More evidence that amnesty’s no slam-dunk next year, especially with an Obama win. At different panels in Denver, two Dem House members offered very different takes. Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of the immigration subcommittee (and an immigration lawyer) said a push for amnesty is “the first thing the new president will face.” On the other hand, Mickey Kaus reports that Artur Davis, a black Democrat from Alabama, said (scroll up one item from here) immigration is:
“the most toxic issue” in the South, with “as many African Americans” as whites intensely concerned. He predicted it would be a huge issue in the 2009-2010 midterm election, at least if Obama wins. Why? Because the out of power GOP leadership will come to the strategic decision that the way to effectively discredit the Democrats is to unify in opposition to “comprehensive” reform (i.e., including semi-amnesty).
As Mickey concluded, “Davis did not seem eager to hand unified Republicans an issue by voting on amnesty in Obama’s first two years–a sentiment I suspect is widely shared among moderate Dems.”