If a presidential administration keeps doing the same thing over and over but somehow expects a different result, are they sane or insane? Jim Rutenberg and Carl Hulse of the New York Times offers the somewhat unique* "Bush's Push on Immigration Tests His Base":

President Bush's advocacy of an immigration overhaul and his attacks on critics of the plan are provoking an unusually intense backlash from conservatives who form the bulwark of his remaining support, splintering his base and laying bare divisions within a party whose unity has been the envy of Democrats...

[...muliple examples of the backlash...]

...[Karl Rove] and Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor, said officials would continue trying to persuade critics...

Past "persuasion" has consisted of calling the GOP base "nativists" or worse, president Bush saying that those opposed to the Senate scheme "don't want to do what's right for America", and Bush and others simply repeating the same lies over and over (and over again). And, they no doubt intend to continue that effort, because I cannot see an administration that has repeatedly lied and misled suddenly offering a real argument for what they support.

* It's somewhat unique because there's no obvious gloating, and also because it discusses internet opinion, even quoting a poster at FreeRepublic by name.

UPDATE: See this completely speculative follow-up: Covert White House propaganda for Senate immigration amnesty bill?