Linda Chavez: Why do Republicans hate Mexicans?

Linda Chavez, conservative in nearly all ways, penned a nice little race-baiting screed against people with principled objections to the amnesty plan in Congress. From Junkyard Blog:

Ragnar's Really Mad At Linda Chavez
And I can't say I blame him, because she's really making a scene, dragging out the ad hominems against anybody who disagrees with her:

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.

No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of Americans -- fewer than 10 percent of the general population, at most -- otherwise. Unfortunately, among this group is a fair number of Republican members of Congress, almost all influential conservative talk radio hosts, some cable news anchors -- most prominently, Lou Dobbs -- and a handful of public policy "experts" at organizations such as the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, in addition to fringe groups like the Minuteman Project.

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What a divisive hack Chavez is. I'm beyond sick of being called a racist by these open-borders zealots because I have a good-faith bee in my bonnet--and whether or not it's a concern you share, please accept this isn't some proxy issue for my secret phobia of Peruvian janitors--about the idea of terrorists, gangs, drugs, and weapons sneaking over the border. I spent some time and political capital defending Chavez's self-scuttled appointment to my friends, back in the day. Now, I'm very glad someone with that much ill-disguised contempt for her party's base isn't Secretary of Labor.

Speaking of which, that 2001 nomination of Chavez as Sec. of Labor gives a clear indication as to why she's all gung-ho about granting amnesty to criminal aliens. If you recall, she withdrew her nomination upon revelations that she once housed and employed...yup, you guessed it...a criminal alien. Hey, if nothing else, at least she's consistent!

This is truly pathetic. When it comes to issues like gerrymandered districts, affirmative action, quotas, or hate crimes, we've come to expect the left to abandon all pretense of honest political dialogue and go straight to the intellectually lazy and dishonest tactic of race-baiting, portraying all opponents of those things as being closet Klansmen. Now we're beginning to see the same lazy and dishonest (and shameful) approach from parts of the right. Well, screw them. Just as I won't cower in fear from some leftard breaking out the "bigot" label to describe my genuine opposition to race-based laws and policies, I certainly won't back down from a purported conservative trying the same crappy tactic.