Careful Strategy Is Used to Derail Immigration Bill

The Washington Post ^ | 6/8/07 | Shailagh Murray

[LdSentinal]

Two weeks ago, when the immigration bill landed on the Senate floor, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) voted against an amendment that targeted one of its key provisions: a guest-worker program that President Bush and many U.S. companies have sought for years.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, DeMint returned to the floor, and along with three conservative Republican colleagues, voted in favor of the same measure he had opposed, to sunset the program after five years. Not that DeMint has anything against guest workers. He supports the idea. But weakening the guest-worker program would leave the bill in tatters -- and in the twisted logic of the Senate, that served DeMint's greater goal of derailing the legislation.

"If it hurts the bill, I'm for it," DeMint explained matter-of-factly.

The early-morning vote shocked members of the bipartisan coalition who have struggled to pass an immigration bill, one of the most complex and controversial issues that Congress has tackled in years. Leaders in both parties condemned the GOP switchers for conspiring to sabotage legislation that had taken countless delicate negotiating sessions to craft. And that was exactly the intent. The four new votes were the result of an aggressive last-minute lobbying campaign by the legislation's Democratic and Republican critics.

"I'm embarrassed to say they were trying to kill the bill, and I'm ashamed of it," Republican Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said of DeMint and his associates. He fumed that the senators had voted against their principles and on an amendment offered by Democrats, no less.

But that's the Senate, where tactical voting is par for the course, and where a single disgruntled lawmaker -- or in this case, four -- can run even the most artful compromise aground. And that was the ultimate conclusion of their vote, leading to the legislation's demise last night.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Actually, what you described in post #21 is what Reid supported back in 1993.

Back then, Reid made even Tancredo look like an open-border.

[bmw_n_me]

Great to see there are some Republican Senators who happen to have a brain and happen to know how to use it!! That was pretty smart, huh!