Los Angeles-based Gay Republican activist and blogger Scott Schmidt worries that his party –-in the run-up to the November elections– is about to take a suicidal turn toward immigrant bashing. He remembers the Republican electoral disaster that ensued after then-Governor Pete Wilson tried to ride a xenophobic wave: Wilson got re-elected but the state GOP as much as imploded under a Latino backlash.

Currently, the national GOP seems split over what to do about immigration. President Bush and the more corporate wing of the party who have endorsed at least some tepid immigration liberalization, are under attack from their restrictionist right flank. While some analysts believe the Republicans are more interested in winning over the growing Latino vote than they are in pandering to xenophobes, Schmidt fears the opposite. He points to the virulent public comments made by L.A. GOP Chairwoman Linda Boyd to last week’s State of the Union response offered in Spanish by Angeleno Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Schmidt writes:

Chairman Boyd’s "scorecard" on Villaraigosa’s record blamed illegal immigrants for the City’s failing healthcare system, astronomical high school drop-out rate and prison overcrowding. As a member of Boyd’s Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, I blushed in embarrassment when she compared Villaraigosa to the dictators Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

And if you doubt that immigrant-bashing isn’t on the GOP Agenda in 2006, take a look at the agenda for this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference. It’s the first, second, third and fourth issue to be discussed.

Let’s hope Schmidt is wrong and the temptation to immigrant-bash will be foresworn. More than ever, we need comprehensive immigration reform and for the first time in a long time a lot of Republicans – from John McCain to Jeff Flake are supporting the idea. Let’s hope that in the internal Republican debate they prevail over the Minuteman-types.

Also, take a moment to check out my personal blog for a tribute to Neil Postman.