Republicans Determined to Lose Congress

The desire to please their corporate masters is apparently so strong among the Republican leadership that they are willing to lose congress rather than jeopardize losing their bankrollers. From the Chicago Tribune:

"In 2004, people were passionate about voting for Bush and against Kerry. In 2002, there was a passion about the war on terrorism," said Joe Gaylord, a veteran Republican strategist and a principal architect of the party's 1994 revolution. "But in 2006, I don't see much passion on our side, which could make it a very dangerous year."

Nothing to be passionate about? I'd suggest these guys travel around their districts spending time at some VFW halls, Elks Clubs, sports bars, ball fields - i.e., places where their middle class constituents feel comfortable expressing themselves (as they do in voting booths) and ask them how they enjoyed seeing masses of non-citizens demonstrating in the streets holding Che Guevara signs, hammer-and-sickle banners, demanding rights and privileges and threatening boycotts - there'll be plenty of passion, I can assure them. But such passion is the last thing the likes of Elizabeth Dole want to see. According to the Washington Times, which can be expected to have an inside track on Republican stategy,

"Winning on local issues is going to be the key to Republican success in November," Mr. Nick said. He added that North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the NRSC chairman, "is definitely stressing to the candidates to run on local issues." ...party officials have begun to talk openly about changing the focus of their campaign debate...to local concerns that give the most vulnerable candidates a chance to shift attention away from tougher issues such as the war in Iraq, immigration..."

Distracting voters away from Iraq is definitely a smart move, but immigration is the ideal focus to do so, not another issue to be avoided. Unless of course you're on the wrong side, which is where the Republican leadership is. A tough, anti-immigration policy is a perennial poll winner, and probably even more so today. The middle class, unfortunately, cannot provide Republicans with much money - they can only provide votes. So the party establishment would much rather take their chances on bamboozling middle class voters with anti-tax rhetoric than risk alienating business by threatening their near-infinite supply of cheap labor.