Via Michael Warren at the Standard. If Democratic demagoguery of her race is already this nasty now, I can’t imagine how nasty it’ll get if she lands on the GOP’s national ticket.

The arbiter here of who does and doesn’t have a “Latino heart,” by the way, is a white dude named Gary King.

King recalled the words of a previous speaker at the fundraiser, Hispanic labor activist Dolores Huerta. “She said you can’t go out there and just vote for somebody for governor because they have a Latino surname,” King says. “She said you have to look at them and find out if they have a Latino heart. And we know that Susana Martinez does not have a Latino heart.”

The clip is short so we don’t get to hear him elaborate, although usually when Democrats are playing the “no true Scotsman” game with Latinos, there’s one particular issue they have in mind. Martinez criticized Romney two years ago when he called for illegals to self-deport (“I absolutely advocate for comprehensive immigration reform”), but she’s also said stuff like the following. No true Scotsman:

But while she praised Republicans on Capitol Hill for seeking an overhaul of a “broken” immigration system, Martinez on Wednesday advocated the traditional view of her party’s conservative base: secure the border above all else. Martinez also defended her proposed repeal of a state law that allows undocumented workers to obtain drivers licenses, an effort that has drawn angry protests from pro-immigrant activists.

“We always go to immigration as though it is the only issue Hispanic voters or candidates care about,” Martinez said during a conference call with reporters as a co-chair of the Future Majority Caucus, a Republican initiative to elect minority officeholders at the state level. “We’re not single-issue voters.”

I’m not sure when “comprehensive immigration reform with an emphasis on border security” became anathema to the “Latino heart” but it’s not worth scrutinizing stuff like this too closely. Their goal isn’t to challenge Martinez on the merits of the issue, the goal is to leave her racial authenticity under a cloud so that undecided Latinos will break Democratic for fear of “betraying their race” by voting for her. Democrats have done well among black voters with that strategy. Of course they’re going to try it with Latinos.

In fact, I wonder if we’ve reached the point where it’s counterproductive for righties like me and Warren to call attention to this stuff. The goal in highlighting it is to get the attention of the wider media and ultimately shame the responsible party into recanting. But Democrats aren’t going to be shamed. This works for them. If they get a day of bad press and meanwhile the attention to the smear helps spread it even further, why wouldn’t they make that trade? But meanwhile, if righties say nothing, King gets to shovel this sh*t without a word of reproach. What’s the smart play?