The President seems intent on destroying the current Republican party by going to war with the few in America who still support him - his political base. He made further progress toward the achievement of that goal today, with enough Republican senators finally succumbing to White House pressure, and voting to bring back the immigration bill.

The President would have the American people believe, despite his complete failure thus far to secure the Southern border, that he is now intent on doing so. The President would have us believe, and insults our intelligence in arguing, that a guest worker program is necessary before border security is achievable. The logic of that escapes me, but then Mr. Bush and the concept of logic are rarely synonymous these days.

The senators voting to bring this bill back to the floor - many of them are up for reelection next year, and as a result strong primary challengers should be encouraged to run against them. The money should flow to the challengers, and not the incumbents voting to bring back this monstrosity of a bill.

The President is clueless and hopeless on this matter, and I've written him off because of it. He makes a mockery of his War on Terror with his refusal to secure the border that terrorists today could easily infiltrate across. Those who have believed strongly in the war against terrorism that Mr. Bush has so strongly pushed for, and which got us into the debacle in Iraq - so incompetently managed by Mr. Bush - incredously stand here, our faces slapped by the President as he refuses to enhance security on the border. How can anyone ever take this President seriously on security again?

It is now up to the viable Republican presidential candidates - Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani (McCain is finished) - to make a complete split with George W. Bush on this issue once and for all, indeed to strongly and publicly repudiate him for this sham, and to rally the demoralized Republican base, a base that needs rallying if victory is to be achieved in 2008.

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Glenn Reynolds:

WHAT SHOULD REPUBLICANS DO as the GOP seems to be committing suicide? I dunno -- saving the GOP isn't my job, and if the Democrats weren't worse on national security I wouldn't mind much. (And the GOP advantage there seems to be shrinking anyway).

But you've got three basic choices: Exit, voice, and loyalty. That is, quit, bitch like hell, or hold your nose and vote.

Problem is, people have been exercising "voice" a lot and it's clear that President Bush, Trent Lott, et al., don't care and aren't listening. So if you don't want to hold your nose, you've got to exit, either to a third party, to a GOP candidate you like, or to another engagement on Election Day -- go fishing, perhaps? I think the GOP's vulnerability to a third party challenge has just gone way up.