Well, Derb, I haven’t yet been able to find the Beinart piece, so

it’s tough to comment at this stage. I would note, however, that

Beinart’s parallel effort to push the Democrats toward the center on

national defense issues hasn’t worked out very well. If anything,

Beinart-style hawks are in a more precarious position among Democrats

than the doves Beinart once thought he could purge. Given all that,

why should we assume that Beinart’s plans for the Democrats on

immigration will be any more successful than his plans for the

Democrats on national defense? You seem awfully (and

uncharacteristically) optimistic to believe that, just because a few

Democrats are tacking right on this issue, the rest of the Dems are

bound to follow. I would also have to worry about the reliability of

Dems on this issue, given their late conversion and the pressures

that will surely be put on them to shift when the chips are

down. The House Republicans held fast when few (including me)

thought they would. Would johnny-come-lately Democratic converts do

the same? Certainly I agree with Kathryn that there are a host of

other reasons for getting out to vote Republican. In any case, so

far I’m not remotely convinced that a conservative stance on

immigration is not best served by a Republican congress.