The term Lou Dobbs Democrat has circulated a bit in media analyses of the vote. This meme would be best nipped in the bud - I foresee great harm in allowing our goals to be associated with those of Lou Dobbs.
Dobbs is, of course, possibly the most strident voice against illegal immigration. To a certain extent, it isn't unreasonable for him to point out the harm caused by a massive influx of folks - Harry Mitchell campaigned on stopping illegal immigration, for that matter.
It doesn't stop there, though. Dobbs isn't attacking the issue solely from economic grounds - he's also a cultural nativist (were it up to him we wouldn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day). He's never met an anti-illegal immigration group that didn't trigger feelings of infatuation in him (see http://www.splcenter.org/... ). His railings about a conspiracy by the Mexican government have a rancid odor to them. More and more, I think we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as his views are concerned.
It's going to be vital to avoid being identified with him - for the sake of our values, and for the sake of our viability. The Latino vote swung very nicely in our favor this time out, but it's not a given. It helps that Republicans tend to be far more irate about immigration than us, but I anticipate this issue being a potential landmine for our party as well.
Dobbs has hailed our victory, but I don't think this grace period will last.
UPDATE: OK, I'll call it illegal - this is a detour from what we should be talking about.
Second update: Here's a nice long blockquote to digest
Consider some of what Dobbs has failed to report, despite the fact that in almost every case these developments were reported widely elsewhere:
# GLENN SPENCER, head of the anti-immigration American Patrol, has been interviewed at least twice on the show, on Jan. 7 and June 4, 2004. Spencer's Web site is jammed with anti-Mexican vitriol and he pushes the idea that the Mexican government is involved in a secret plot to take over the Southwest -- facts never mentioned on Dobbs' show. Spencer's group is regarded as a hate group by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Spencer has spoken at least twice to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, which has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity," and once to American Renaissance, a group that contends that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. Dobbs has never reported those ties, or mentioned Spencer's more wild-eyed contentions, such as his prediction that "thousands will die" in a supposedly forthcoming Mexican invasion. His CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer, on the hand, featured Spencer on his own show but reported Mexico's official response and SPLC's hate group designation.
# In late 2004, it was revealed that the new head of a national advisory board to Protect Arizona Now, an anti-immigration organization, was a long-time white supremacist who was also an editorial adviser to the racist Council of Conservative Citizens. Although VIRGINIA ABERNETHY's controversial selection was reported prominently in virtually every Arizona paper -- and despite the fact that Dobbs heavily covered the anti-immigration referendum that Protect Arizona Now was advocating -- Dobbs never mentioned the affair at all.
# A man named JOE MCCUTCHEN was quoted last April as part of a feature on the Minuteman Project, described by Dobbs as "a terrific group of concerned, caring Americans." No mention was made of the fact that McCutchen, who heads up an anti-immigration group called Protect Arkansas Now, had written a whole series of anti-Semitic letters to the editor and given a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens -- facts revealed the prior January by SPLC, causing Arkansas' Republican governor to denounce McCutchen's group.
# This August, BILL PARMLEY, a Minuteman leader in Goliad County, Texas, quit the group because of what he described as widespread racism. Similarly, in September, newspapers reported that another Texas Minuteman, Janet Ahrens, had resigned because members "wanted to shoot the taco meat." Dobbs never mentioned either of these people, who were featured prominently elsewhere.
# On Oct. 4, Dobbs had PAUL STREITZ, a co-founder of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, as a guest on his show. Streitz denounced Mayor John DeStefano Jr. for "turning New Haven into a banana republic" by favoring identification cards for undocumented workers. Two days later, newspapers revealed that two of the group's other founders had just quit, saying Streitz had led it in a racially charged direction. Dobbs has never reported this.
# BARBARA COE, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, was quoted on a show last March bitterly attacking Home Depot for "betray[ing] Americans," apparently because Hispanic day laborers often gather in front of the store looking for work. Not mentioned were her group, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, or the fact that she routinely refers to Mexicans as "savages." Coe recently described herself as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a "white pride" group formed from the remnants of the segregationist White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that were once described by Thurgood Marshal as "the uptown Klan." She also told The Denver Post in November that she had given a speech to the group.