GOP Base Revolts on Immigration

WND: RNC fires all phone solicitors as cash 'evaporates' over Bush":

Previous GOP donors have given RNC solicitors a lashing about the president's proposed immigration measure.

"We have not heard anyone in our donor calls who supported the president on immigration," said a fired phone solicitor, who described himself as a Republican activist.

"We write these comments up from each call, and give them to a supervisor who passes them on to the finance director or the national chairman," he said. "But when I talked with the White House, the people there told me they got nothing but positive comments on the president's immigration stand."

Yikes. Talk about out of touch.

I had to send this note to the RNC:

I am one of those who has stopped giving to RNC because of the support of pro-amnesty candidates, and the fact that Bush decided to install a pro-amnesty figurehead to lead the RNC. Unless and until the RNC stops being supportive of such candidates, I will take my political contributions elsewhere.

For goodness sake, tell the White House the truth. Tell them that the President's eager support for legalization for illegal aliens, and his failure to secure the border and enforce immigration law, is destructive to the unity of the party and is demoralizing, disaffecting and angering the Republican base. We cannot follow leaders who walk away from our values and ideals!

UPDATE: New York Times posts an article on the GOP rebellion over immigration, noting the hue and cry from the GOP base:

This week, after Mr. Bush’s suggestion that those opposing the Congressional plan “don’t want to do what’s right for America” inflamed conservative passions, Rush Limbaugh told listeners, “I just wish he hadn’t done it because he’s not going to lose me on Iraq, and he’s not going to lose me on national security.” He added, “But he might lose some of you.”

Such sentiments have reverberated through talk radio, conservative publications like National Review and Fox News. They have also appeared on Web sites including RedState.com and FreeRepublic.com, where postings reflect a feeling that Mr. Bush is smiting his own coalition in pursuit of a badly needed domestic accomplishment, and working in league with the likes of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a co-author of the legislation.

White House officials said it had led them to engage the blogosphere in a concerted way for the first time, posting defenses on liberal and conservative sites.

White House officials are welcome to have their claims dissected, but I'll give the same advice Senator Coburn gave: “I think President Bush hurts himself every time he says it is not amnesty,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, referring to the bill’s legalization process for immigrants. “We are not all that stupid.”

UPDATE: DC Chapter of FreeRepublic 'freep' of the RNC HQ on June 4 to protest amnesty for illegal immigrants: