They did NOT oppose Bush - don’t you remember the Senate passed SB2611? A Republican-controlled Senate, at that!
Congresscritters are loath to oppose their president. But they’ll oppose the other party’s president (they did a damned fine job with the Clinton years). Look at how the House was treated when it went 180 degrees from what the RNC and W wanted on amnesty - Tancredo was told not to darken the doorway of the WH. That was a threat to ALL others to toe the line. And W was rather mind-mannered. Do you think McCain will be?
Oh, I forgot one more thing - the ONLY way we got amnesty to be quieted down was that it was right before an election. They’ll be smarter next time and vote on it right AFTER an election, thinking we’re so stupid we’ll forget.
I think McCain will be positively nasty about it, and IMO that’s a good thing. When he throws a tantrum because he can’t have amnesty, he’ll paint a different picture of the amnesty supporting crowd. And when he tries to hurt members of the party who oppose amnesty, they’ll fight back if McCain gets nasty.
It could be interesting.