COLUMBIA – If a compromise bill on immigration passes, it “could be a disaster for the Republican Party,” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint said.

DeMint is leading Republican efforts in the Senate against the legislation that his South Carolina colleague U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham helped write.

“It’s definitely been a strain at this point – strain in relationships,” DeMint said Tuesday in a phone interview after meeting with Spartanburg-area residents to talk about the legislation.

But passing a bill that doesn’t give people confidence in the country’s immigration laws will help unite Democrats, DeMint said.

“The Republicans are not going to get any gains from this,” he said. “Politically, it could be a disaster for the Republican Party.”

Graham’s spokesman said he was not available to talk to a reporter. But Furman University political scientist Danielle Vinson said with President Bush and Graham and other Republican senators pushing to get the bill through the Senate, it doesn’t make sense that Democrats would get all the credit.

Also on Tuesday, Gov. Mark Sanford – a longtime Graham ally – called on South Carolina legislators to act quickly on statewide legislation as he sidestepped questions about the federal illegal immigration proposal.

The state proposal would make it a felony to harbor or transport illegal immigrants and bars government contractors from hiring illegal immigrants. It also forces businesses to pay state payroll taxes on illegal immigrants.

There’s not much time for the proposal to pass, though. South Carolina lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn next week.

The Graham-DeMint differences on the immigration bill played out two weeks ago at the state GOP convention. when Republicans booed and shouted “No” at Graham’s explanations of the bill. But the crowd cheered DeMint, who said he’d work to defeat it if it appears to give illegal immigrants amnesty. By the end of the day, the state GOP had adopted a resolution saying it “adamantly opposes blanket amnesty for anyone who has not gone through the appropriate legal channels to enter our country.”

After Tuesday’s news conference, Sanford said he’ll leave it up to Graham and DeMint to mend their differences. “The nature of any political battle is it’s there for a day and gone the next day, so I’m sure they’ll do just fine,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democrats are enjoying the rare split within the GOP, which controls the state House, state Senate and eight of nine statewide offices.

“It gives me no greater pleasure than to watch them fight each other over whose idea is worse,” said state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia.

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