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Key senators tentatively agreed on a plan to revive a stalled immigration bill on Thursday, aided by President Bush's support for a quick $4.4 billion aimed at "securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site." Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Republican and Democratic supporters of the bill were presenting their proposal to the Senate's top two leaders, who in turn arranged an early evening meeting to discuss it. Precise details to be presented to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were not disclosed. In general, according to officials familiar...

President Bush yesterday told Hispanics to step into the middle of the immigration debate and make sure senators who have been bombarded with calls from opponents also hear from those who support the bill. "There's a lot of emotion on this issue, and it makes sense to have people from around the country come and sit down with members of Congress to talk rationally about the issue," he told those attending the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington yesterday. He was speaking a day after the bill, which collapsed last week, was revived by the top Democrat and Republican in the...

When the leading Republican candidate for president bemoans the lack of strong leadership these days, it's a pretty clear sign that the party is less than excited about its political prospects. Speaking at a rally in Wilmington, Del., Rudy Giuliani said the feeling that the country is on the wrong track shows a lack of leadership, according to The Associated Press. "What we're lacking is strong, aggressive, bold leadership, like we had with Ronald Reagan," Giuliani said. In the recent AP-Ipsos poll, just 21 percent said the U.S. is heading in the right direction. When the Republican candidates gathered for...

A spokeman for the Bush administration sent an e-mail to Jim Robinson and myself confirming the authenticity of a post on Free Republic this afternoon regarding the immigration bill currently before the Senate as having been posted on behalf of the White House.The spokesman, Nicholas Thompson, works for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Politico reported yesterday that Thompson and Kerrie Rushton, associate directors in the Office of Strategic Initiatives who work under Karl Rove, would be engaging the blogosphere on the immigration bill.Thompson's post is on the thread titled Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill, a...

Count me among those perplexed by John McCain’s decision to go negative. Does the Senator think he’s not coming across as curmudgeonly enough? Does he think he’ll reap some benefit from turning himself into the political version of Grandpa Simpson? If I were McCain, I’d go upbeat and explain my own positions and repair my own relationships with the party faithful. That’s what he has to do. Honestly, is there any Republican candidate out there that McCain would defeat (other than Larry Libertarian) in a head-to-head match-up? He has to tend to his own image. Knocking down nine other...

The immigration bill may be dead for now, but the political forces behind it have not gone away. Those will continue to impact both major political parties for many years to come. The basic force is that Hispanics are increasing as a share of the population. According to the latest data from the Census Bureau, there were 44.3 million Hispanics in the United States as of July 1, 2006, constituting 14.8 percent of the population. And they are the fastest growing ethnic group, accounting for about half the growth of population during the previous year—1.4 million out of a total...

Perhaps Dubya is getting tired of hearing of what the peons/citizens are telling him about his Shamnesty Act of 2007. The comment@whitehouse.gov is also being returned as "undeliverable". Anyone else getting though?

True to his reputation as a maverick, Sen. John McCain is obviously fed up with the jabs he's taking from conservatives on the immigration issue. And he's hitting back – hard. It's about time. Since the beginning of this debate, McCain has been both correct and courageous. But now he has made it clear that he's not going to be anyone's punching bag. McCain is correct about the need for comprehensive immigration reform as opposed to what's behind door No. 2: the “faith-based” enforcement-only approach of building walls, hoping illegal immigrants self-deport and calling it a day. Congress did something...

All of the Republican presidential contenders have turned down an invitation to speak in Orlando to the nation's largest gathering of Hispanic elected officials, at a time when their constituents are poised to be a powerful force in the 2008 election. Making the GOP field's absence particularly conspicuous, all of the leading Democratic candidates are planning to address NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, on June 30. The Republicans were asked to participate in a forum the previous day. About 1,000 Hispanic leaders, representing the fastest-growing part of the electorate, are expected at the conference. Hispanic...

The corpse of S. 1348 is twitching. Remember: I pronounced it "down but not quite dead" after the cloture vote last Thursday. Now, Bush-Reid-Kennedy will be working overtime the next few days to prop it back up on the Senate floor, reports the NYTimes: Senate Democrats opened the door to reviving the stalled immigration measure on Sunday, calling on Republicans to resolve their internal divisions and produce an agreement on how to move the legislation forward. With Bush administration officials and Republican authors of the overhaul saying they had not given up on the bill, the spokesman for Senator...

President Bush, trying to recover from a stinging setback on immigration, will personally try in a visit to the Capitol next week to revive the embattled plan for legalizing millions of unlawful immigrants. Bush's scheduled lunch on Tuesday with GOP senators is part of a campaign by the White House and allies in both parties to placate or outmaneuver conservative Republicans who blocked the broad immigration measure this week. They said Friday they would try again to reach accord on the number of amendments the dissidents could offer. Opponents of the bill promised to continue fighting all such efforts. Democratic...

McClatchy exclusive: Bush accuses conservative critics of fear-mongering on immigration By Ron Hutcheson - McClatchy Newspapers Firing back at conservative critics, President Bush defended his plan to overhaul immigration laws Tuesday and accused its opponents of "trying to rile up people’s emotions" with misinformation. In an exclusive interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Bush expressed his determination to fight for changes that would let millions of illegal immigrants gain legal status. He cast the debate as a struggle over America’s soul and its reputation as a welcoming nation. "I’m deeply concerned about America losing its soul. Immigration has been the lifeblood of...