I ONLY CAUGHT A COUPLE OF MINUTES of Hugh Hewitt on Larry King before the Insta-Daughter switched to “Fresh Prince” reruns. He was pushing his new book, Painting the Map Red, and talking about immigration. He’s been saying for a year that this is the Achilles’ Heel for the GOP in 2006, and he seems to be right.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

The Presidential political chess game with the Clintons in 2008 will involve a third party. It is too early to know the issue but it could be immigration.

The Clintons know the democrats cannot win a two candidate race in a national election. The red state blue state problem for democrats is getting worse, not better. The blue states are shrinking in population ratio to the red states at a time when the current ratio will not elect democrats. This is a generational trend that won’t change in Hillary’s political lifetime.

Bring in the third party candidate that erases the red state electoral advantage. Is it risky? Sure it is – a third party could pull more from the democrat base than republican but it depends on the issue.

Reagan is still defeating the democrat party in the south. The true Reagan Democrat (me) is a southern conservative ideologue who chooses common sense over ACLU causes. The democrats may never get us back – but a third party can. An articulate public figure could turn an issue like immigration into a rallying cry for Jacksonian and Reagan Democrats.

Perot did this with the NAFTA issue.

It could happen again.

Yes, the conditions are ripe (see below) for a third party challenge, and immigration is a strong issue.