Any bets on the likelihood of a Tancredo/Cuellar independent run in 2008?

I wrote a brief diary about this a little while ago, check it out at

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/2/15/9531 6/9273

Immigration could be a vary salient issue for TX-28.  If I remember correctly, there is lots of the district that border the Rio Grande.  The population of the district has a very high minority status, but I have no idea how they stand on immigration.

I wonder if immigration will be the gay marriage of 2008: a wedge/scare issue that GOPers will use to attack democrats with.  Tancredo will never make it that far in the GOP primary, but maybe in Perot's Reform party and having a "democrat" and hispanic like Cuellar on the ticket will help them say that they aren't racists (the Michael Jordan defense).  

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs.

Cuellar said the measure is in response to the activities of the Minutemen and other civilian groups which have recently encamped in border areas of Texas and Arizona, and claimed to be helping report illegal immigrant activity.

"These people would be trained, they would be sworn, they would be inside the law enforcement chain of command, and this would be a lot different than the Minutemen, who are out there on their own, and we don't know who they are or what their motives are," Cuellar said.

Oh, Lordy.  Cuellar's the Hispanic version of Uncle Ruckus, isn't he?

I regard myself as a liberal on most issues, but I think liberals in general need to rethink their position on illegal immigration. Calling those who speak out against it 'racist' does not help. Even if they are, it feeds into stereotypes and does not move the discussion forward.

I come from a border state, and this is a huge problem. Illegals are a population of second class citizens, providing cheap labor without full rights. We have a de facto apartheid system going here. Aside from the gross immorality of the current system,  theres the huge cost to our public schools of serving non-english speaking citizens, to our health care system of serving uninsured illegals, the depressive effect on wages in entry level jobs, and the general lowering of quality of life associated with the huge population increases in my state that the current wave of immigration has  exacerbated.

Democrats need to get out in front on this issue with a multipronged program -- stricter enforcement of current laws against employers of illegals; stronger border enforcement (what exactly is the problem with a border wall, aside from the expense? It has produced strong measurable results in Israel in terms of lowering the rate of suicide bombings); and improved development aid to the central and south american countries.

not all people conserned with immigration are racists, that is true.  But a sigificant portion of those are motivated by racism.

Democrats need to address this issue for sure, but a wall is a big mistake for the same reasons the wall in Israel is a mistake.

It only breeds more distrust, dislike and hatred on both sides of the wall.  It gives people a false sense of security.

More would be terrorists are coming in via Canada than Mexico, yet I don't see a clammoring for a wall there.  

Until Mexicans and other South Americans can get  good enough jobs in their native countries to make the danger and expense of traveling to America not worth it, they will keep on coming.  It is simple economics.  And how much more would produce and construction cost in America were it not for these migrant workers?  

Perhaps we need a guest worker program, or an amnesty program, or both.  But simply trying to shut off the spigot will not work.  That is just throwing money down a hole.

Just wondering guys...but how many candidates do you plan on endorsing on the netroots page?

Tancredo and his ilk (may be Lou Dobbs as well) want to get rid the nation of Asians and Hispanics, so that they can turn their attention to blacks and restore a Jim Crow Society. This is also the intention of anti-immigration groups many of which such as FAIR and CIS have taken funding from the racist Pioneer Fund in the past. In this mix Cuellar thinks that he is white..but they will come after him as well.

And by the way Americans will not nominate or elect someone with "foreign" sounding names such as Tancredo or Gulliani.