WaPo:

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a close White House ally and a Cuban American, has agreed to become the next general chairman of the Republican National Committee, GOP officials said, an appointment that comes in the wake of an election that yielded shrinking GOP support from Hispanic voters.

Martinez, a first-term senator, will remain in office and serve as the party's chief spokesman and fundraiser heading into the 2008 elections. Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will manage day-to-day operations and be elected chairman in January, Republican aides said.
. . .
Mehlman said in an interview last week that he is concerned about where the party stands with Hispanics. Hispanics are not single-issue voters, but GOP officials said the tone of the immigration debate hurt the party with the fastest-growing minority group...Martinez is a leading advocate of a Bush-style solution to the nation's immigration problems.

I will not support a party that is majority pro-amnesty. This, like spending, where Bush and his cohorts at the GOP have stabbed conservatives in the back, pushing their own neocon agenda above principles and philosophy. This cannot stand.

Tancredo '08!

UPDATE (11/18/06 5:52PM): Tancredo's weighed in:

Another leading critic of Bush's stance on immigration, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, offered tepid support for Martinez.

Tancredo called the senator a "competent spokesman for our party," but added that if he "rejects the will of rank-and-file Republicans and uses the position to advocate for things like the president's amnesty proposal, then I believe the party could be headed for another shellacking at the polls in 2008."

Posted by Ryan S. on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 10:10 PM | Permalink |