Yep, JD was as good as we had on the illegal alien/immigration enforcement question. And he was persona non grata at the Bush/Rove White House when they were working their amnesty schemes hard. I heard him joke about that a few times on his radio show. I think they worked against JD's reelection, and I'm not sure he had much help from the RNC financially in 2006.
Nothing finer thing could happen during 2010 in US politics than to see JD defeat and replace Juan McCain.