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I believe that Senator Sessions of Alabama did bust Reid on this today, and then Reid basically said (in that really annoying tone of his) that his biggest regret in his career as a legislator was his earlier efforts and rhetoric on immigration. It almost sounded like he might cry!

He is completely full of s**t of course, as his views have changed for one reason and one only; at the time of his earlier remarks Hispanics were not that significant to Nevada politics, whereas now they are. Back then, both the legal and illegal immigrant population was fairly small in Nevada; now they are quite large. Had it turned out that most naturalized immigrants and their families voted Republican, then Reid's views likely would not have changed, but since the opposite is true, then Reid has changed his tune. Its as simple as that.

Though actually, there is a bit more to it than that. Since Reid has sought and gained leadership in the party, his need to embrace mass immigration has been even more paramount. Senator Dorgan of ND must not be harboring such ambitions at the moment, as it would require him to drop his very commendable opposition to a guest worker program (its sad that he has sounded more reasonable in this debate than most Republicans in the Senate).

So to review, Reid's 'evolution' can be attributed to the following; (1) the growing clout of Hispanics in Nevada (2) the knowledge that more immigrants eventually equals more Democratic voters, not just in Nevada, but nationally, thus possibly paving the way towards a demographic shift that will give permanent power to the Dems, and that of course trumps all past concerns about its effect on the nation and those at the lower rungs of the economic ladder (3) The fact that a leadership position requires championing the greater leftwing goals over those of his constituents.

I'll finish by relaying something I remember reading, and it greatly illustrates #1. Back in 1998, Reid was in a tough reelection battle against Republican challenger Jon Ensign. It was a toss-up, and right before the election boxer Oscar De La Hoya campaigned for Reid with latinos, and some thought it played a key role in Reid's very narrow 428 vote margin victory. Ensign of course won an open seat two years later, but Reid no doubt came out of that thinking that his future depended on more and more pandering.