(Sacramento Bee) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political team needs a history lesson. His clumsy use of the illegal immigration issue helps assure the defeat of his reform agenda on the November ballot, and perhaps his own defeat next year.

Elections are all about turnout - who votes and why. Democrats cannot defeat Schwarzenegger's reforms without a large and loyal turnout of Latino voters. They must motivate these voters, destroying the goodwill the governor enjoys with them. In Schwarzenegger's case, he helped the Democrats last month at a meeting of newspaper editors in a discussion of illegal immigration.

"It's a federal issue," he said. "And the only thing that I can say and add to this is, really, close the borders. Close the borders in California, and all across Mexico and the United States."

His endorsement of the Minuteman Project, whose members President Bush has called "vigilantes" and who chase illegal immigrants along the border, provides Schwarzenegger's enemies with a new line of personal attacks: Arnold hates Mexicans. It worked spectacularly well to drive Gov. Pete Wilson from public life and nearly extinguish Republicans in California. Why wouldn't it work again?