AZ Gov. Brewer to NY Sen. Schumer: Chuck You

More or less:

WASHINGTON -- A prominent Senate Democrat asked Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to put off her state's controversial immigration law to give Congress a chance to act. Scant time passed before Brewer's answer came back: No.

The request by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York was a long shot for getting a stalled Senate immigration initiative moving again. Even the White House thinks the Senate proposal is nearly dead. "There's not enough support to move forward," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

Still, among Democrats, there's plenty of support for trying -- at least in public -- to advance immigration reform during this year of midterm elections. The party's control of Congress depends in part on Hispanics, a key constituency, voting Democratic.

Hence, at a Cinco de Mayo celebration Wednesday at the White House, President Barack Obama said he wanted to start work on immigration legislation this year. Days earlier, he had said there was no appetite in Congress for another big legislative fight.

Perhaps Gov. Brewer's quick response had something to do with these poll results:

Most American voters think Arizona was right to pass its own immigration law, and think the Obama administration should wait and see how the new law works rather than try to stop it, according to a Fox News poll released Friday.

The new poll finds 61 percent of voters nationally think Arizona was right to take action instead of waiting for the federal government to do something on immigration. That's more than twice as many as the 27 percent who think securing the border is a federal responsibility and Arizona should have waited for Washington to act.

Most Republicans (77 percent) and independents (72 percent) support Arizona taking action. Democrats are divided: 43 percent think the state was right, while 41 percent think Arizona should have let the federal government take the lead.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said Arizona had to act because Washington has failed to stop the stream of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Demonstrators and others opposed to the new law have called on President Obama to stop it from being implemented. The president has said the law is "misguided," and called on the Justice Department to examine it.

Significantly more voters think the Obama administration should wait and see how the new law works (64 percent) than think the administration should try to stop it (15 percent).

I'll keep shouting it from the rooftops:  Illegal immigration and controlling the border are winning issues for the GOP.