GOP blowback: Hispanic voters throwing allegiance to Democrats by nearly 3:1, including in Florida

Conservatives are still patting themselves on the back for their offensive that caused Republicans in the U.S. Senate to kill the immigration reform bill.
An offensive that included a phone-call barrage that pressured mostly Republican senators to oppose the bill, and vitriolic attacks against illegals that slandered all Hispanics.

Well, the GOP had better brace for blowback.

It looks like Hispanic voters -- including those in Florida -- are throwing their allegiance to the Democrats in a move that could spell trouble for Republicans in the 2008 elections.
A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll indicates Hispanics, by nearly 3 to 1, say they're Democrats or leaning that way.
That's a sharp turnaround from 2004, when President Bush captured almost 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, the most ever by a Republican running for the White House.

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Many are deeply offended by the anti-Hispanic remarks Republicans made during the immigration bill fight, tirades still in full swing among right-wingers.
And in Florida, there's insult heaped upon injury.
The GOP's presidential candidates, save Congressman Duncan Hunter of California, snubbed the recent gathering of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed officials at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

With the party's base railing against Mexicans, none wanted to be seen embracing Latinos.
That infuriated some of Florida's leading Republican Hispanic lawmakers.
"The Republican candidates have blown off Hispanics in Florida," fumed GOP state Rep. Juan Zapata of Miami, who helped organize the convention.
Said Florida Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, another Miami Republican:
"The challenge to Republicans is to articulate a stance on immigration that does not appear anti-Hispanic. I don't think we've done that."

That's the understatement of the month.

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During the Jeb Bush-George Bush era, Florida Republicans could count on most Cuban-American and business-orientated Puerto Ricans to support their candidates.

No more.

Second-generation Cuban Americans are less loyal to the GOP. And the number of Puerto Ricans and legal Latin American immigrants continues to swell, especially in vote-rich Central Florida where a new study shows they're fueling economic growth.
Many in the latter two groups are doing backbreaking service industry jobs that make them sympathetic with the situation facing illegals.

And they don't like the ugly aspersions Rush Limbaugh and his minions are hurling their way.
"The ones being nasty are the most hypocritical because they're eating the food picked and processed" by illegal workers, says Antonio Rovira of Merritt Island, a former U.S. official with the Organization of American States. "It's going to be a very bad backlash."

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