Ideally, maybe so. But these aren't ideal times or conditions.
So, faced with that, you'll have to decide what you think is most important: the issues or an unwritten litmus test for residency.
If your good conscience dictates that residency is the most important, I respect your choice.
I just feel, personally, that we live in times when our desires for the ideal and for keeping tradition might need to be set aside for the good of the country. Fewer seats in the Senate means a lesser chance for Bush to appoint anyone good to the Supreme Court. The stakes are high.