"Inside Democrats' Election-Year Immigration Push -- 'Either Way We Win'"

[Clio the Leo]

Of course, Dems aren't going to lose on this one ultimately. If you're enjoying watching the GOP being http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x280409">painted into a corner over Wall Street reform, just wait until we start on immigration. Party big-wigs (Jeb, Rubio, Rove) are all expressing doubt over what AZ has done. Even that Palin woman is eerily silent.

Inside Democrats' Election-Year Immigration Push -- 'Either Way We Win'
Christina Bellantoni | April 27, 2010, 1:44PM

The new push to take up immigration in the Senate has more to do with voters in Nevada, California and Colorado -- and a new law in Arizona that's sparked uproar -- than it does with what's politically possible in Washington. The legislative battle -- no matter how unlikely to reach a conclusion in 2010 -- will give critical face time and an electoral boost to vulnerable Democratic incumbents from Western states that have long asked for Congressional leadership on how to handle the millions of illegal immigrants coming across the border.

Making a genuine attempt at a comprehensive immigration plan that includes a pathway to citizenship has dual potential to help Democrats politically -- they motivate Latino voters and labor unions who have long championed the issue, and they can portray unwilling Republicans as anti-Hispanic. Demographic shifts in the West have helped Democrats scoop up more Congressional seats and win electoral college battles in recent years.

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid among those on the ropes in this fall's midterm elections, fighting for an issue that voters and political activists in Nevada are passionate about can't hurt. The same goes for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).

"Reid obviously needs it to invigorate his base - Clark County Hispanics and union members. He needs to get those people invigorated and out voting and one way to do that is to get an immigration bill moving," a Democratic House committee staffer familiar with the immigration debate told me in an interview. The staffer asked for anonymity to be able to speak freely about the political nature of the issue.

"Either we do it for political show or we get a bill done. Either way we win," the staffer said. "If Republicans block us they will forever cement themselves as rural, white angry party, and that's fine either way. Hispanics will see on Telemundo and Univision the angry white people in the Republican blocking the American dream. Who wins? Democrats do."

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