THEY WON'T VOTE ON TUESDAY AGAINST WHAT THEY HEARD ON SUNDAY:

Republican electorate supports Senate’s immigration bill (Dick Morris, 7/08/06, Cagle Syndicate)

Respected Republican pollster Lance Tarrance reports that the House Republicans are misreading their own base in their hardened and doctrinaire opposition to an earned-citizenship program and in their efforts to besmirch this alternative by calling it “amnesty.”

Tarrance’s poll, only of Republican voters, found that the base embraced the idea of an earned path to citizenship, in which illegal immigrants could “earn legal status and eventual citizenship by working, paying taxes, learning English and waiting their turn behind people in their home countries who are already waiting in line for visas.” The Republican sample backed this proposal 80-17 percent.

Conversely, the Republicans rejected out of hand the House-passed option, in which “illegal immigrants could earn legal status as a foreign worker but would have no possibility of ever becoming citizens,” 25-70.

In all, when the Senate and House versions of the immigration legislation were fairly explained to voters — in some detail — Republicans backed the Senate version 75-17 but only broke even on the House bill, 47-46. Asked if the Senate bill constitutes “amnesty,” the dirty word in the immigration debate, 39 percent said yes but 49 percent said no.

The fact is that Republican voters are far ahead of their Neanderthal leaders on the immigration debate.