Photoshop: David Lunde

***

Wire stories coming in: AP calls the cloture vote failure a “stunning setback.” Reuters: “A major legislative setback.” Bloomberg: “A big disappointment.”

A few of my quick post-debate thoughts:

As annoying as Reid’s refrain was, he is right: This was the president’s bill. This was the monstrous sham that President Bush tried to ram through the Senate with his pal Teddy Kennedy–subverting the committee process, attempting to cram it in before the Memorial Day holiday, rushing to limit debate, and then complaining about delays. This was the bill President Bush sent conservative-bashing bureaucrats like DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to peddle on CNN. This was the bill President Bush championed while deriding critics as fearful bigots and running away from building the fence he promised to build.

If the White House thinks conservatives are going to forget whose bill this was and the tactics the White House used in its failed attempt to ram it through Congress, they better think again.

If Lindsay Graham and John McCain think their abominable behavior is going to be forgotten, they better think again.

All is not lost within the Republican Party, though. Watching the floor debate closely the past week, I can tell you that we have three staunch, eloquent conservative defenders in Sens. Sessions, DeMint, and Coburn (though I’m not sure why Coburn didn’t vote on cloture). Unlike President Bush and the pro-amnesty Republicans, these three Republican senators stand out in their understanding and appreciation of the rule of law, the past historical failures of shamnesty bargains, and the vital nexis between border security and homeland security.

I can’t let the night end without also noting the Democrats who defied Reid. Without their votes, shamnesty would be alive and thriving. Whatever their reasons, they chose the right side. (Flashback: Polipundit was right.)

Video update: Watch Byron Dorgan.

Here’s the roll:

***
Liveblogging the debate on the Senate floor…

9:22pm Eastern. Specter now on the floor has a “sense of wonderment about what the American people are thinking at this moment.”

Hint: Phhhhhheeew.

Specter: The bill is “on life support, but not dead.”

Now, we have a parade of “Grand Bargainers” trying to pat themselves on the back.

9:10pm Eastern. In case you didn’t hear it the first or second or 100th time, Reid reiterates that “This is the president’s bill. Where are the president’s men?…I want to finish this bill…Let’s have President Bush work us on this…Reid praises the seven “courageous” Republicans who sided with Reid on cloture.

Heh.

8:55pm Eastern. It’s official. Cloture vote fails: 45-50.

Somber Harry Reid: “Mr. President, this has been a very difficult time…I was hoping that my friends on the other side of the aisle that a small group shouldn’t dictate what happens around here.”

Um, yeah.

“We’re going to keep the bill off the Senate floor.” Proposes having more GOP amendments. “Hopefully, we can do that in the next several weeks…One of my colleagues who has worked very hard on this came into my office and shed some tears.”

Bets, anyone? Mine: Lindsay “Hissy Fit” Graham.

Reid extols the DREAM Act provision in the bill that promises illegal alien college tuition discounts not available to Americans and law-abiding immigrants–in violation of a federal ban on such special treatment.

Whines some more about lack of support for his cloture vote.

Reid vows that he will “put aside hurt feelings” and “move on with the anticipation that this bill is something that the country needs” and “hope we can figure out a way to do it.”

McConnell reiterates need for more time to consider more amendments. Reid whines about how much time was spent on the shamnesty debate.

8:40pm Eastern. The cloture vote is still taking place…I count 24 Nays so far…

Noteworthy votes so far:

R - Kyl, Lott vote NAY
D - Baucus, Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd, Dorgan, Landrieu, McCaskill, Pryor, Rockefeller, Tester, Webb vote NAY

Remember: the magic number is 41. Getting close. Allah : “The vote’s going to fail. The question now is what Reid does.” Watching for that rumored amendment bomb I noted below.

No sound on C-SPAN, but lots of activity on the floor. I see Feinstein, Schumer, Obama, Boxer, Kennedy, Lott, Hutchison, others clustered in two groups on the floor…

8:21pm Eastern. Motion to compel absentee attendance passes, 71-13. Reid promptly moves to reconsider the failed cloture vote on SA 1150 to S.1348.

8pm Eastern. There’s a motion to compel attendance of absent senators. Sergeant-at-arms sent out to look for the absentees. Attempting get a quorum of 51 on the floor.

Where are the missing senators? FAIR sent out this alert that may give a clue:

FAIR has learned that instead of debating amendments on the floor, Senators this afternoon are hiding behind closed doors, drafting a massive, 400-page amendment that will replace huge chunks of the Bush-Kennedy bill currently being debated. Senate leaders are hoping to use the new substitute amendment to reverse changes made over the last 24-hours they don’t like, such as the Cornyn amendment on information sharing and the Dorgan amendment that sunsets the Y guest worker program. Leaders hope once this substitute amendment is adopted, they can get enough votes to end debate ( i.e. to pass a cloture motion) and ram it through the U.S. Senate.

FAIR is urging all members and activists to call their Senators’ offices THIS VERY MOMENT and ask Senators to refuse to take up any more secret bargains. Ask that Senators be given more time to debate meaningful amendments that would improve the bill, and if no extra time is given, to vote NO on cloture!

To find the phone numbers of your Senators, click here. If you can’t get through to the Washington D.C. office of your Senators, be sure to try the district office numbers.

***
National Review editors issue a plea to Sen. Jon Kyl:

Your support for this deal is not moving it right. Rather the Grand Compromise now demands that you work with Ted Kennedy to water-down important conservative improvements to a bill you know is very flawed. And, given the new political dynamics, you are the one pushing this over the finish line.

Some Republican supporters of this deal seem to believe that they have already sustained all the political damage from it that can be sustained, so that the thing to do now is to pass the bill and get it over with. This is a delusion. Conservatives will be far angrier if the bill passes, especially once they see millions of illegal immigrants lining up to get their “probationary” legal status while the bureaucracy drags its feet on enforcement.

As you know, thoughtful conservative critics of the bill are not the know-nothing immigrant haters of caricature. They can see why a lawmaker might, in good faith, seek compromise on this issue. But this compromise asks you to stomach too much. It is not too late to pull the plug.

6:39pm Eastern. Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan speaks (I linked his NRO piece opposing amnesty this morning. Here it is again in case you missed it). He addresses the backroom “Grand Bargainers.” Notes that Sen. Webb has waited for two weeks to offer an amendment. Because he wasn’t part of the group with arms locked together, we have people outside the group who haven’t been able to offer amendment. Rejects the criticism of the “Grand Bargainers” that those offering amendments don’t take immigration seriously. Criticizes both the illegal alien amnesty and the massive temporary guest worker expansion. Raises discussion of American workers: “There’s no discussion here. They have a role in this debate….There’s a party that’s not here at the table: The American worker. Forget about 12 million illegal people. What about 140 million American workers? Do they matter? Does it matter when you people through the back door and push down wages for American workers?”

Goes through amnesty arguments about how the proposal has border security, employer sanctions, temporary workers.

Dorgan continues: “We don’t need new border security measures. Don’t need employer sanctions law. Already have that.” Points out the Bush administration’s lousy, pathetic record on employer sanctions. Yup.

More Dorgan : And “temporary” workers program is the biggest ruse of all. “There are people having an apoplectic seizure” about Dorgan’s sunset amendment, he says. Why not sunset it in five years to reevaluate if it works? Pokes fun at hysterics by the grand bargainers. It’s like no one else has an idea except the backroom grand bargainers. I’ve seen enough of these “gang of however many” compromises. Always usually ends up with bad legislation.

7:10pm Eastern. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) is talking about Darfur.

While we wait for the showdown, I thought you’d love reading how illegal aliens are “seizing the chance to cross” the southern border to get their amnesty (never mind that Dec. 31, 2006 cut-off date). From the Dallas Morning News, the thanks we get:

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Javier Soto’s anxious face tells the story. He has to get to Waxahachie, where a construction job awaits him. But more important, he has to cross the Rio Grande before “the door closes” on him.

The quicker he gets into the U.S., the better his chances for “obtaining a permiso,” said Mr. Soto, 20, a native of El Salvador, who like many other immigrants is closely following the U.S. Senate debate on overhauling the nation’s immigration laws.

“We have to seize the moment because the last time immigrants were given an opportunity I was only a year old,” he said. That was in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act...

…The Senate bill’s path to citizenship would require immigrants to prove employment, submit to a criminal background check and maintain a clean record, learn English and U.S. civics, plus pay a fine of about $5,000 and thousands more in fees to legalize. Heads of families would have to return to their home countries to apply for permanent residency. And earning citizenship could take up to 13 years.

“Do we have to be virgins, too?” quipped Oscar Antonio Perez Lopez, a 40-year-old Panamanian in Nuevo Laredo on his way to Miami. “Can you blame us for choosing to be illegal?”

Added Alejandra Vasquez, 47, of San Luis Potosi, Mexico: “Why can’t they take the money from our paycheck? Five thousand dollars is a bit much in one payment.”

Meanwhile, underscoring my repeated point about how special interests will always prevail in sabotaging enforcement rules, look:

Feds to Suspend Border Passport Rule

The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.

A proposal set to be announced as early as Friday will temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada and Mexico, provided the traveler can prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.

The suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Some officials said the change would last several months; others said as long as six months.

But the plan had run into opposition from the Homeland Security Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, the officials said.

Instead of a passport, travelers will now be able to present a State Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed, and a government-issued ID such as a driver’s license.

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal on Thursday after consultations with the State Department, the White House and members of Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from furious constituents, according to four officials at the agencies involved.

7:34pm Eastern. Ga. Sen. Saxby Chambliss discusses his amendments and the need to prove that Congress is serious about border security.

***
Previous:

June 7 - Does your senator support enforcing our laws?
Shamnesty on the Senate floor, Day 3, Take 2
Specter/Reid vs. Sessions; McCain/Graham suck up to Kennedy
Reid once again calls on Bush to bail out shamnesty
6:23pm Reid: “No tricks.”
June 7 - Shamnesty on the Senate floor, Day 3
Coburn pushes for full enforcement of existing laws
Reid: “This is the president’s bill;” Lott “serves notice”
Coburn fails, 42-54; 1st cloture vote fails, 33-63
2nd cloture vote fails, Reid backs down
June 6- Shamnesty on the Senate floor, Day 2, Take 2
Menendez amendment fails, Kyl amendment passes
Hillary and Obama make appearances
Lindsay Graham has a hissy fit; Inhofe’s English declaration passes
Clinton, Obama fail; Dorgan sunset passes
June 6- Who voted against the Cornyn amendment? Which Repubs voted for the Kennedy amendment?
June 6- Shamnesty on the Senate floor, Day 2; Sen. Sessions knocks sense into the Dems; Specter sides with Kennedy; 12:25pm Kennedy amendment passes; 12:37pm Cornyn amendment fails
June 5 - Shamnesty on the Senate floor; Allard amendment rejected; Durbin amendment passes; Reid, McConnell spar on amendment limits; Reid–”We’re going to file cloture on this bill today”; Hutchison, Cornyn call out Dems stalling

comments (0)   trackbacks (32)