Immigration Bill Post Mortem - Those Opposed

Continuing from earlier.

Debra J. Saunders is clearly pleased at the failure of the bill, but spends most of her article discussing how it could have succeeded.

Wait until you've ramped up border enforcement and then take a stab at broadening citizenship. There are people who, like me, opposed this bill, but would agree to a narrow amnesty measure under the right circumstances. The fact is, many of today's naturalized citizens and legal residents at one point were illegal. Some overstayed their visas, then married. Others petitioned a judge for legal status so they could care for a legal resident. Congress has passed laws, now expired, which allowed qualified residents to apply for legal status if they paid a fine.

Pundits have been quick to call the bill's failure bad for the GOP -- and it was a loss for President Bush. Still, Democrats looking to 2008 should be afraid.

I'm not sure what this bill battle actually does for or to Democrats. Certainly those Republicans who are opposed to it will want to link it to Democrats (on the somewhat tenuous grounds that "Democrats like this sort of thing"). And Harry Reid was fully in support of it.

Perhaps Austin Hill is right in his latest article, when he says it's a setback for Congress as well as the President.

And with dismally low approval ratings from the American people, this very unpopular Congress needs to stop appearing as though they're working hand-in-hand with a slightly less unpopular President - - and begin working against him!

I know, it may sound crude or insensitive to describe these things in such raw political terms. But let’s be honest: the Democratic leadership in Congress worked in a very close, bipartisan way with their Republican colleagues AND the White House on the immigration issue - - and they are now paying a steep price for it, in terms of their popularity around the country.

The bulk of his article is on how the appearance of Executive Privilege as an issue is a boon to Congress; lets them look like they are resisting President Bush.

Meanwhile over in Rush Limbaugh's neck of the woods, he's taking credit for having defeated the Amnesty bill.




So that's comforting, eh? Of course Rush sees clouds on the horizon, because he's currently obsessed with the Fairness Doctrine.

In fact, I know for a fact that Democrats were telling Republicans in the Senate yesterday, "Well, just go ahead and vote for this thing, by the time you're up for reelection, we'll have dealt with talk radio." There were Democrats telling Republicans that they shouldn't worry about it because we're going to deal with talk radio. Now they're really going to deal with talk radio. This Fairness Doctrine stuff is going to really heat up. What's going to make it different this time, I think, at least on the side in the Senate is that Republicans are going to join Democrats in all this. But don't worry, folks, we are geared up for this and ready for it.

Rush Limbaugh really seems to believe himself the center of the universe.