Posted on 06/28/2007 11:32:01 AM PDT by The Blitherer
The bill has died.
Trust me, no one will be sitting shiva for it at HH.com, and not just because I’m the only one who knows what “sitting shiva” means. Actually, Medved also knows what “sitting shiva” means, and maybe he’ll be doing it on behalf of everyone else at Townhall who is instead celebrating like it’s VJ Day. (Reports that Matt Lewis surprised Mary Katherine Ham with a kiss like the one seen in the picture of above are unconfirmed.)
So where do we go from here? Let’s take ‘em one by one, starting with the biggest winners and working our way down to the biggest losers:
1) YOU – Yes, it sounds trite, but your voice was heard. Remember, the original aim of this bill’s authors was to have it enshrined as law in a mere 48 hours. You raised such a fuss that that became impossible. But the bill’s supporters were undeterred and remained the clear majority in the Senate.
Truly, I don’t think a single Senator changed his mind on the underlying merits of the bill. Those that changed their votes did so because they heard from their constituents. So what’s the takeaway? Your voice counts. In a democracy, that’s a very fine thing.
2) THE CONGRESSIONAL HEROES – Lest we find ourselves lost in a throw-the-bums-out mentality, let’s take a moment to recognize the Republican Senators and Congressmen who led the fight to beat back this wildebeest of a bill. I had Pete Hoekstra on the show last night; Rep. Hoekstra isn’t known as a ball of fire, but he was passionate last night. He was great. He fought against the tide and he wasn’t alone.
Jim DeMint has been a stalwart on this since day one. Same goes for Sessions, Cornyn and Inhofe. David Vitter went mano-a-mano with Harry Reid. John Shadegg showed what real House leadership would look like. Someday we’ll have a Speaker Shadegg, and that will be a fine thing indeed. If I left any of the politician good guys out of this brief list (and I’m sure I did), my apologies.
3) THE FENCE-SITTING REPUBLICANS – The bill was defeated handily this morning. We got 53 votes against cloture. Earlier in the week, it didn’t look like we’d get the 40 that we needed. I guess it’s neat that Senators like Brownback and Murkowski had a Road-to-Damascus moment some time in the last 24 hours, but where were they when the battle raged? Rather than just ask the question rhetorically, let me posit a theory: They were sitting in the middle with their fingers in the air.
In this class of fence-sitters, I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger if I didn’t carve out a special place for George Voinovich. Yesterday, Senator Voinovich was humiliating himself on the air with Sean Hannity, accusing Hannity of being irrational for opposing the bill. Today, Voinovich voted against cloture. What political courage!
How will Republican voters remember the Senators who sat out the war? My guess is not very fondly.
4) THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION – I’ve admired this president for a long time, but I’ve reached a point where I’ve had it up to here (my hand is at my forehead) with this administration’s chronic obtuseness and arrogance. The top priority right now for the administration should be the war. And yet the president spent what little political capital he had trying to shove this atrocious immigration bill down the country’s throat. This whole gambit was the logical equivalent of Abraham Lincoln in February of 1864 seeking out the non-war related issue that would most effectively divide his base and then relentlessly championing that issue. That would have been dumb, right? And yet that’s exactly what President Bush did.
President Bush is going to need a united base come September if he wants to stay the course in Iraq. Given that consideration, calling 90% of that base bigots probably wasn’t a very good idea. Fickle, weak-kneed and misguided Republican senators like Dick Lugar are already preemptively declaring defeat.
Will the Republican base forgive the administration for its actions surrounding this bill? My guess is no. We’re moving on to finding another leader for the party, and in 7 months or so we’ll have one. In the meantime, thanks to this idiotic gambit, there’s a power vacuum right now in the White House.
Maybe the base can fill that vacuum. The only good news is that the past political fortnight showed that the Republican base, when enthusiastic, can have a dramatically positive effect on Republican politicians. If the base demands victory in Iraq as loudly as it demanded defeat for this immigration bill, the Republicans in congress will once again listen.
5) THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – Securing the border is something that 90% of the country feels should be done immediately and permanently. That’s the motherhood and apple-pie of this issue – no one opposes it.
Except the leadership of the Democratic Party. For a while now, the Republicans’ best hope for success has been Democratic stupidity. Fortunately, the Democrats have often been up to the task, handing us presidential nominees like John Kerry and Al Gore. Now, the Democrats have given us the greatest gift of all – an issue that moves the country much more than members of the political class realize and on which the Democrats find themselves on the wrong side. The Republican congressional candidates should be able to have a lot of fun with the issue of border security in 2008. So should the Republican presidential nominee unless he’s…
6) JOHN McCAIN – What’s left to say about this man? I guess you can argue whether he does what he does because his vanity compels him to plaster his name on “major” legislation, regardless of whether that legislation is good or bad, or that Mort Kondracke has it right and that McCain is as noble a politician that this county has ever seen whose conscience holds him prisoner.
You can probably tell by my phrasing of the issue which way I lean, but ultimately, who cares? John McCain has opposed the vast majority of his party too many times on too many issues. And regardless of what Mort Kondracke or McCain’s other friends in the media believe, the base’s disdain for McCain does not primarily derive from personal animus. Instead, that disdain flows directly from the fact that John McCain has been a more damaging presence in the Senate over the past six years than anyone else - Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid included.
Yes, he’s right on the war, but a lot of senators are right on the war. But McCain has been so wrong and so destructive on so many other issues, his relationship with the base is fractured beyond repair. Perhaps the Senator can take some solace in the fact that he never had a chance in the presidential race anyway. Even before McCain/Kennedy thudded into the Senate with McCain demanding its passage in 48 hours, the Republican Party had his number.
7) THE IMMIGRATION BILL WATER-CARRIERS – Lindsey Graham’s approval ratings in South Carolina have dipped to 31% because of his obnoxious antics while supporting this bill. Trent Lott has made himself a national laughingstock. Again. I know – dog bites man.
But remember who the biggest winners in this imbroglio are – the voters. If the Republicans in South Carolina are sick of being embarrassed by Lindsey Graham, they have a choice – they can find someone to run against him in the primary. Just about anyone will do the trick. I’ll even make a bold prediction: Reading the writing on the wall, Senator Graham will decide that K Street beckons and remove himself from public life before his constituents do the deed for him.
As for Trent Lott, how many opportunities should this guy get to embarrass himself and the party as a leader of the caucus?
IN SUMMATION, what happened over the past month was the first real skirmish in a civil war for the soul of the Republican Party. You had good guys like Hoekstra, DeMint, Sessions and Vitter doing battle with an exhausted Old Guard (Lott, Voinovich et al.) who have forgotten what their party stands for and who they represent. Happily, the good guys won this round.
The fight will rage on. Hopefully what happened here will be just the beginning.
?
>> The illegal foreigners should be encouraged to continue to speak the language of their homeland.
... in their homeland. I completely agree ... not many people in Mexico would understand them if they were speaking English.
Sure - we can’t deport 12 million illegal immigrants all at once ... but we can probably do it a few at a time.
H
!
Question mark is a way of saying, “Why did you address your post to me”?
Don't let up until the enforce the laws and the boarder.
Yes. For this battle, but we must get the enforcement and wall built next. Before any other immigration bill the spicket needs to be turned off and the leak not only patched by fully repaired. The questtion is now what fully encompassed and enforcement, deportation, build the wall bill.
This is exactly what needs to happen next. It will take atleast two years for any new 'comprehensive' immigration bill to come up for vote. But for now we need to solve the problem of the invasion (Stop it!). We need a SERIOUS and comprehensive enforcement bill first and soon. Forget the naysayers. IT MUST HAPPEN AND WE NEED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.
“Can we now declare victory?”
Speaking only for myself:
NO.
I heard Durbin and Kyl on radio saying “in so many words”...
“We’ll BE BACK”.
This VampireBill ain’t dead yet.
If anything, it’s a tumor that will metastasize into a bunch of riders
and attachments to other bills Senators will feel compelled to pass.
Stay alert.
This is (at best) “the end of the beginning” of the war against the
illegal invaders of our beloved country.
But when Horsefaced One made the comments about Mary Cheney it looks like he took a dive. Then when Silky Pony chimed in, it was shark Olypmics.
These people aren't that stupid, they had to know it would make them look small.
Let’s face it, although today’s victory shouldn’t be downplayed, all we have really achieved is a status quo.
Now that we have seen what we Americans can do when we put our energy into an issue, we need to follow today’s victory up with what we really want.
DON’T STOP NOW!! We want Border Security, so let’s translate today’s victory into a concerted effort to get the Border fixed, and secured. LET”S MAKE IT HAPPEN!!
Today is the first day of our campaign to get the BORDER SEECURED.
START WRITING EMAILS AND LETTERS TO GET OUR SOUTHERN BORDER SECURED. BOMBARD OUR SENATORS AND HOMELAND SECURITY.
senator@biden.senate.gov; senator@chambliss.senate.gov; senator@durbin.senate.gov; senator@harkin.senate.gov; senator@mcconnell.senate.gov; senator@kerry.senate.gov; senator@levin.senate.gov; senator@hagel.senate.gov; senator@lautenberg.senate.gov; senator@reed.senate.gov; senator@graham.senate.gov; senator@dodd.senate.gov; senator@lieberman.senate.gov; senator@whitehouse.senate.gov; ssenator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov; senator@carper.senate.gov; ssenator@cardin.senate.gov; senator@mikulski.senate.gov; senator@menendez.senate.gov; senator@clinton.senate.gov; senator@obama.senate.gov; senator@schumer.senate.gov; senator@casey.senate.gov; senator@specter.senate.gov; senator@lincoln.senate.gov; senator@martinez.senate.gov; senator@nelson.senate.gov; senator@bayh.senate.gov; senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov; senator@stabenow.senate.gov; senator@brown.senate.gov; senator@voinivich.senate.gov; senator@feingold.senate.gov; senator@kohl.senate.gov; senator@salazar.senate.gov; senator@klobucher.senate.gov; senator@conrad.senate.gov; senator@mccain.senate.gov; senator@feinstein.senate.gov; senator@wyden.senate.gov; senator@cantwell.senate.gov; senator@murray.senate.gov; senator@akaka.senate.gov; senator@inouye.senate.gov; senator@Alexander.senate.gov; senator@Allard.senate.gov; senator@Baucus.senate.gov; senator@Bennett.senate.gov; senator@Bingaman.senate.gov; senator@Bond.senate.gov; senator@Boxer.senate.gov; senator@Bunning.senate.gov; senator@Burr.senate.gov; senator@Byrd.senate.gov; senator@Chambliss.senate.gov; senator@Cochran.senate.gov; senator@Coleman.senate.gov; senator@Collins.senate.gov; senator@Corker.senate.gov; senator@Cornyn.senate.gov; senator@Craig.senate.gov; senator@Crapo.senate.gov; senator@DeMint.senate.gov; senator@Dole.senate.gov; senator@Domenici.senate.gov; senator@Dorgan.senate.gov; senator@Ensign.senate.gov; senator@Grassley.senate.gov; senator@Gregg.senate.gov; senator@Hatch.senate.gov; senator@Hutchison.senate.gov; senator@Inhofe.senate.gov; senator@Isakson.senate.gov; senator@Kyl.senate.gov; senator@Landrieu.senate.gov; senator@Lott.senate.gov; senator@McCaskill.senate.gov; senator@McConnell.senate.gov; senator@Murkowski.senate.gov; senator@Pryor.senate.gov; senator@Roberts.senate.gov; senator@Rockefeller.senate.gov; senator@Sanders.senate.gov; senator@Sessions.senate.gov; senator@Shelby.senate.gov; senator@Smith.senate.gov; senator@Snowe.senate.gov; senator@Stevens.senate.gov; senator@Sununu.senate.gov; senator@Tester.senate.gov; senator@Thune.senate.gov; senator@Vitter.senate.gov; senator@Warner.senate.gov; senator@Webb.senate.gov; senator@Brownback.senate.gov; senator@Coburn.senate.gov; senator@Enzi.senate.gov; senator@Johnson.senate.gov
Subject: Just A Heads-Up
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 3:30 pm
Dear Senators,
As you may now realize, Americans are very determined to see that our Southern Border gets secured, and we are preparing to embark on a major email, letter, FAX, and phone call campaign, every bit as vociferous as the one to defeat the Immigration Bill, to make sure that this happens.
So, consider this email a Heads-Up as to what is in store for the Senate, Homeland Security, and this Administration.
In this very temporary interim, between now, and the beginning of this highly embarassing Citizen Campaign, think of the prestige, and integrity, that might be regained by the Senate, if you Senators began this Border Security process without an extreme amount of pressure from your constituents.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
I do; he's the guy who inadvertently united the conservatives to go on a Rino hunt. ;)
He did do that didn’t he? I guess there’s a silver lining to every cloud. And vice versa.
“Let’s take ‘em one by one, starting with the biggest winners and working our way down to the biggest losers:”
I am so relieved this bill was shot down. But there is one possible winner that we better hope doesn’t occur. The fairness doctrine is raising its ugly head again and being given new life. This bill got defeated by talk radio and the blogosphere that listen to them. If not for them the people would have missed this bill being slipped through congress. Congress was humiliated with the failure of this bill. They will not forgive and they will not forget. They are going to go after talk radio with a vengence. I guarantee you that they will attempt to reimpose the fairness doctrine within the coming months. It will take a campaign as big as the one against the “immigration reform” bill to stop it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1857947/posts
Sorry I don't know how to post links, but basically the House just voted down the Fairness Doctrine 309-115.
Wow. I didn’t even know it was up for a vote. Thank god for the House(the people’s legislature). I had been hearing a lot of pro fairness doctrine stuff coming from dems in the media lately. I didn’t realize it was up for a vote though. That is great news.
I thank you for your belief, but there will be NO more steps and the border will be opened for good as soon as the supporters of al-Qaeda (the Democrats) take complete power after the 2008 election.
I slightly disagree.
I agree this isn’t over but do think we achieved more then status quo.
we couldn’t stop this in the Senate last year when we had more conservative Republicaans on our side. It fell to the House to kill.
We’ve now stopped it twice in the Senate within a few weeks while in the minority. IMO, our momentum is clearly building.
Well, as a congressman he is certainly congressional.
but you didn't notice that this article was about the senators who voted in the senate yesterday? there's no mention of any congressmen in this article... whatever...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.