Posted on 06/08/2007 12:38:05 PM PDT by justanotherfreeper
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 leaders accused Bush of being too tepid in pushing the legislation, which would tighten borders and offer employers more temporary workers from abroad in addition to providing lawful status to an estimated 12 million illegal aliens and putting many of them on a path toward citizenship
Many Republicans defended the president's role. But the bill's backers nonetheless welcomed his plan to attend the GOP senators' weekly luncheon in the Capitol for the first time in five years.
The visit was scheduled before this week's immigration votes, and Bush will discuss numerous subjects with Republican senators, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "But certainly immigration is a topic" high on the list, he said.
Senate backers of the immigration bill fell 15 votes short of the 60 needed Thursday to limit debate and allow a vote on the measure itself. Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., then set the measure aside, calling it "the president's bill" and saying Bush's direct intervention was crucial to reviving it.
On Friday, some key Republicans agreed. "Whose bill is it?" Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., said in a news briefing held by bill supporters. "Harry Reid says this is the Bush proposal. Harry Reid is right."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, talking with reporters traveling with Bush in Europe, said the president "continues to be regularly briefed" on the legislation. The administration, she said, is encouraging Reid "to keep the debate open. It's a very important issue; people want to have conversations about it."
Several Senate conservatives continue to say they have not been allowed to offer enough changes to the bill. Some of their proposals would make it easier to detect and deport immigrants who have overstayed their visas or committed other violations.
Sen. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., a key opponent, said the bill as written "still unfairly burdens taxpayers, doesn't ensure secure borders and guarantees amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
The bill's supporters say DeMint and other critics will oppose the measure no matter how many amendments are accepted. Nonetheless, they agreed Friday that some type of peace accord with the conservatives is essential if the measure is to return to life.
"If we're able to come up with a list of amendments that could take two or even three days to complete, 10 years from now or 100 years from now who will care that it was an extra three days if we can achieve the result that we're talking about?" said Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told reporters he was hopeful because the Senate "is a chemical place. There's a flow to activity here. The tide comes in and goes out. And once in a while, the stars get lined up correctly, and we move ahead."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., complained that critics continue to use the word "amnesty" to refer to proposals to legalize immigrants who agreed to pay fines, learn English and, at some point, briefly return to their home countries before obtaining lawful status in the U.S.
"I've listened to talk show hosts drumming up the opposition by using this word 'amnesty' over and over and over again," she said. In her 15 years in the Senate, Feinstein said, "I've never received more hate or more racist phone calls and threats."
Groups opposing the bill don't plan to let up. A group called NumbersUSA said in a statement that while the "amnesty bill ... may be dead for the year, NumbersUSA members are taking no chances." They will continue a campaign that has included 750,000 faxes sent in May, and "thousands of phone calls to Congress," the statement said.
What? He’s hoping to be impeached by his own supporters and hoping for massive losses in the 08 cycle?
TSN needs pinging
You know what? He keeps pushing this he’s gonna have big trouble if the Dems. ever go on an impeachment hunt.
I won’t defend him.
I guess this Fudger isn’t DEAD yet...SORRY JIM it ain’t dead yet!!
the people spoke through their elected representatives.
I guess that isn’t good enough for El Jefe?
OMG! Thanks for the heads up B! Catchya later on TSN!
Suggesting that Americans who opposed his amnesty-for-illegals plan were unpatriotic didn't seem to work last time, to put it mildy.
“President Bush, trying to recover from a stinging setback on immigration...”
...the citizens of the United States of America, trying to recover from almost losing it’s sovereignty, integrity and security...
IMPEACH THIS HOBO!!!
Catch you later on TSN!
“I guess Bush doesn’t think he has damaged the GOP enough yet”
We need to hammer Bush on amnesty until the day he leaves office !!!!
Jimmy W Bush
what a goober
Turn your attention now to the White House, with the same intensity that you had for the Senate. Tell the President how you feel about this bill and why.
Many of you have things that you have already e-mailed, so you won’t have much to do except edit what you’ve sent.
Cut, paste, and send them to; or call or mail them to:
Mailing Address
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121
E-Mail
Please send your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov. Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message. For further up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you, please continue to use the White House website.
Vice President Richard Cheney: vice_president@whitehouse.gov
This is important: be professional and courteous. Remember that staff have to handle these, so keep the emotion limited. Pick the things out of the bill that are objectionable (you won’t have to look too hard) and kindly point them out.
Keep this bumped and send it to all of our allies.
Well, be careful. The White House is watching this website now. Seems they don’t like to be second-guessed, especially when they are dead wrong. Personally I don’t think January 20, 2009 can come soon enough.
Put this in your crack pipe and smoke it!
Game over. No more sympathetic words for him ever again. No time. Never. Too angry to type any more. See my tagline and remember it.
Nor will I defend him. Let him go down fast and lonely. Maybe them mexicans he is so fond of will help him.
Just called the comment line and got a real live person!
I agree. Bush seems to have dedicated his very Presidency to passing amnesty with no fence.
That’s why I now call him Whore-Hey.
Impeachment suits me fine
Would this be a good event to protest?
Thank you for all the numbers. I didn’t have them.
Holy smokes...
Bush is almost done with his term. This was always part of his agenda. Before 9-11, right before, he was ardently entertaining and pushing Vincente Fox in this country. 9-11, just knocked him off his purpose and postponed it until now. Now he is desperate to get it done.
As far as the amnesty goes, he has the power to just grant it.
Politically, the bill will set terms that will be used in the future, well at least the ones that help the illegals and the mexican government
Bush has really done a poor job of articulating his agenda to the people and knows it is not popular.
I only hope they are watching it now. If JR would lift the ban for a couple days and let us say whatever it would be nice. Since he probably won’t, I will attempt to behave. Reluctantly.
Looks like he made a deal the American people won’t back up - bad Mojo.
Easy to get - right off of the webpage.
Jorge Arbusto wants to be elected to El Presidente of the Nation of Aztlan.He is partnering with MEChA
He’s going to have a hard time bringing the Dems on board. Bush wants this for his legacy, only.
The left hates him and are constantly mocking him but he never defends himself or his administration, and now he’s derided US as fear mongers thereby shafting the ONLY people who have supported him thoughout this war?
What?
Memo to Feinswine: Agreeing to such conditions does not automatically translate to abiding by those conditions. And when it comes to illegal aliens the gov't has a long history of looking the other way while the third-world continues to flood in.
Wonder who needed General Pace’s departure before they would support the President’s position on the immigration bill?
Interestingly, the original proposal from back then didn’t look all that bad with the emphasis on border control (although the “guest worker” thing was still in there) but the recent amendments really blew it out of the water. The only good thing is that it’s not being snuck in like it was in the 80s.
Jorge’s meltdown has become so complete, I am starting to give more credibility to Dingy Harry Reid than Bush. Reid said it was BUSH”S BILL. This story seems to support such an assertion. Strangely, I believe it is those 70 House Democrats that are about the only thing holding up the will of the American people and amnesty. Jorge cannot discern the will of the people on his own.
He's cut the board three times and it's still too short!
If he showed up at say, a baseball stadium, right now it would be deafening. And this would be from his former supporters.
He might as well have drug resistant TB, such will be his isolation.
What is TSN?
William Jefferson belongs in small claims court compared to DiFi.
I like your letter better than mine. I was gonna write and ask for my money back. I wonder, will them make refunds—I don’t like this product. LOL
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