Senator (Jeff Sessions) Tries to Run Out the Clock on Immigration

WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions, an elfin Alabamian with a mischievous smile and a relentless approach to legislative battle, has a theory about the sweeping immigration bill pending in the Senate: It’s as good as dead.

“The longer it lays in the sun, the more it smells, as they say about the mackerel,” said Mr. Sessions, the Republican enthusiastically leading the opposition to a bill others on his side of the aisle see as vital to the very future of the Republican Party.

If that sounds familiar to the immigration rights advocates who have been pressing an overhaul since 2006, it should. “As sunlight falls on the mackerel, it begins to smell more and more,” Mr. Sessions said in 2007 as he successfully waged war on a previous immigration bill, championed by President George W. Bush and pushed forward by his party’s most senior leaders.

In 2006, the dead-mackerel theory played out for the first time as Mr. Sessions helped churn an immigration bill written by the Capitol Hill titans Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and John McCain of Arizona into Senate chum.

Advocates of the legislation — Republicans and Democrats — insist this time will be different. The Republican drubbing in November among Latino voters, the shifting demographics of the American electorate, and the rise of telegenic champions of the immigration changes like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans, have changed the stakes as well as the political equation.

But in Mr. Sessions, they face an opponent with experience, one who reminds his staff every day that passage of immigration legislation was supposed to be inevitable in 2006 as well, and even more so in 2007.

On the Senate floor means out in the open. If it dies in the Senate it's dead. If Sessions is successful, it won't matter. It will never pass the House.

This article is evidence not of impending success by the Amnestistas, but of coming failure. Here's the money quote and it sounds like desperation:

The Republican drubbing in November among Latino voters, the shifting demographics of the American electorate, and the rise of telegenic champions of the immigration changes like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans, have changed the stakes as well as the political equation.

If we were liberals, this tactic would work.

“Sessions was probably just playing the politesse game. They’ll grin at each other up there on the Hill, shake hands, slap backs, and then set about finding new and interesting ways to stab each other in the back or screw the rest of us over in the most efficient way possible.

That’s part and parcel of being a politician, from either party.”

Well, I guess you don’t subscribe to Rush’s idea of living in literalville. If it smells like a rose, looks like a rose it must be a rose. That’s literalville.

I, for one, am for immigration reform. … That being said, I’m worried that the bill before us won’t pass.... [Rand Paul: I hate to say it, but the immigration bill is a little bit like ObamaCare right now ]
[Paul open to voting for Senate immigration bill]
[Rand Paul: I'm Open to Voting for Immigration Bill]
Latinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers... [Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reform]
...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said. [Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance]
One day after announcing on his radio show that he is "truly considering" running in 2014 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg, Rivera amped up his message today in a television interview and a column on the Fox News Latino website... a moderate Republican who is fiscally conservative but also supports gay marriage and Roe v. Wade... [Geraldo Rivera declares himself a 'moderate Republican' as he eyes U.S. Senate run]

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