The (A) Bill is dead, long live a better bill
Let’s not feel sad, this bill was a disaster and in the end the people’s will reined:
“The comprehensive immigration reform bill that has dodged attacks from the left and right for weeks, survived ‚Äúpoison pill‚Äù amendments, and was once pulled from the Senate schedule failed its most important test Thursday. Passage of the legislation now appears unlikely.
The bipartisan coalition that had shepherded the measure through so many obstacles failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate. The final vote was 46-53.
Until Thursday morning, it was unclear whether the bill would survive the cloture vote. But in the end, opponents of the measure from both sides of the political spectrum gained enough support to derail the legislation. Liberals felt it did not go far enough in protecting illegal immigrants, while conservatives rejected the bill because they felt it would grant amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.
Republican foes of the measure argued that the American public was broadly united in opposition to the bill and had made its views known by flooding Congress with phone calls and e-mails.
“What part of ‘no’ don’t we understand?,” asked Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who said the immigration fight had “reengaged the American people.”
But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the key members of the coalition that crafted the bill, warned his Republican colleagues ahead of the vote.
“Remember this day if you vote ‘no,’” Graham said, adding that this bill would not come back in its current form and it is “as good as it gets.”
Graham’s attitude is part of the problem. A better bill CAN be written once it’s taken out of the back rooms and out into the sunshine. Perhaps now the following nominal measures can take place:
Perhaps now it will…
- Get referred to the appropriate Senate committee which is regular order.
- Recieve hearings in committee and receive the benefit of experts in the field of immigration testifying as to their knowledge of our present immigration system how they believe the system could be fixed.
- Write a bill based on the above and and then continue to consult experts and modify the bill as needed.
Let’s remember that EVERBODY believes that the the current immigration system is broke, were we differ is in the fixing of the current system. Today the American people – not talk radio, or conservative blogs (remember that there were leftist blogs just as passionate about this bill dying), or anything other than the fact that the people got through their elected Senators and let them that they didn’t want this bill passed.
Senator Hutchison (Tx-R) just asked the Senate to keep this going. She said this was a flawed bill and the American people saw through it but even this defeat “that diappointed so many including the President” does not mean that they should not address the concerns of the American people. She said that every call she got said “border security, end illegal immigration, first priority” and that should be done before they address the 12-20 million here illegally.
NRO The COrner:
“Looking at That Roll Call [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Republican strategists allied with the White House have said that the GOP needed to pass this bill to stay competitive in such states as Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and even Texas. Most of the actual Republican officeholders in those states evidently disagreed. Even a Democrat from New Mexico voted no.
06/28 12:53 PM”
Cloture FAILS on Immigration Bill and Reaction Rou…
The fight is not over by a long shot. First Reid is promising to bring this back, then again, he rarely keeps his promises, so who knows. Secondly, we still need to stay on our representatives to get them to SECURE THE BORDERS and to ENFORCE OUR CURR…..
Might I suggest:
1. Enforce the current laws on the books
2. Full fund all 854 miles of Double Layer Fencing and Vehicle Barriers
3. Hold their Feet to the Fire. If we do that, we can once again, have a Republic we can be proud of.
[...] Macsmind: Let’s not feel sad, this bill was a disaster and in the end the people’s will reined: [...]
No, Mac, I don’t think they will. If Jon Kyl can be savaged for trying to find common ground – even if it is not regular order, no Republican will cross the columnists and talk-show hosts. We just kicked the can for a decade. No enforcement-only bill will pass the Senate. Lindsey Graham was right – the Dems hold the chairmanships and the majority. They dictate the terms.
We had a chance for a better bill last year – and the House Republicans aagin listened to the columnists and talk show hosts, and proceeded to take theirball and go home rather than work out a compromise with the Senate.
And we’re gonna pay a price – the conservative opposition has managed to drive Hispanics to the Democrats. I was saying it. The Wall Street Journal was saying it… but I guess conservatives weren’t willing to listen.
Worse yet, conservatism’s lost a fair bit of trust from me. Townhall.com let’s fantasies of assassinating a U.S. Attorney stay up, even after they were informed by my co-blogger at Called as Seen. Worse yet, after bad-mouthing the Administration on border security, they then claim the Administration has a credibility problem on the issue.
I can’t work with folks like that. I’m not at AJ-Strata’s level, but this has me just fuming. I’m thinking of myself as more of a Donald Bellisario Republican than a conservative these days. They’re asking me to cross several bridges too far.
[...] Macsmind: “The (A) Bill is dead, long live a better bill.” Don’t give them any ideas! They didn’t need to write a bill in the first place, they need to enforce the law, period! [...]
I don’t think that any Hispanic voter who thinks family values is an issue, has gone to the Democrats, because no one in the Democratic field has any family values. The article cited is a USA Today article. I just don’t understand how any American of any race could say that we need to accept the bill that was voted on today.
No one even knew what was in the bill.
From above
“And we‚Äôre gonna pay a price – the conservative opposition has managed to drive Hispanics to the Democrats.”
When did the Republicans have the Hispanics? wouldn’t it have been a short ride over to the Dimmicrats where they actually were already holed up?
The way I see it, they prevented the Dims from getting an even larger number of hispanic voters. 80% of 12 million is a lot of Dim voters. The hispanic vote isn’t moving and hasn’t moved.
For Enforcement:
We went from 21% in 1996 to 40-44% in 2004. The numbers were increasing until 2006.
Harold
If you don’t want to end up sounding as nutty as AJ, you might want to think about dropping the Ted Kennedy talking points. Repeating Kennedy’s talking points makes you soound as out of touch with reality as Marie Antoinette.
Habanero:
Nutty? No, AJ’s talking sense… he’s also someone the GOP should be able to count on to at the very least vote Republican without having to be cajoled or the subject of a GOTV operation. He’s pro-life, he’s pro-winning the GWOT, he even feels Tom DeLay was Nifonged.
But as it stands right now, the GOP has probably lost him over the immigration issue (and some other stuff). MacRanger has emphasized that those who disagreed with him on this were not evil quislings trying to help Jorge Bush sell out the United States to Mexico and create the North American Union.
However, he is the exception, not the rule. Other than a too-little, too-late column from Hugh Hewitt, I haven’t seen people have tried to tone down the criticism of other Republicans and conservatives like Sam Brownback, Linda Chavez and others who have taken a lot of abuse over this.
Some, like AJ-Strata, are either bailing out or considering it. Me? I might try to scrape a small donation to the Republican Leadership Council. I’m certainly going to be looking into other moderate Republican groups as well. Conservatism is in the doghouse with me – and will be for a while.
It was a bad bill with absolutely no, nada, not any protection for America and yet the Americans who opposed it are supposed to tone down their criticism. Why is that? People aren’t supposed to defend their country? Sen Brownback started the vote with a Aye and than changed to a Nay.
Doesn’t sound like abuse to me, I’d rather think he decided that the right vote for America was Nay. I’m just sorry that a lot of other Americans apparently don’t think this bill was bad.
Immigration Bill Dies Again…
The immigration bill died yet again. Down in flames might be an apt analogy, but this is the bill of the living dead – it keeps managing to come back to life despite the overwhelming failures and inadequacies to deal with the issues at hand – securin…..
Well, if anyone really cares about the GWOT and like issues, they’d better stick with the Republicans. The alternative is to let the GOP lose big in 2008 and usher in a new Clinton era with Dems remaining in control of both Houses, which inevitably would lead the US to defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anyone who allows that to happen IS an extremist… and that includes the pro-Amnesty types still bitching over the fact that they didn’t get their way this time around. Get over it. And get over yourselves. If Churchill was willing to ally with Stalin to defeat Hitler, you “moderates” can certainly find it within yourselves to suck it up and work with the cranky GOP right-wingers like Tancredo if the ultimate goal is keeping America safe.
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