Posted on 06/27/2007 7:40:17 AM PDT by 300magnum
WASHINGTON - President Bush, short on political capital and time, is devoting much of what's left of his term in office to getting an immigration deal.
Starting with an April 9 speech in Arizona, in which he talked tough about border security and prodded Congress to get moving, Bush has staged a dozen immigration events. That's not counting his four radio addresses on the topic in that time, or his phone calls to lawmakers, or his bold prediction that he'd see reporters at the bill-signing for a bill that seemed dead.
His agenda reflects that immigration is a White House priority for multiple reasons.
It is deeply important to the president, a former Texas governor who sees the status quo on immigration as a failure for the nation and a looming disaster for his party. It is seen as a major legislative victory within reach. And it is seen as urgent — now or never for him, most likely.
So each day, a White House strategy team weighs how to maintain momentum on a bill offering legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants.
A small, core group of officials — representing policy, communications, strategy and legislative offices — organizes the approach.
There is no war room, per se, but rather meetings held in locations at the White House and on Capitol Hill. The participants vary and overlap. The president gets involved when his participation is deemed to have the most impact. His voice is the loudest, but not one to be overused, the strategy goes.
The signals often come from Candida Wolff, Bush's legislative affairs chief.
"She hollers when she wants the president's assistance in speaking to a particular member of Congress," said Joel Kaplan, the deputy chief of staff for policy. "And I expect that she'll holler a few more times before all is said and done."
Meanwhile, two of Bush's Cabinet members have made almost a full-time job of lobbying for the bill. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez may as well be considered tenants on Capitol Hill, Kaplan quipped.
When the immigration bill stalled in the Senate, Bush got personally involved in resurrecting it.
He called Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Trent Lott of Mississippi and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky while in Europe. On his flight back to the U.S., he called Kyl and Democratic Sens. Ken Salazar of Colorado and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Then, the next day, he made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to lobby Republican senators at a closed-door meeting.
The rescue effort had at least some effect; later that week, Senate leaders reached a deal to get the bill back up for debate.
"Even a weakened president is a potent political force," said Republican strategist Rich Galen. "He may well get something out of this. I was with everyone else when the thing got pulled from the (Senate) floor, saying, 'Well, that's that.' But here it is again."
The Senate voted Tuesday to revive the bill. It must still overcome another make-or-break vote as early as Thursday that will also require the backing of 60 senators. And there is no guarantee that it will ultimately attract even the simple majority it needs to pass.
Bush is still making calls to senators, although the White House picks and chooses when it will disclose details.
"He's been on the phone," spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday. "I'm not going to tell you how many or who he has talked to."
The president, not surprisingly, projects confidence. He talks of when, not if, the Senate will pass a bill to his liking in the coming days.
"When successful in the Senate, we'll be reconvening to figure out how to get the bill out of the House," he told advocates of his plan.
Trouble hovers there, too. Underscoring the intraparty fighting over immigration, House Republicans meeting in a private conference took the rare step Tuesday evening of voting overwhelmingly to oppose the Senate measure.
In his June 12 visit to the Capitol, Bush was gracious and grateful to fellow Republicans. At other times, his strategy has been more blunt.
Along the way, Bush has accused critics of the legislation of not reading the details of the bill; of potentially lacking courage; of engaging in scare tactics; of searching for a reason to oppose it; and of not doing what's right for America.
With all this, Bush's aides scoff at criticism that Bush should be more personally engaged in lobbying for the bill. So does he.
"My administration is deeply involved in the issue," Bush said. "I feel passionate about the issue."
(This version CORRECTS Galen's quote to say a weakened president is a "potent" force, instead of "potential" force.) )
U.S. Constitution, Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
1. The act of invading; the act of encroaching upon the rights or possessions of another; encroachment; trespass.
Jorge Booosh’s behavior on amnesty for criminals has been shameful. Enough said.
Interesting. For the first time in my recollection, the MSM isn’t make the Bush administration sound inept and otherwise negative. Why is that, do you think?
All you freepers that I as a bushbot convinced to vote for George Bush...I am very sorry. I was wrong. Tell me this isn’t a Republican bill. When Bush runs essentially a Clinton style war room. I didn’t see such effort for tax cuts or social security reform, judges or anything really.
Quite simple really, he is destroying the Republican Party. They are content to sit back and enjoy the ride.
“convinced to vote for George Bush”
I voted FOR him twice. No one needed to convince me. I hoped that a ‘pub congress would be conservative. Boy, was I wrong.
That’s along the lines of what I was thinking.
Boosh has political capital left? where’s he hiding it?
Why just Mexicans? Blacks in South Africa would love to be American citizens - and Blacks vote 90% for dems. Why leave them out? Are you racist? Is that why you won't sell them citizenships too?
Whomever is advising him on this fiasco needs to be on meds.
You?
I was spat on TWICE on election day 2004.
And, while I was campaigning with my 4 year old son, we had a bottle thrown out a passing car window that missed my son and I by about 3 feet.
So, I agree...I feel more than a little betrayed.
One possible explanation: family connections. His brother, Jeb, is married to a Hispanic woman and he has a nephew, George P. Bush, whom everybody thinks is going to enter politics. This could be a simple matter of Dynastic maintenance. And hey, if it sc3ws the Republican Party, so what? George P. just becomes a Democrat. If the Roosevelts can do it, why not the Bushes?
What is absolutely maddening is that we are having to fight this monstrosity coming from the Bush administration. We should be working to try to stave off a Hildebeast administration - instead, we are having to spend time, sweat, money in trying to stop the man we elected twice from ruining the country.
Yesterday, Tweety Matthews asked Ann Coulter if she regretted any remarks she had ever made about anybody. Yes, she said, “I regret everything nice I have ever said about Bush.” She added that she couldn’t wait until he was out of office. Me too.
Hey Bush, will adding 20 million new dems to the voting rolls be enough?
:::::
It is enough to re-engineer the voting demographic to turn America into a ONE-PARTY SOCIALIST STATE. Think about that.
Yeah - you should have stuck with Weird Al and Ketchup Boy.
I supported and prayed for you GW, but not so you can p!$$ down my back and tell me it's raining.
All I can say is W! T! F!???
The man's zeal for this atrocity is worthy of a far better cause. As it is, he is worse than I ever imagined.
May the bill go down in FLAMES!!! Either that or we will as a country.
It is deeply important to the president, a former Texas governor who sees the status quo on immigration as a failure for the nation and a looming disaster for his party. It is seen as a major legislative victory within reach. And it is seen as urgent — now or never for him, most likely.”
Yes, it is a disaster for the party, but not for the reasons he thinks. 6 years of lack of enforcement and lax border security, a tin ear to concerns of the grassroots, and an overeagerness to do the wrong thing on amnesty, and we have a divided and disspirited Republican base.
Yep, when you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can count on Paul’s support. 12 million new dems?
Don’t feel alone pal I am in the same boat.
I voted for him twice also, and I thought he was for the most part CONSERVATIVE. The Republican Party are a bunch of pansies.
If he’s not careful, his legacy will be the destruction of the Republican party ... and the infliction of permanent, lasting damage on the American republic.
I hate to say it, but Kerry would never risk his neck for a bill like this-this is a ‘gift’ from Bush. However, we will never get principled leaders if we are not willing to vote third party. The GOP is now just as lousy as the Democratic Party.
Who knew that he meant it.
I wonder if the Whitehouse shill “nthompsonwhitehouse” is still monitoring FR?
The President is a traitor.
His Oath of Office was to swear to uphold the Constitution.
U.S. Constitution, Article 4 Section 4:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;”
He is not only not doing this, he is actively working against it. How is this not treasonous activity?
Maybe we should be contacting our Representatives about bringing Articles of Impeachment?
Shameful and dead wrong. I just don’t understand why he can’t hear the voices of the nation. We don’t want this!
Me too. I was happy about his tax cuts and his stance on the WOT, but I never dreamed he would actually succeed in this immigration nonsense. I suppose I under-overestimated him.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I just don’t understand why he can’t hear the voices of the nation. We don’t want this!
Oh, he hears. We may not want this, but he does, for his various reasons. He is the decider after all. That’s why he said that you and the rest of us “don’t want to do what is right for America.”
Doesn’t seem to matter if they are, they are so pompus in their opinion of themselves.
Maybe if either one of these were elected, conservatives would've been more watchful about what the adminstration was doing instead of giving the Prez the benefit of the doubt as happened time and time again with Bush.
Maybe conservatives will be more careful next time. I highly doubt it. The only thing most conservatives seem interested in these days is winning elections. They don't really seem to care what happens afterward, except when it's too late.
Example: In June 2004, Bush signed the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico that would allow Mexican illegal aliens and their families back home to collect US Social Security benefits. How many emails expressing your outrage did you send to the White House before the election in November? By voting for Bush in 2004, you gave your tacit approval to what he's doing now.
ping
In June 2004, Bush signed the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico. Up until then, he made no secrets about his desire to legalize Mexican illegal aliens.
He listened to your votes in November 2004 as a mandate to accomplish that goal.
Maybe next time, you'll be a little less cavalier about for whom you cast your vote.
I agree with you completely. This immigration bill would never have been introduced by a Democrat President-this close to an election. Also ‘ketchup boy’ would have had to worry about re-election. He wouldn’t be a lame duck like President Bush. No-by continuing to vote for this party-GOP- we give tacit approval to their behavior-No More. I am done.
Okay, this isn’t a Republican bill.
Unfortunately, it is a Republican bill. It's Bush's bill all the way.
That doesn't make it a conservative bill.
Yes it is a Republican bill. It could not have been passed without help from Bush and the Republican leadership-sorry. The GOP has foisted this on us and will pay dearly for their treason.
There will be no Republican base in my opinion. When hard-core Repubs such as myself are willing to in essence throw their votes away on 3rd party candidates. The GOP is cooked in 2008 and probably in 2012. They think we hate, fear Hillary Clinton enough to put this behind us and vote for them. Boy, will they be surprised when this doesn’t happen.
And the choice would be........................
The point is that we knew Bush would do this when we voted for him; he didn’t hide on any of these issues like a lot of politicians do. I really doubt that Weird Al and Ketchup Boy would have given us tax cuts and the subsequent economic recovery or any decent judges or even a halfway decent response to Islamo-terror. But the Europeons would have liked us better. So immigration turns out to be a good issue to fight the president on
This is not true. President Bush always said he was against amnesty. Yesterday, President Bush admitted this bill gives amnesty to illegals despite Tony Snow’s pitiful attempts at explaining his remarks-mispoke. Thus President Bush said what he needed to say in order to get elected-he lied. I thought he was a man of integrity; he is not.
All this nonsense about how he cares for the poor illegals etc...nonsense. This is about cheap labor for his corporate buddies who want to shift the cost of healthcare, social services,schools etc from corporation to the taxpayers . It truly is corporate wellfare.
Meanwhile, America becomes a cesspool with millions of very poor workers-viewed as secondclass citizen. It’s a form of slavery-disgraceful.
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