From the NYT:

Backing in G.O.P. for Legal Status for Immigrants 

By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ASHLEY PARKER 12:12 AM ET 

The House Republican leadership’s ideas for the nation’s immigration laws include a path to legal status — but not citizenship — for many of the 11 million adult immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Obviously, giving illegal aliens the vote is a stupid idea for Republican politicians. But so is giving illegals amnesty without "the path to citizenship." Hispanics are going to be told by the media, over and over, to feel racially insulted by Republicans over illegals getting only amnesty but not citizenship.

Is it too hard for GOP politicians to grasp that the whole ploy was a trap designed by Democrats that would have no good options for Republicans? How can choosing one poisoned apple or the other be better than walking away from both? Agreeing to amnesty is a massive defeat, substantively and symbolically, so why volunteer for it?