"Racism and Xenophobia Are Not Republican Virtues"

Anti-immigration hawks were primed for a major victory last night, when businessman John Jacob was going to defeat Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Jacob had wrested the Republican party's endorsement from Cannon after whaling on the congressman for supporting a guest worker program. Polls showed the two candidates in a dogfight… but Rep. Cannon won, and by 12 points. The title of this post is a bit of gloating Cannon made in his victory speech.

What happened? Jacob made a stupid gaffe in the critial last week, when he apparently said Satan was working against him. The GOP establishment outside of Utah, including George Bush, endorsed Cannon—and Utah is one of those remote locations where Bush is still popular, especially among Republican primary voters. Also, if you believe John Derbyshire, Mormon Republican voters are less worried about Mexican immigration than Republicans whose holy book doesn't involve a lost tribe of Israel traversing the continent.