After the elections Bush said he thought possibilities for immigration reform may have opened with the dem congressional takeover. I wonder if the rats would want to give up the issue.
In TX we lost DeLay and Bonilla. In AZ we lost Heyworth. In CA we lost Pambo. All conservatives and border guardians. It seems oposition to illegal immigration is an issue that the GOP can only overcome in non-border states.
Except that none of these seats fell due to border/illegals issue.
DeLay - false indictment. Bonilla - redrawn district and conservatives/independents apathy while badly outspent in a runoff (he got a lot fewer votes within a month, while not changing his position on border) Hayworth - issues other than illegals (Abramoff etc.) and his opponent didn't fight him on this issue, pretended he was conservative. Pambo - victim of environmentalists' campaign, badly outspent and out-manned, border was not an issue in campaign.
We shouldn't make conclusions on selectively attributing same reasons for defeat in different races, like al-Media and pundits want us to do, or we would repeat mistakes and/or make a turn in a wrong direction. When Clinton won in 1992, they said conservatives and Reaganism are over, yet the right lesson was that he was running as more of a conservative (DLC) than the "big government" "read my lips" G.H.W. Bush. Under Newt, GOP made a RIGHT turn, nationalized next election, and in two years, it was "The era of big government is over". We should connect the RIGHT dots, not the coincidental or the false ones conveniently provided for us by our opponents - they don't mean us well.
GOP failed to make Iraq a national issue, border security/illegals a national issue, these were fought locally in the districts where Dems used it where they could gain an advantage or passed on it where they couldn't. Dems played to their strengths in each district, it wasn't a national campaign, despite what they are saying now - that's why there are so many new "Blue Dog" Dems in new Congress, yet now you only hear Dems' liberal leadership that were kept quiet and incognito in the run-up to election.