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[The "political and cultural" issue that Karl Rove is talking about is, of course, the fear that Republicans will lose the Latino vote.]

OK, so we shouldn't ask the politicians to put their careers on the line just to save this country? Is that what you are saying? Because that is what is at stake here - this country. NOt some obscure little bill that is going to cost just money - it is our very existance a a free society. Did you read they are smuggling in ME men. We won't need to go to Iraq for the war, Iraq may be bringing the war here and we are worried about the latino vote. Now the President and many of you are asking Americans to put their life on the line to go to Iraq to save us from harm. I don't believe it is as great a threat - and it certainly is a more distant threat - in geographical terms. Why, then is it too much to ask that someone with the power and the law behind him to step up to the plate, do what he was elected to do and save this country.

Now the highest figure I have heard that we can expect to get of the 'latino' vote is 'that elusive 10%'. Is our country worth 10% of the vote. Has it ever occurred to anyone that we can pick up more than 10% of the vote. The black community is unhappy about this - the Americans of Mexican decent are unhappy about this and I believe if they do not do something - they will lose many staunch republican voters. Now from this, I have to conclude it has very little to do with votes. Why are we thowing away the votes of the American people to run after votes of foreigners. That cannot be the reason.

Now the highest figure I have heard that we can expect to get of the 'latino' vote is 'that elusive 10%'. Is our country worth 10% of the vote.

Getting an additional 10 percentage points of the Latio votes gets us a measly 0.7 precentage points of the overall votes (Latinos are 7% of the electorate). That's chumpchange, so no, it's definitely not worth it.

OK, so we shouldn't ask the politicians to put their careers on the line just to save this country? Is that what you are saying?

Not at all. I'm saying that if the Republicans don't play it right, they will be thrown out of office and the Dems will go right back to bringing in even more immigrants. Clinton illegally rushed through naturalization for hundreds of thousands of known felons in order to improve his numbers in the 1996 election.

If you can accomplish a real good by sacrificing your career, fine. But if you play it wrong, lose your career, and make the situation worse than it was, how does that help?

Sacrificing your life so your fellow-soldiers can win the battle is heroic, but sacrificing the whole company and losing the battle is stupid.