Bush [hearts] Illegals [updated]

I'm in a rush right now, so I'll admit that I haven't fully read this article about Bush wishing to grant millions of migrants legal status, but just the topic alone gets me wondering. If Bush is supposedly so popular with the American people, how come he has to pander to hispanic voters? ANd isn't he taking a risk with this proposal? I mean, how many hispanic votes will he bring into his party to offset allof the hardline Republicans who would be against a measure such as this?

Either Bush and Co. are really stupid, (I can believe Bush is this stupid, but Rove being this stupid would surprise me), or Bush and Co. must have complete confidence that they have solidified their Republican base to the point that they won't get too angry with him when he tries doing things that should anger them.

Unfortunately, I'm strapped for time right now. I'll do a little more digging into this later, maybe listening to that druggie Limbaugh's reaction this afternoon.

Update: There seems to be mixed reaction to this. I listened to some of Rush's circus today and it was a topic of conversation, but I didn't hear him say anything necessarily bad about the topic. He played part of Bush's speech and, unfortunately, did a little singing while Bush spoke.

However, all of the comments on Free Republic's thread are negative.

Newsmax continues to tow the party line. Not only is their article positive, but they also find time to bash people who say that Bush isn't doing enough, or that Bush needs a comprehensive plan, otherwise this is just posturing during an election year.

Newsmax also links to this story about conservative congreesmen writing a letter to Homeland Security directory Tom Ridge opposing amnesty for illegal aliens:

The letter was written to Ridge in reaction to comments he made to an audience in Florida in early December. Ridge said that the government had to "afford some kind of legal status" to the eight million to twelve million illegal aliens who are currently living in America.

Two days later, when Ridge's comments were brought up at a White House press conference, the President's spokeman confirmed that the Bush Administration was looking into the options concerning illegal immigrants.

...The controversy mounted when Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado said that if Ridge could not enforce current immigration laws, he should resign.

Yet more updating: The right-wing National Review already has a cover for their next issue. What's the lead article, you ask? "AGAINST AMNESTY Mark Krikorian on a policy disaster"