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Liberal pundits have opined that Republicans have only meanness fueled by hate as their final refuge so often that the sentiment has become a cliche.

Each time conservatives dare to disagree with what passes for liberal ideology today, "hate" is trotted out as the reason why. In truth, progressives have abused the word hate to the point at which it has no more meaning for them than a North Korean's promise to Bill Richardson.

But there is, I suspect, a good deal of ruthless bigotry mixed into the illegal-immigration debate - bigotry found on both sides.

There's no denying that, for some, the notion of illegal immigrants coming to our nation from Mexico is repulsive, solely because of the color of their skin. There are, however, Hispanics and other minority members already in this country who despise whites for the same reason: the color of their skin.

While it's laughable how willingly liberals accept minority bigotry in the name of political correctness, both sets of attitudes are shameful relics of a less-enlightened era. And for the mental and spiritual health of our country, we should acknowledge that the overwhelming number of Americans today reject discrimination, regardless of its roots.

Which brings us to the curious case of columnist Linda Chavez. In her June 5 piece, "Color Scheme," published in The Tribune's Insight & Opinion, Chavez, a conservative, actually played the race card. It seems she found racist comments about Mexicans and Latin Americans on the Townhall.com Web site, relating to the illegal immigration debate.

Townhall.com is a very good, very large conservative Web site, but as is true of most political Web sites - left and right - eviscerating every squalid comment from anonymous miscreants is a nearly impossible task.

Surely Chavez understands this. Yet she decided to equate all conservatives opposed to the Bush-McCain-Kennedy debacle to the tiny percentage of anonymous racists whose rants she found at Townhall.com.

Basically, Chavez implied that all who oppose Bush's amnesty plan were now revealed as hood-wearing, cross-burning minions from Hell.

Perhaps I wax extreme. I would love to know what motivated her to grossly misrepresent the majority of Americans' views. I say "views," because polls show a mixed bag of responses to different proposals regarding illegal immigration.

However, Americans of all shades, genders and political parties broadly oppose reforms that reward illegality with citizenship. Recognizing a charade when we see one doesn't make us contemptible hate-mongers.

It takes time and energy to loathe someone or something. Most Americans can't squeeze into their schedule the type of rampant hatred deep-thinking liberals want to believe lurks in every living room, ballpark and bowling alley.

Most Americans aren't activists. Most are simply pressing on, day-in, day-out, probably hating little, if anything, at all.

And honestly, if this land was so fetid with evil, hatred, meanness and racism, do you believe for a minute people from nearly every region of the world would risk everything to come here? Neither do I.