E.J. Dionne, Chris Cillizza/WaPo realize: voters oppose illegal immigration (Niki Tsongas)

Pundits have spilt a lot of ink trying to convince themselves that opposing illegal immigration is a losing political issue. Those include: Fred Barnes, Linda Chavez, Tamar Jacoby, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Arlen Specter, and Michael Barone.

Now, we turn to the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne ("Test Run For 2008", link). Note, of course, that the Washington Post explicitly supports illegal immigration:
In Massachusetts's 5th Congressional District -- a collection of mill towns and affluent and blue-collar suburbs north of Boston -- the surprise issue was illegal immigration. [Jim Ogonowski] made it the centerpiece of an anti-Washington campaign. An Ogonowski news release, for example, accused Tsongas of being "committed to giving cheap college to illegals at taxpayer expense."

...[Niki Tsongas], a community college dean, favored granting in-state tuition rates to the children of undocumented immigrants. In Ogonowski's translation of that, Tsongas believed that "Massachusetts taxpayers should foot the bill for the college tuition of the children of illegals."

Republicans think the immigration issue helped Ogonowski, so the country may be in for a lot more of this sort of thing next year. "Everywhere we went, people wanted to talk about immigration," said Matt Wylie, Ogonowski's general consultant. "It was just coming up over and over again."

[...SCHIP may have helped her win...]
Earlier, Chris Cillizza of "The Fix" wrote (link):
[Ogonowski] also found fertile ground by calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration and decrying Tsongas' support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as amnesty.

Comments

Now let me see? all of mexico/china/third world has the right to vote here? but we don't have the right to vote in mexico/china and all of the world? so what is wrong with this picture? buy GUNS NOW! stop talking start fighting within one year the USA would be back in your hands or we would all be dead. think m-16/m-14/m-1 and have fun thining it, understand most of your political pigs in power in government in all areas of government are running after little boys so most don't care about you coming up behind that so called person in power, after all that person got his eyes on your son. think tree think rope think freedom.

oh yes all the world must come here to work, for 50 cent per hr, is that what the pigs want? and let us not forget to vote as one pig one.

It's hard to beat Fred when he's that eloquent.