Wall divides Republican Party factions

WASHINGTON — The roiling debate over a Senate plan to legalize illegal immigrants has rekindled a bitter fight within the Republican Party over the best strategy for restoring the GOP to dominance — with each side accusing the other of following a course that would destroy the party for decades.

At issue are not only different approaches to immigration, but two competing visions for how to rebuild and maintain a base of loyal Republicans.

Many Republican strategists and allies of President Bush blame the party's election losses last year in part on Hispanic voters who fled the GOP amid a flurry of anti-illegal-immigration ads by some of the party's candidates. They say Republicans cannot win a national majority without substantial support from the fast-growing Hispanic bloc.

"I believe that not to play this card right would be the destruction of our party," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the Cuban-born chairman of the Republican National Committee, who helped write Senate legislation creating a path to citizenship for most of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants. "Hispanics make up about 13 percent of our country and by 2020 will be more like 20 percent. It is a demographic trend that one cannot overlook."

Conservatives and many opinion leaders argue, however, that backing the immigration bill angers the GOP's mostly white base, as well as swing voters who are open to the party's message of national security and law enforcement. Some also argue that new immigrants are more likely to vote Democratic, so it makes little sense to increase their numbers.

On his radio show last week, Rush Limbaugh, with an estimated 13 million listeners each week, described the Senate legislation as Democrats "getting a brand-new electorate, reshaping it and being able to win election after election after election." He derided the bill as the "Destroy the Republican Party Act." In response, Martinez said: "He has emotion on his side, but I think I have logic on mine."

A public spat between the conservative movement's top-rated radio personality and the chief spokesman for the Republican Party would have been unheard of three years ago, when Limbaugh and others like him worked arm-in-arm with the White House and Republican National Committee to re-elect Bush and build a network designed to ensure long-term dominance.

Even when running for Texas governor in the mid-1990s, Bush and his aides worked to forge stronger ties to Hispanics. They continued that effort during Bush's two presidential races, waging a sophisticated, bilingual campaign that many credit with helping the GOP make inroads into a constituency that had been moving to Democrats.

Now, some party strategists fear the effort will end, no matter how Congress handles immigration. They point to high emotions within the party stirred up by the legislation, and note that all GOP major presidential contenders — except Arizona Sen. John McCain — are saying the measure might be too soft on illegal immigrants.

"We are at a crossroads in our country and, yes, in our political party," said Rudy Fernandez, a former deputy to White House strategist Karl Rove and one of the GOP's chief architects of Hispanic outreach.

McCain, a key negotiator on the compromise, at first seemed to be keeping his distance when the deal was announced two weeks ago. He now has decided to tackle the matter head-on, frustrated at what his aides see as pandering by his rivals and buoyed by polls showing a majority of Americans support a welcoming approach to immigrants.

McCain has scheduled an address on the plan Monday in Miami. By embracing the bill in the immigrant-rich city, he will be staking a claim to a key issue in an early primary state that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have made central to their strategy for winning the nomination.

McCain aides say the Arizona senator, like Bush, understands the importance of building ties with Hispanics. "We're getting close to the point where we will no longer be a national party if we try to define it as a white male cul-de-sac, gated community party," said John Weaver, McCain's chief strategist.

The tone of the 2006 campaign has at least one lifelong Republican questioning his loyalty.

Lionel Sosa worked as a political strategist for President Reagan and both President Bushes. But if the Republican nominee adopts a harsh tone on immigration, Sosa said he would not vote for the GOP.

"Blood runs thicker than politics," said Sosa, a San Antonio resident who is the host of a fundraiser for one of the Democratic contenders, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic. "I'm not saying I would vote for a Democrat. But I'm saying I would not vote for a Republican who opposed immigration reform."