. ...

Republicans lost the Hispanic vote and the midterm elections. Great call, Mickey.

Kaus doesn't realize that the base isn't the general electorate. He actually believed Republicans could run on did this still court Hispanics. He is delusional.

If the anti-immigration base made their own party and ran Tom Tancredo, we would quickly found out that their general election numbers would be smaller than what Ralph Nader posted in 2004.