The Immigration Debate (well, it is hard to call the nonsense surrounding this issue a debate) has taken its tolll on the Republicans – as I predicted. The far right is in full snit as they blame Bush for basically not agreeing with them. They are abondoning him – but apparently they only make up a small part of the Rep/Con community:

As President Bush attempts to revive the controversial immigration reform bill he supports, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Republicans are abandoning the president, which has dropped his job-approval rating below 30 percent — his lowest mark ever in the survey.

Let’s be clear – I am not abandoning Bush and neither are any of the folks who see his efforts to pass the legislation as a valiant effort to do the right thing. The ones running away are those who oppose the bill so much they would rather see Hillary President than the immigration bill pass. Let’s just say those far right of Bush are mad as hell and those center-right moderates who line up with Bush on issues are standing by him. So it is not the center folding, it is the fringe. I was expecting to see a large dip in the Rep/Con numbers because of this flight – I was surprised to find there are a lot of people sticking with Bush:

Back in April, 75 percent of Republicans approved of Bush’s job performance, compared with 21 percent who disapproved. Now, only 62 percent of Republican approve, versus 32 percent who disapprove.

Back in April we had the first wave of far right defectors. Those who ran from Bush over Miers, Dubai Ports, the last round of immigration. But what is interesting is this antagonistical crowd who find Bush a traitor is still damn small. Approval for Bush still runs 2-1 for in the Rep category. And since the Rep category is not less than a third of the country those far right Reps who have abondoned Bush are a measely 10% of the population (1/3 of 1/3). The vaulted majority-in-their-own-minds.

But this crowd is vocal and controls a lot of the conservative message machine, and they have left their mark on the general population. Look at how the Dem-Rep 2008 contenders have lost ground over since the immigration civil war erupted on the right:

The top two Democrats, though, seem to have upper hand in potential match-ups against the top two Republicans. According to the poll, Clinton leads Giuliani, 48-43 percent (a reversal since March, when Giuliani led Clinton by five points). And Obama tops Thompson, 50-31 percent.

I am not sure of how Fred Thompson will impact the field. I have always been a fan of his. I will watch him closely for sure. But one thing is clear – the Reps are still taking damage beyond 2006, and it is mostly from the far right undermining the rest of the conservative coalition and Bush. The self destruction continues.