GOP leader McConnell says he's undecided [on Amnesty]

The Evansville Courier ^ | June 22, 2007 | CHARLES BABINGTON

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Senate's Republican leader says he is unsure whether he will vote for the immigration bill President Bush strongly supports, underscoring the measure's precarious status.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has long called for an immigration overhaul, saying the current situation is deeply flawed. And as the Senate minority leader, McConnell is central to shepherding legislation the president wants.

But in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, McConnell said he would not decide how to vote on the measure until a long series of amendments are disposed of next week.

"The bill on the merits is a mixed bag," said McConnell, who had brushed aside reporters' questions on immigration Tuesday and Wednesday. "I'm not uniformly enthusiastic about it."

"At the end of the process," he said, "we're going to have to make a call as to whether this is an improvement over the status quo. I'm not ready to make that call yet."

McConnell said it is unclear whether the bill's supporters can muster the 60 votes eventually needed to allow a final roll call on the bill in the 100-member Senate. His chief goal, he said, has been to see that all Republicans are treated fairly and allowed to be heard.

"In the end, I frankly don't know whether this thing will fly or not," McConnell said. "But we will have given it our best shot."

McConnell's ambivalence has been known to colleagues, but Thursday's comments about his misgivings were especially blunt and specific.

Also on Thursday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she will vote against bringing the bill back to the Senate floor because it includes "amnesty provisions" for illegal immigrants. As chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Hutchison is the party's fourth-ranking Senate leader.

The immigration issue splits the GOP leadership much as it divides the party's base.

Many business groups, hungry to fill low-wage jobs, support the bill. Many social conservatives, backed by talk show hosts, denounce it as amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The Senate bill would tighten borders and workplace enforcement, create a new guest worker program and provide pathways to legal status for most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. The House has yet to draft legislation.

The immigration debate has squeezed many politicians, but perhaps none more so than McConnell, a strong White House ally. Some see the legislation as Bush's last hope for a major domestic achievement, and McConnell himself has repeatedly said an immigration revision is one of the "big things" a divided government can achieve.

But most Senate Republicans thus far have refused to embrace the bill. And some party strategists think voters in 2008 will reward those who oppose giving illegal immigrants lawful status.

McConnell is "not riding two horses, he's trying to decide which horse to ride," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a bill supporter, said in an interview. "He has a very difficult role, with the caucus so badly split. He has a duty to represent the caucus."

McConnell has proceeded cautiously, demanding that Republican senators be allowed to offer about two dozen amendments when Democrats tried to cut off debate sooner. He has declined to pressure colleagues, letting other party members step out front to defend and push the measure.

Some Republican backers of the bill grumble that McConnell has been too tepid. But others defend his approach, saying browbeating colleagues on such an emotional topic might backfire.

"I think he and Trent are dealing with it about as well as leadership could," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., referring to McConnell and Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi.

Lott has been more outspoken in saying the bill is flawed but needed, and in criticizing those who denounce it. Conservative talk show hosts have blistered Lott in return, while leaving McConnell largely alone.

Still, the corrosive debate seems to have taken a toll on McConnell. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he refused to take reporters' questions on immigration, a rare move in the Capitol hallways for a man whose deadpan demeanor and calm, monotone voice seldom change.

Privately, some Bush allies say they wish McConnell would openly back the immigration bill. Publicly, colleagues who support the bill have placed McConnell's comments and actions in the best possible light.

"I take him at his word," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., noting that McConnell repeatedly has said the Senate bill is preferable to the status quo. "He has been helpful in making sure it comes back" for more amendments and votes, Graham said, referring to last week's hiatus that nearly doomed the bill.

McConnell agreed that keeping the process moving, without embracing or rejecting the bill, has been his aim. Pressuring reluctant Republicans to back the president "would be exactly the wrong way to operate on a bill of this type," he said. "It would have been counterproductive."

McConnell noted that earlier this month he voted for an unsuccessful amendment that would have eliminated so-called Z visas for immigrants who lack legal status. Bill supporters called it a killer amendment, but critics call the Z visas the key to granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.

"Substantively, there are things to like and things to not like about this bill," McConnell said.

[Liz]

"Grand Bargainers......be advised you are gambling everything you have on the very bad bet that we are as stupid as you want us to be."

Also an indication of how Mexica tribes agitating for amnesty (and US government freebies) perceive Americans.

[Liz]

I tried to fax his office .......After maybe ten attempts over several hours, the line was endlessly busy. I finally got a ring, but it just kept ringing for several minutes and then disconnected.

Better idea: send him a gift certificate for a Taco Bello burrito---and tell him where to stuff it.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

If McConnell votes yes on cloture then no on the final bill as it still passes then he hasn't fooled anyone, despite what he thinks.

Vote no on cloture and kill the bill.

[Theodore R.]

McConnell is undercutting Fletcher for governor too, but Fletcher is a lost cause, and with his demise (and Bunning being on his last legs in the Senate), McC will again be the KY GOP “Kingfish”, which is the way he likes it.

[Theodore R.]

I don’t think Specter will run again either. And Demos are so strong in PA that holding Specter’s seat will be very tough in the year 2010.

[claudiustg]

Doublethink: “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”

[Theodore R.]

Could also be that GWB has given “free passes” to your GA senators so they can vote against cloture. GWB may already have the 60 or 61 votes he needs without them. That may also explain Hutchison’s decision to vote against cloture.

[Theodore R.]

I may be that KY people aren’t calling that much to McC for they think illegals is an issue in the border states with Mexico and not the old border states of North and South.

[Theodore R.]

Yes, McC also undercut the South African government in 1985. He supports ERA. His wife works for GWB. He is like Lindsey Graham and Sam Brownback an “open borders” person.

[Travis McGee]

Mitch had better decide right, if he wants to stay in congress.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Let me help you make up your mind Senator. A large majority of those who put you in office rabidly and rightly oppose this written by imbeciles amnesty bill. Do you represent them or the invaders? Is your responsibility toward the USA or Mexico? Do you prefer bourbon or tequila?

[Suzy Quzy]

START OVER McCONNELL!! This is a HIDEOUS bill and will RUIN the Republican PArty for DECADES!!!

[RockinRight]

Actually, that’s not a bad idea. We could do something like that, inspired by Tancredo, and send it to every Senator and Congresscritter that supports this.

And, even W himself should get one.

[HigherEducationOutrage]

Amnesty Is Treason

[Liz]

I tried to fax McConnell's office ....... but it just kept ringing for several minutes and then disconnected.

Better idea: send him a gift certificate for a Taco Hell burrito---and tell him where to stuff it.

RockinRight to Liz: Actually, that’s not a bad idea. We could do something like that, inspired by Tancredo, and send it to every Senator and Congresscritter that supports this. And, even W himself should get one.

========================================================

Yeah, after I posted the idea, I was thinking I should ping our expert FR photoshoppers to come up with a downloadable version that we could mail to Congress---and whomever.

Something like this: "Here's your Taco Hell gift certificate for a free burrito----and you know where you can stuff it."

[RockinRight]

Could you imagine if every one of them got 10,000 of these?

[Liz]

That would be some smokin’ message.

[nyconse]

I wrote him an email...I had to come up with a Kentucky address-I am in Georgia. I told him that a vote for cloture is a vote for the bill period and it would be a shame for this to end his career given his track record and thus provide an unwanted legacy. Those of you in Kentucky, keep emailing and calling.

[nyconse]

Take a ride down to Georgia-this is a southern issue as well as an American issue. No state will be safe from the effects of this bill.

[Gopher Broke]

Email him using his webform:

http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

Office info:

Washington Office

361-A Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Phone: (202) 224-2541

Fax: (202) 224-2499