In a move that must surely have Karl Rove sweating, Rush Limbaugh yesterday expressed his disgust with the Senate Republicans who on Tuesday voted to reject Sen. Johnny Isakson's enforcement first ammendment to S.2611:

Folks, I know, it's getting worse by the day, and it's inexplicable. It doesn't make any sense. What are these 18 Republicans doing? What is so difficult to understand about this in terms of the smart, sensible thing to do here? The first thing is the security of the border, and to have 18 Republicans, "Oh, nope, can't put that in there." Maybe they didn't like the fact that we can't do anything else until the border is secure. Well, what is wrong with that? I am trying to maintain my composure, but no matter where I look and no matter how deep I dig, I can't come up with a explanation for any of this that makes sense to me.

Limbaugh also poured scorn on those who support the bill's provision to greatly increase the yearly intake of legal immigrants:

[Senator] Jeff Sessions succeeded in reducing these numbers from 100 to 200 million to somewhere between -- I think the top will be 60 million. It's strange when you can have new immigration of 60 million over 20 years be considered a victory. These guys start with this massive high starting point, 100 to 200 million new legal immigrants, and Sessions said, "Whoa, that's too many," and starts alerting people in the Senate, and they voted to amend it and they get it down to the top now would be, yeah, 60 million is what it would be if the full caps are reached.

Recent polls give reason to think that voter support for the Senate's immigration legislation is reaching new lows. I reported here on two such polls yesterday. A survey conducted by the Washington Post and ABC in the immediate run-up to the President's May 15th speech confirms the trend. 34% of respondents approved of Bush's handling of immigration while 56% disapproved.

For Republican Congressman anticipating midterm elections, the message is loud and clear: if you like your job and want to keep it, oppose the President's "guestworker"/amnesty sellout.

(HT: A Certain Slant of Light)