Bush suffers what hopefully will be the beginning of a long series of humilating defeats:
The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.
After the stinging political setback, Bush sounded resigned to defeat.“Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress’ failure to act on it is a disappointment,” he said after an appearance in Newport, R.I. “A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn’t find common ground. It didn’t work.”
The bill’s Senate supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.
Some senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics. t
Bush appeared glum as he spoke. His negotiators had expressed optimism the vote would go their way—or, at least be closer.
“Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues,” Bush said. He turned attention to other his other goals in Congress this year, including energy, health care and balanced-budget initiatives.
I don’t know if the bill would have been a good or bad thing for the country- I really don’t. As I stated before, I have mixed feelings- anything Michelle Malkin is that vehemently opposed to can’t be all that bad, anything Bush and Kennedy agree on can’t be all that good.
I guess I will settle for the simple repudiation of Bush’s ideas. That has to count for something.
ThymeZone
If I were the editor, I’d say, keep the first sentence. It’s a weak position, but at least it doesn’t pull back the covers, as the second sentence does, and reveal the probing analysis that underlies it.
This approach reminds me a lot of rooting for Bratwurst in the Sausage Races at the ballpark.
Yay, Bratwurst!! Hooray!!
matt
I wonder if there’s a market for an apolitical blog that examined the ins and outs of issues like this, sort of a wonky version of http://www.factcheck.org
Tom
We could start with a cost analysis.
mrmobi
Relax John, in the great scheme of things, the failure to change our immigration policies doesn’t amount to very much, as we watch a full constitutional crisis evolve. My read on it is that it was a badly flawed bill which would have gotten even worse by the time it passed.
The folks in this administration have been compared, I think fairly, to those in the Nixon administration (some of them were members of that administration).
Their extreme secrecy and authoritarianism do seem to compare well to the Nixon gang, but Nixon’s group had something these guys don’t, and that is simple competency.
These guys can even get their stories straight about which laws they are breaking and which they are just ignoring, based on vastly expanded executive privilege claims. If they aren’t the most arrogant administration in history, they must be the stupidest.
This is a sad and dangerous time for our democracy. Buy popcorn.
mrmobi
BTW. Off topic, but I signed up for the Newt Gingrich newsletter, using my home email, now I’m getting emails from Coulter, Buchanan and a host of other lamebrains.
You all probably didn’t know that our country is under attack by socialists, did you? Thought you’d want to know.
Jake
And all around the country, businesses that use the labour of illegal immigrants breathe a huge sigh of relief. I think the bill tried to do too much at once. It would have been interesting to see how the voting went on individual issues. Particularly steep fines for employing illegal immigrants.
I’m waiting to see what happens next. Will we see habitual defiance of the Deciderer from now on? Or will his faithful flock in Congress roll over and show their soft white underbelly by way of apology?
Stay tuned!
Tsulagi
I’d say those two, arrogance and stupidity, along with incompetence are always in a flat-out race. Normally all three are neck and neck down the track, but occasionally the admin really comes through giving one of them a kick in the ass to put it ahead for a while until the others catch up.
Andrew
I was going to say something nice to John today, but I just read that the two new Justices on the SC voted to kill a mentally ill man.
Luckily, they were in the minority.
ThymeZone
Haven’t looked, but I’ll guess that one of them was Thomas?
{ QQing it up }
Okay it was 5-4 and …
I think basically the country is hanging by a very slim thread at this point.
And Thomas is definitely one sick, crazy fuck.
jg
It’s a wedge issue. No way they were actually going to solve it.
Wilfred
The lack of a sense of decency and common humanity is what distinguishes Bushco and the rabid right from the rest of mankind. They are past unbearable.
Andrew
Well, shit, it’s a given that Thomas and Scalia want to kill them some retards and mentally ill and such.
Rome Again
Agreed.
Zifnab
Ironically, it was a wedge issue for the Party of Wedgies.
I’m not sorry to see the legislation die. I think conservatives will suffer the most by this legislation, as they failed to “protect our borders!!!1!” from the angry brown-skinned hordes while at the same time sticking a finger squarely in the eye of those very same brown-skinned hordes who will become to the next generation of the disgruntled, disenfranchised American underclass.
Rove was a damn smart guy. He thought he could play the religion card and the friendly-to-cheap-labor card, turning hispanics into a racial block as loyal as African-Americans and Unions are to the Dems. But you can’t outsmart stupid, and the xenopublicans just couldn’t stand the idea of seeing hispanics mowing their lawns or picking their tomatoes.
When the Dems pick up this issue in ’09, they’re going to make Republicans hurt a whole lot.
ThymeZone
Why? That’s the base that put them where they are.
Jake
Fixed.
And I like “xenopublicans.”
Tax Analyst
Poor Dubyah, here he was looking for “just one teeny-weeny major accomplishment” to show for his two-terms in office. That’s the “Thanks” he gets for having worked so closely, fairly, and of course, bi-partisan-shiply with those folks in Congress…
Hey, does anybody think Dubyah even KNEW what was in that bill? Do ya’ think he ever even read it?
Yeah, like “The Decider” has time to read all the shit that comes across his desk. Who needs to read when you have “Faith”…
Bubblegum Tate
I didn’t, but I had a sneaking suspicion. I mean, there are Russian people in my neighborhood. Honest-to-god Russkies! The fuck?
tBone
I guess we have to take what we can get, but I’d prefer the Senate repudiate some of Bush’s standard batshit crazy ideas rather than this one. Immigration reform is one of the very, very few (only?) areas where I don’t think Bush is completely off the rails.
Zifnab
I said the same thing about NCLB, only because I hadn’t read all the fine print. One of the guys who originally invisioned and developed NCLB gave the commencement speech at my graduation. He basically got up and said, “We had this really great idea that we’d successfully implimented in a number of locations. Our idea probably would have worked at the national level, but we never got any funding. I really hope that those of you graduating today learn from the bumblefuck mistakes of your parents’ generation. Thank you.”
Chad N. Freude
Well, I think bankrupting the US and bogging the the country down in an unnecesary non-defensive foreign war for perhaps a generation are two major accomplishments. But maybe they’re not so teeny-weeny.
demimondian
I’m enjoying the fact that the reports all say “fell 14 short” instead of “could not even attract a majority of Senators in support”.
PAULQX
Politically this was good for the Dems. They got to show support for the latino community. The Republicans showed themselves as the zenophobic, anti-brownskinned party they are and Bush had another defeat. All in all a good day for the Dems but as far as helping improve the situation in the country, not so hot.
TAX ANALYST
Zifnab Says:
“Immigration reform is one of the very, very few (only?) areas where I don’t think Bush is completely off the rails.
I said the same thing about NCLB, only because I hadn’t read all the fine print. One of the guys who originally invisioned and developed NCLB gave the commencement speech at my graduation. He basically got up and said, “We had this really great idea that we’d successfully implimented in a number of locations. Our idea probably would have worked at the national level, but we never got any funding. I really hope that those of you graduating today learn from the bumblefuck mistakes of your parents’ generation. Thank you.”
Yes, on the very rare occasion Dubyah actually SEEMS to be espousing a positive initiative or program when you look back 6 months or a year later you find that no provision has been made for funding or implementation. It’s all just for spin & show and distraction. MSN (& others) eat it up, it goes into the Republican “Talking Points Package” (that’s the “Extra-Jumbo Size Pack of Lies”, for use by both the National Political & Pundit Classes, since those folks only use it in Media Release type situations. That avoids having to finesse past those bothersome questions about lack of funding and such).
Just one further example of Dubyah creating his own “Reality” – saying it is as good as doing it as long as nobody bothers to do a follow-up investigation.
TAX ANALYST
But I really should be more understanding about Dubyah and his unfulfilled promises…it’s gotta be hard to “Walk the Walk” when you’re always toting around that big, heavy load of Bullshit everywhere you go…
jg
Whose quote is this? Sitting Bull?
The Other Steve
What I have found fascinating about Bush, is his clear embrace of Liberalism.
It is a charade, intended only to confuse and baffle voters on election day. You are correct though, that he ends up simply not funding or supporting the initiative. Is the purpose just to get votes? Or is it more nefarious, that he’s actually forcing liberalism to fail so that they can use it as a future campaign issue?
Given the fact that the GOP is now complaining that the Democrats aren’t doing enough to halt the Iraq war, I’m voting for the latter campaign issue.
The Other Steve
He just needs to change his underwear more frequently.
BIRDZILLA
ABSOLUTLY POSITIVLY NO NORTH AMERICAN UNION and SCREW THE CFR and the UN a well
Carot
There’s something I don’t understand about the Republicans on this. Not a strategy I am advocating but wondering why they don’t do it. It seems to me all the Republican goals would be gained by making babies born in the US from non citizens not automatically US citizens. I know this would mean changing part of the constitution but a party that would want to ban gay marriage this way shouldn’t be afraid of constitutional change per se.
It’s not really a racist policy either, there are other countries where being born there to non citizens doesn’t give you citizenship. It also seems to be what Ron Paul is advocating. It has the following advantages:
1. It satisfies the Buchanan followers because the US number of Mexican citizens cannot rise any more than by the occasional amnesty or granting citizenship to some offspring based on the parent’s behavior. Many countries only allow immigration based on a person’s wealth, education, etc.
2. It allows the guest worker program to continue, and removes the need to police it any more than currently.
3. It stops people sneaking across the border to have babies. I believe many countries already would be unlikely to give a visa to a highly pregnant woman for fear of giving them this citizenship, so the intent is the same.
4. It seems like a good wedge issue for Republicans and unites their own base. Hispanics will not like it in one way but could be offered better guest worker status to compensate. The only Hispanics who would vote against it are those who can’t vote anyway, or maybe the relatives of people coming over to have babies.
5. At some point citizenship could be offered based on good behavior so Hispanics would have a benefit from being legal guest workers, instead of hiding. In fact many might well go back and apply legally for such a program. Babies born in the US might be given an exemption under a visa guest worker program so families are not split up, but go home when the parents do. Under this system the children might qualify for state services as well.
6. The original constitutional amendment was made under circumstances that no longer apply. Since it would only apply to non citizens having babies then African Americans could not say it removed any rights they gained.
On the other side of the argument one has to support the idea of non citizens having citizenship on their offspring but I can’t see what liberal principle is enshrined here.