Here's a fun addendum to the big story today about how the Republican National Committee laid off a bunch of phone-bank fundraisers because its facing a grass-roots rebellion from donors unhappy with President Bush's immigration policy.

It appears the immigration backlash is wreaking havoc of sorts at another of the GOP's committees, too: The National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Yesterday, the NRSC's blog boasted what looked like an innocent enough experiment: It offered readers a chance to debate immigration on line by creating "an online dialogue focused on the immigration reform legislation."

The handlers of the NRSC's blog posted two videos of NRSC chief Mitch McConnell defending two key aspects of the immigration legislation. Then -- under a heading that read "disagree" -- it also posted two forceful attacks on McConnell's arguments, one from leading GOP Senator Jim De Mint, a move that was inexplicable because it highlighted just how deep the divisions are in the GOP Senate caucus over the issue.

That's a no-no, of course, because the whole purpose of a committee like the NRSC is to highlight the successes and unity of the caucus, not to spotlight divisions and infighting. And the screw-up drew howls of derision from Democratic insiders who