A short victory for the (A) bill supporters

No Response

1. Harold C. Hutchison

   June 26th, 2007 at 11:23 am

   1

   If that’s the way House Republicans want to play, then I can certainly find better places for my money than the NRCC – and better uses for my time than working for any House Republican.

2. clarice

   June 26th, 2007 at 11:59 am

   2

   Kabuki Kabuki? The Senate has voted 64-35 to take up the immigration bill. There is a second, now-crucial, cloture vote to cut off debate later this week. Emailer J.S. makes a good point:

   I think the first cloture vote is now itself possibly becoming a sort of kabuki for some senators, like Burr and Bond, as they will vote to proceed today to impress the leadership and the Grand Bargainers, in hopes of keeping their relationships decent with them for future favors. These guys can afford, they calculate, to vote for cloture today, knowing they can still filibuster it on the second cloture vote. (I think the message has been gotten by most that a traditional kabuki move of voting for cloture and against the bill won’t work anymore.)

   So this raises an absolutely critical question: what will happen between a vote to proceed today and the next cloture vote? The outrage and pressure, mainly from the right, will have to triple. If people like Burr, Bond, McConnell, etc. vote to proceed today and then don’t get absolutely swamped with constituent outrage, their reaction will be “that wasn’t so bad, I can do it again.” [E.A.]

   That seems right, although with some potential second-vote switchers–like Webb–it may be important to be extra-polite about and not get their back up. Cold, polite, implacable outrage! … If a net five Senators switch between today and the second vote, the bill is (again) dead. That’s a much more plausible scenario in this case than it usually is, given all the maneuvering and posturing and pressure. Burr is a potential switcher (if his amendment is defeated) in addition to Webb. And Brownback, if he wants to do well in Iowa. … The fate of various amendments will give lots of Senators lots of excuses to switch. … The pro-bill forces lost Hatch and Stabenow on the first cloture vote, which may become significant. …10:09 A.M. link

   ——————————————————————————–
   Mickey Kaus Slate.com

3. Macranger

   June 26th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

   3

   Clarice, I believe you are right. Kind of let’s them have it “both ways”, in a Kerry fashion “I voted for it before I voted against it”.

4. CommentGuy

   June 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

   4

   Mac

   I believe some are trying to revive the bill to try to fix it and not just kill it dead today.

   There are many known strong opposition to the bill that said today, lets take one more shot at fixing this thing and depending on how that turns out the next cloture vote can kill it off.

   With only a 4 vote margin just to work on the thing, I think failure of cloture down the line is a real possibility.

5. Laddy

   June 26th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

   5

   I don’t see how the House Republicans can do anything about it. They are the minority. If Pelosi and the Dems want to stick it to the Repubs, they’ll pass it. Half the country thinks Republicans are still running the government so the Rs will get blamed. I don’t think it will make any difference anyway since when the bill gets to Reconciliation, the good parts will get stripped out and we’ll back to where we are now — screwed. I didn’t think any Republican President could do a worse job in office during my lifetime than GHW Bush, but I was very wrong. I think the Republican Party is dead. Everyone is exhausted and fed up with these idiots who apparently don’t believe in the same things many of the rest of us do. I’d say the Democrats have a lock on government for the forseeable future. The GOP will likely permanently lose at least 4 seats in the NE (NH and Maine seats) in the near future. There are no States trending red. I think the GOP will also permanently lose seats the seats held by McCain and Dominici in the SW in the near future as well.

6. Harold C. Hutchison

   June 27th, 2007 at 5:22 am

   6

   How many HouseRepublicans are there? It’s a lot more than the 139 who voted on this. Where do the 63 non-voting Republicans stand?

   Methinks that there could be as many as 85 House Republican votes for the Senate bill.