"I'm from Oklahoma, and most would agree we have a pretty conservative delegation. Is it common knowledge that the RNC fought tooth and nail to defeat Tom Coburn, someone who is currently fighting the good fight for conservatism."
Oklahoma has Coburn and Inhofe, right? You don't have any idea how lucky you are. I am shocked to hear that the RNC tried to defeat Coburn. From what I know of him (which is mainly that recently he's being fighting hard against unnecessary Federal spending), he seems like a real conservative. Who did the RNC want instead of him?
As to the rest of your suggestion, I'm going to wait and see how this all shakes out. If they vote for any form of amnesty at this point in time, I don't know if I'll ever vote Republican again. I won't go Democrat, of course. It would have to be a third party.
To me, the smartest thing the Republican Senators could do right now is deal with strong border control and leave the issue of what to do with the 12 million alone for a year or two. That's what Krauthammer suggested a few days ago and I think it's a good idea. I think it would make most of the Republican constituency happy (at least for now) and everything else would be up in the air for awhile. There was a thread last night where someone suggested this also.
unfortunately a bluestater wrote: " I am shocked to hear that the RNC tried to defeat Coburn."
In the primaries, they most definitely tried to eliminate him (they really, really don't like him, in my opinion, for obvious reasons--he's not one of them). As I recall, they only grudgingly supported him after we conservatives shot down Kirk Humphries, the RNC-annointed candidate, in the primary.
Remember, Bush and the RNC went all out for Arlan Specter and other RINOs. They really have a fondness for them, you know. That only means we have to work in our various states to beat the RINOs over both RNC and Democrat opposition. Really, it's the only realistic hope we have of winning. I might be banned for saying so, but that's how I see it. We've got enemies on both sides of the aisle.