Republican Pollster Luntz: "You Can't Shut People Up" About Illegal Immigration

"If you're a republican and already worried about your party's prospects in 2006, pollster Frank Luntz, a Republican himself, has a message for you: It's worse than you think. Luntz, who worked with Republicans in 1994 to draft the Contract With America and win a realigning election, said political conditions are as bad or worse now--only this time for Republicans, not Democrats," says Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard. "Luntz said the anger of voters is 'palpable, emotional, intense.' And Republican voters, the conservative ones anyway, feel betrayed by wasteful spending in Washington and Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court . . . Voters have not been galvanized by scandals in Washington, but they are alarmed about illegal immigration, Luntz said. The president's insistence on creating a 'guest worker' program to employ illegals puts him 'on the wrong side of the solution.' When he raises illegal immigration in focus groups of 30 people, Luntz said, 'you can't shut people up.'"

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