Blowback on the Immigration Front

The WaPo reports that Republicans in the House are starting to worry about blowback from their party's anti-immigrant tirades.

In the wake of this week's massive demonstrations, many House Republicans are worried that a tough anti-illegal-immigration bill they thought would please their political base has earned them little benefit while becoming a lightning rod for the fast-growing national movement for immigrant rights.
....

Yesterday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) issued a joint statement seeking to deflect blame for the harshest provisions of the House bill toward the Democrats, who they said showed a lack of compassion. "It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony," Hastert and Frist said.

Read it here.

Once again the good sense of the American people prevails over the ideological enthusiasms of the fringe elements in both parties. The House immigration firebrands, though, may have done their party a great deal of damage, more so than the environmentalist zealots have done to the Democrats.