Immigration bill, dead, again
I can only smile. It was clear several weeks ago that immigration reform in this form wouldn’t pass but our president isn’t good at taking no for an answer. Therefore, he had to bring this bill back up, again. Read said that the Republicans, folks from the president’s own party, needed to step up to the plate. They didn’t. All of the White House lobbying didn’t do squat expect waste the Senate’s time.The president got only 12 out of 49 Republicans to support his bill. Amazing.
Immigration reform is clearly dead for the next year and a half. The whole thing was put together strangely. The Dems who were pushing this bill thought if they could lump enough stuff together everyone would have to vote for it. I would have do it piecemeal. First, border security. Next, fix the process for getting into this country. Next, fines and enforcement here. crackdown on businesses hiring these economic refugees. Fourth, figure out what to do with the folks that are here. That’s the way that I would have tackled the issue but then again, there is a reason that I’m a trauma surgeon and not a politician. 
Update: As I have looked at this clip, I see a president Bush without the swagger that he once had. He looks sad. He looks beatdown, defeated. When you think about how the president looked 2 years ago when he had “political capital”, he was a completely different man. A lot has happened in 2 years. During this time, President Bush has not had one major accomplishment. Not one. Social Security went down in flames. Immigration has gone down twice by his own party. He did get Alito and Roberts but Miers was sunk by his own party, again. President Bush may turn out to be the lamest of all the lame duck presidents.
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From WaPo:
The most dramatic overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws in a generation was crushed yesterday in the Senate, with the forces of the political right and left overwhelming a bipartisan compromise on one of the most difficult issues facing the country.
With 53 senators against moving on to a final vote and 46 in favor, supporters fell dramatically short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the delaying tactics and parliamentary maneuvers that have dogged the bill for weeks. With no way to cut off debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the bill from the Senate floor for the second time this month, and this time it is not likely to come up again before a new president comes to power. (more…)
