No Gloating!
by JohnHuang2
Yes, here once again, I admit it’s tempting — deliciously tempting — especially after the last three weeks when the smart set kept telling us immigration “reform” is in the bag, resistance is futile, too much momentum behind it, etc. But I’m not going to gloat. Bottom line, if gloating is what you’re looking for, you’re looking in the wrong place. No gloating from me.
That’s why you won’t even hear a peep from me about how the Amnesty bill got trounced even after its proponents — the White House, the Democrat leadership, the entire media establishment — had pulled all the stops. The pro-Amnesty side’s inability to get this thing passed and signed into law must be a horribly bitter pill to swallow. But, as I said, nary a word about it from me.
I suppose I could gloat about how the Amnesty bill failed three attempts to invoke cloture, but I won’t. Three attempts! The third attempt still fell a staggering 15 votes short. Look, if I were gloating, wouldn’t I mention how this ‘Gang of 12’ “bipartisan” senators had been meeting secretly for three months to craft this ‘grand bargain’ for cheap labor, only to see it go down in flames? Wouldn’t I point out how the ‘grand bargainers’ got egg on their faces despite the way they timed the roll out of the ‘deal’ — a week before Memorial Day, to build pressure for swift passage?
The whole committee process was circumvented — there were no hearings (the bill couldn’t withstand scrutiny), no public testimony for and against (the bill couldn’t withstand public debate), no attempt to gauge the cost of this ‘grand bargain,’ no effort to gauge the impact of giving amnesty to 20 million mostly poor illegal aliens, etc. — in order to ram this thing through, but since I’m not gloating, I won’t even mention any of this either.
Here’s what else my lips are tightly sealed about: One of the Democrats’ most massive special interest unions — the Services Employees International Union — demanded in a letter to the Senate a vote FOR cloture. “The time to move forward is now,” read the letter (NYT, 6/8). One of the Democrats’ most powerful unions proved powerless against our flood of calls, faxes, petitions, e-mails and the power of talk radio and the Internet — but, once again, you won’t hear me gloat about it, nor even mention it once.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, another big Democrat pressure group, also got its head handed back to it (but I refuse to mention that, too). The group demanded cloture: “A small handful of immigration restrictionists in the Senate should not be allowed to prolong the debate indefinitely.” (NYT, 6/8).
And did you notice how glum, dejected, sullen and dispirited Dingy Harry looked when he announced he was pulling Kennedy’s Mexican Amnesty bill from the floor after its crushing 45-50 defeat? Not gonna mention that either. If I were gloating, I’d quote what Reid said on the Senate floor after the bill crumbled: “There’s lots of support for this program on the outside, and the problem was on the inside of the Senate chamber.” By lots of support “on the outside,” Reid meant Mexico.
Oh (heh, heh, heh), remember the torrent of headlines just before the bill collapsed?
Lawmakers Remain Optimistic on Immigration Reform
The big debate: McCain optimistic on immigration
Bill gives hope to illegals
Immigration-reform bill gains support
Martinez: Immigration reform alive
Backers of immigration Bill More Optimistic
But, like I said, I’m not going to gloat.
In the lead-up to the bill’s collapse, there was lots of talk from amnesty supporters about “poison pills,” but, in the end, the biggest poison pill was amnesty itself. But don’t expect me to mention it — I haven’t gloated yet, and I’m not about to start now.
For all these reasons, any attempt to “revive” amnesty is doomed to fail — no matter what lipstick they use.
Incidentally, of all the headlines after the bill’s defeat, this is one of my favs: Grass Roots Roared and Immigration Plan Collapsed — NYT, 6/10.
Heh, heh, heh! Oops, I wasn’t gloating. Honest!
Anyway, that's...
My Two Cents...
"JohnHuang2"
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