A controversial new ad from the conservative group Latinos for Reform has been pulled by Univision shortly after it debuted in Nevada area markets. It’s been removed from Univision’s Spanish-speaking radio stations and will never air as planned on the company’s television channel. The ad argues that Democrats failed in their promises to introduce immigration reform and then gives viewers a simple instruction on how to “punish” them: Don’t vote.

Senator Lindsey Graham visited On The Record last night to chat with Greta Van Susteren about some “novel ideas” he has for improving the country. His best one? Changing the 14th Amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship and punish children of illegal immigrants who were born on US soil. Novel indeed!

Well, it’s happened. While there have been rumblings over the past few weeks that the U.S. Justice Department would be bringing a lawsuit to block the Illegal Immigration Law in Arizona, the suit hadn’t officially been filed until today. The stat of Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer have been named as defendants.

It seems like political sexual attacks are the order of the day. On the heels of Kathleen Parker’s asinine assault on President Obama‘s “manhood” (deliciously deconstructed in a must-read post by Rachel Sklar) and in the context of a debate over the “womanhood” of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Sen. Lindsey Graham has dropped a hilarious response to those on the right who have accused him of being blackmailed over his supposed secret gayness.

In response to President Obama invoking the image of the Statue of Liberty during his speech on immigration today, Rush Limbaugh took the time to inform his listeners of the true meaning of the big green broad by proving that she “was never meant to be a symbol of immigration.”

Earlier this week, Senator Jon Kyl claimed that President Obama had had told him that border security was politically problematic, quoting the President as saying, “If we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support ‘comprehensive immigration reform.” The White House rebuked the claim, ostensibly calling Arizona junior Senator a liar. Well, now Kyl is walking his original quote back, claiming that it was “taken a bit out of context.”

Over the weekend, Redstate broke the news that Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) had accused President Obama of using border security as leverage to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The White House denied the exchange, followed by a double-down by Kyl’s spokesman. At today’s briefing, Chip Reid and I asked Press Secretary Bill Burton about the conversation. While Burton wouldn’t specifically call Kyl a liar, his response, coupled with Kyl’s reaffirmation, doesn’t leave much wiggle room.

Earlier we reported that Senator Jon Kyl public claim that President Obama had privately told the Arizona Senator that the administration would not secure the U.S. border to gain the necessary political leverage to enact immigration reform. Kyl’s account of this private conversation in the Oval Office has since been harshly rebuked by the WH staff, claiming “the President didn’t say that and Senator Kyl knows it.” Kyl’s spokesman has already countered the WH rebuke.

Illegal immigration is bad and people who come into the country illegally are criminals. Alright, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can discuss whether or not it’s fair to compare human beings (criminals though they may be) to a toxic sludge that is killing thousands of plants and animals, ruining entire ecosystems, and destroying the livelihoods and altogether way of life of tons of people? That’s what Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) did yesterday when discussing his proposed amendment to build a 700-mile fence along the US border.

There is only one aspect of politics, empirically, that Sarah Palin knows about: being the CEO of a state. So it shouldn’t be surprising to listen to her sound knowledgeable explaining Jan Brewer‘s decision to pass a controversial immigration law in Arizona on last night’s Hannity, but compared to the folksy buzzword soup she usually cooks up, this was conservative policy at its finest.

Today’s This Week roundtable discussion on Arizona’s new controversial immigration law provided a fairly solid microcosm of the spectrum of the reactions nationwide. George Will is sympathetic; Paul Krugman thinks the Tea Partiers are hypocrites and is upset immigration will likely cancel out Climate Change reform; Cynthia Tucker thinks we are harkening back to South African apartheid. Video and remarks after the jump.

Want a sense of how a national immigration debate may sound to Republicans unwilling to tow the hard right line? Get a load of this. William Sheen, head of ALIPAC, referenced a three year old speech Graham made to the National Council of La Raza during which he noted that to many immigrants America is an idea and “no group owns being an American.” When Sheen repeated this someone in the crowd hollered “neuter Lindsey Graham.”