Hundreds of Minutemen and other immigration-control activists are in Washington through tomorrow, lobbying Congress and expressing their opposition to amnesty proposals from the president and others. The effort has been spearheaded by San Diego radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock and he’s lined up a lot of other hosts to do one of those “talk radio row” things here, where people do their various shows all together in the same place. And other talkers who didn’t come to Washington are nevertheless focusing on immigration this week (I just did a show with WRKO in Boston).

The presence of so many conservative radio talkers points to the GOP’s conundrum on immigration, as layed out by David Frum and others: The party’s base hates the president’s stance on immigration, and this threatens to sunder the Republican coalition. I remain amazed that the instinct for self-preservation among the big-business and libertarian elements within the party is still so weak that don’t understand their stake in controlling and reducing immigration.