Election 2006: Immigration Debacle Hurt the GOP

Via The Post Chronical
By Jim Kouri
Nov 8, 2006

On Wednesday morning, the day after election 2006, Americans awoke to the news that Rep. Nancy Pelosi was elevated to the powerful position of Speaker of the House of Representatives by the voters.  While the news media and pundits played down its importance, the issue of illegal aliens and lax border security proved devastating to the Republican Party.

What Americans witnessed on election day was a populist revolt, claims Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps

“With the issues of national security and ethical questions looming over the elections, the GOP leadership gave voters nothing to actually vote for,” he said.

The outspoken activist believes that the crises of border security and the illegal immigration invasion could have given a strong GOP agenda a crucial electoral edge, yet the President choose to send a contrary message to voters the week before the elections, stating that he needed a Republican Congress for his amnesty disguised as a guest worker ‘path to citizenship’ to move forward.

Other political observers agree with Simcox. Rather than expose the Democrat Party as the “open border crowd,” the GOP made immigration and border security reform an intra-party issue which the news media were more than happy to play up in the weeks preceeding the mid-term elections.

“Ironically, as a result GOP infighting, a woman — Rep. Nancy Pelosi — benefited from her open-border position by becoming the new Speaker of the House. The GOP have themselves to thank for that,” says political analyst Mike Baker.