It's no secret that the immigration issue has driven a HUGE wedge between conservatives and the White House. What seems to have made it worse is that instead of working to address the concerns of the party base, the White House has gotten more strident, and in some cases gone on the offensive against critics on the right.

Peggy Noonan has an article in the Wall Street Journal today on the subject and essentially washes her hands of the administration.

What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker--"At this point the break became final." That's not what's happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future. ...

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism." ...

Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens? ... I suspect the White House and its allies have turned to name calling because they're defensive, and they're defensive because they know they have produced a big and indecipherable mess of a bill...

Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.

Strong stuff. But I'll have to say that the President and his staff have brought this type of thing on themselves by not being more in tune w/the party base. As the old saying goes, "dance with the one that brung ya'".