After three separate cloture votes today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dem, NV) finally gave up. The last (and closest) vote was defeated 45-50. Here's how our Senators voted:
- Bond: Nay (good!)
- McCaskill: Nay (good!)
- Roberts: Nay (good!)
- Brownback: didn't vote (what's up with that?!)
As Arlen Specter said from the floor, "the bill is on life support, but not dead." We'll see what happens tomorrow, but it's nice to see democracy in action, and to see that public outcry can still sway those folks in their ivory tower. Regardless, don't let up the pressure until it's truly a done deal.
Where does that leave us now?
So, it looks like McCaskill held to her published stance of being against amnesty, though I had my doubts yesterday. I had a rather heated discussion with one of her staffers today about the Cornyn amendment (permanently barring felons); she maintained that McCaskill was against it basically because of who would have been administering the judgments, not because of the provisions in the amendment itself. To me, it seems stupid to vote against such an important amendment because of procedural issues, but I'm not a Senator, so what do I know...
Overall thoughts:
Brownback? Not impressive at all. He may be a conservative on most issues, but he's as liberal as it gets on amnesty and immigration. He appears quite willing to give the country away. Watch out for him, Kansans...
If the shamnesty bill does die, Democrats appear to be content with their plan B - pasting Bush's name all over it to position themselves better for the 2008 Presidential race. You'll probably see quote after quote Friday in the news about how "Bush's plan is going down" or something to that effect. While that strikes me as being obnoxiously political and opportunistic, it's also completely accurate. Bush has wanted to address illegal immigration for a long time, but the Republican-held Congress prevented any realistic chance of success. With the Democrats in control of both houses, this was likely his best chance to get it done. Just remember, though, who was marching in lockstep with Bush on this bill - Kennedy, Reid, McCain, Biden, and Brownback, among (many) others.
I think it's safe to say Brownback's slim hopes of a Presidential bid are all but gone. He probably could have carried a lot of the conservative vote, but this issue has placed him squarely out of favor with his own base. McCain, too, has suffered already, dropping in just about every poll out there. Kudos to McCaskill for standing up to her own party's leadership and making most of the right choices on this bill. She and a handful of other good Democrats are making a world of difference when it comes to voting time.
The good news, from the conservative perspective, is that we've seen a handful of stand-out conservatives who are willing to fight tooth and nail for the integrity of the law and their constituencies - Sessions, DeMint, and Coburn being among the front-runners.
Who knows what will happen tomorrow, but I think good progress was made today. Let's put the final nail in the coffin of this atrocious shamnesty bill tomorrow!
There's my two cents.
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