No Savior

Fred Thompson may be a political insider, but as a national campaigner, he's a complete novice. And since he's swallowed wingnut ideology whole and is regurgitating it with every utterance, but without any kind of nuance or self-awareness, I suspect there will be a lot more circumstances like this.

Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.

"I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists," Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. "Apparently he doesn't have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn't know a lot of Cuban-Americans." [...]

Noting that the United States had apprehended 1,000 people from Cuba in 2005, Thompson said, "I don't imagine they're coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We're living in the era of the suitcase bomb." Fidel Castro is Cuba's leader.

A video clip of Thompson's remark immediately circulated on YouTube and has drawn considerable attention in Florida, a key early primary state home to many Republican-leaning Cuban Americans.

The Thompson camp tried to spin this by claiming that they were talking about Cuban spies. We of course know that the only Cuban terrorists are the ones trying to kill Cuban leaders and civilians, ones that the US government sets free.

Hillary made these remarks at a forum of Hispanic political leaders, where all the Democratic candidates spoke and NO Republican ones, though all were invited. This, combined with a cratering of support for Republicans among Hispanics, and the continued wingnut calls to deport all brown people, and stupid remarks like Thompson's (against the only pro-Republican Hispanic community left), are leading the GOP down an impossible electoral path.

Todd: “….No Bushes are going to be on the ballot in 2008. That’s probably going to flip New Mexico back to the Democrats and then you’ve got Florida. And that’s is where this thing could really, really hurt the Republicans, because if they lose Florida, there is no path - there is no Electoral College path to winning the White House.”

You can add Arizona and Colorado to the list of states in play, and even North Carolina, where the Hispanic vote is expanding. And Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire and Virginia all had Democratic shifts in 2006.

The signature achievement of conservatives in this term of Congress - stopping the immigration bill - is also leading to their downfall. And someone as politically tone-deaf as Fred Thompson isn't going to help them out of that hole.