Posted on 06/28/2007 11:32:01 AM PDT by The Blitherer
The bill has died.
Trust me, no one will be sitting shiva for it at HH.com, and not just because I’m the only one who knows what “sitting shiva” means. Actually, Medved also knows what “sitting shiva” means, and maybe he’ll be doing it on behalf of everyone else at Townhall who is instead celebrating like it’s VJ Day. (Reports that Matt Lewis surprised Mary Katherine Ham with a kiss like the one seen in the picture of above are unconfirmed.)
So where do we go from here? Let’s take ‘em one by one, starting with the biggest winners and working our way down to the biggest losers:
1) YOU – Yes, it sounds trite, but your voice was heard. Remember, the original aim of this bill’s authors was to have it enshrined as law in a mere 48 hours. You raised such a fuss that that became impossible. But the bill’s supporters were undeterred and remained the clear majority in the Senate.
Truly, I don’t think a single Senator changed his mind on the underlying merits of the bill. Those that changed their votes did so because they heard from their constituents. So what’s the takeaway? Your voice counts. In a democracy, that’s a very fine thing.
2) THE CONGRESSIONAL HEROES – Lest we find ourselves lost in a throw-the-bums-out mentality, let’s take a moment to recognize the Republican Senators and Congressmen who led the fight to beat back this wildebeest of a bill. I had Pete Hoekstra on the show last night; Rep. Hoekstra isn’t known as a ball of fire, but he was passionate last night. He was great. He fought against the tide and he wasn’t alone.
Jim DeMint has been a stalwart on this since day one. Same goes for Sessions, Cornyn and Inhofe. David Vitter went mano-a-mano with Harry Reid. John Shadegg showed what real House leadership would look like. Someday we’ll have a Speaker Shadegg, and that will be a fine thing indeed. If I left any of the politician good guys out of this brief list (and I’m sure I did), my apologies.
3) THE FENCE-SITTING REPUBLICANS – The bill was defeated handily this morning. We got 53 votes against cloture. Earlier in the week, it didn’t look like we’d get the 40 that we needed. I guess it’s neat that Senators like Brownback and Murkowski had a Road-to-Damascus moment some time in the last 24 hours, but where were they when the battle raged? Rather than just ask the question rhetorically, let me posit a theory: They were sitting in the middle with their fingers in the air.
In this class of fence-sitters, I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger if I didn’t carve out a special place for George Voinovich. Yesterday, Senator Voinovich was humiliating himself on the air with Sean Hannity, accusing Hannity of being irrational for opposing the bill. Today, Voinovich voted against cloture. What political courage!
How will Republican voters remember the Senators who sat out the war? My guess is not very fondly.
4) THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION – I’ve admired this president for a long time, but I’ve reached a point where I’ve had it up to here (my hand is at my forehead) with this administration’s chronic obtuseness and arrogance. The top priority right now for the administration should be the war. And yet the president spent what little political capital he had trying to shove this atrocious immigration bill down the country’s throat. This whole gambit was the logical equivalent of Abraham Lincoln in February of 1864 seeking out the non-war related issue that would most effectively divide his base and then relentlessly championing that issue. That would have been dumb, right? And yet that’s exactly what President Bush did.
President Bush is going to need a united base come September if he wants to stay the course in Iraq. Given that consideration, calling 90% of that base bigots probably wasn’t a very good idea. Fickle, weak-kneed and misguided Republican senators like Dick Lugar are already preemptively declaring defeat.
Will the Republican base forgive the administration for its actions surrounding this bill? My guess is no. We’re moving on to finding another leader for the party, and in 7 months or so we’ll have one. In the meantime, thanks to this idiotic gambit, there’s a power vacuum right now in the White House.
Maybe the base can fill that vacuum. The only good news is that the past political fortnight showed that the Republican base, when enthusiastic, can have a dramatically positive effect on Republican politicians. If the base demands victory in Iraq as loudly as it demanded defeat for this immigration bill, the Republicans in congress will once again listen.
5) THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – Securing the border is something that 90% of the country feels should be done immediately and permanently. That’s the motherhood and apple-pie of this issue – no one opposes it.
Except the leadership of the Democratic Party. For a while now, the Republicans’ best hope for success has been Democratic stupidity. Fortunately, the Democrats have often been up to the task, handing us presidential nominees like John Kerry and Al Gore. Now, the Democrats have given us the greatest gift of all – an issue that moves the country much more than members of the political class realize and on which the Democrats find themselves on the wrong side. The Republican congressional candidates should be able to have a lot of fun with the issue of border security in 2008. So should the Republican presidential nominee unless he’s…
6) JOHN McCAIN – What’s left to say about this man? I guess you can argue whether he does what he does because his vanity compels him to plaster his name on “major” legislation, regardless of whether that legislation is good or bad, or that Mort Kondracke has it right and that McCain is as noble a politician that this county has ever seen whose conscience holds him prisoner.
You can probably tell by my phrasing of the issue which way I lean, but ultimately, who cares? John McCain has opposed the vast majority of his party too many times on too many issues. And regardless of what Mort Kondracke or McCain’s other friends in the media believe, the base’s disdain for McCain does not primarily derive from personal animus. Instead, that disdain flows directly from the fact that John McCain has been a more damaging presence in the Senate over the past six years than anyone else - Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid included.
Yes, he’s right on the war, but a lot of senators are right on the war. But McCain has been so wrong and so destructive on so many other issues, his relationship with the base is fractured beyond repair. Perhaps the Senator can take some solace in the fact that he never had a chance in the presidential race anyway. Even before McCain/Kennedy thudded into the Senate with McCain demanding its passage in 48 hours, the Republican Party had his number.
7) THE IMMIGRATION BILL WATER-CARRIERS – Lindsey Graham’s approval ratings in South Carolina have dipped to 31% because of his obnoxious antics while supporting this bill. Trent Lott has made himself a national laughingstock. Again. I know – dog bites man.
But remember who the biggest winners in this imbroglio are – the voters. If the Republicans in South Carolina are sick of being embarrassed by Lindsey Graham, they have a choice – they can find someone to run against him in the primary. Just about anyone will do the trick. I’ll even make a bold prediction: Reading the writing on the wall, Senator Graham will decide that K Street beckons and remove himself from public life before his constituents do the deed for him.
As for Trent Lott, how many opportunities should this guy get to embarrass himself and the party as a leader of the caucus?
IN SUMMATION, what happened over the past month was the first real skirmish in a civil war for the soul of the Republican Party. You had good guys like Hoekstra, DeMint, Sessions and Vitter doing battle with an exhausted Old Guard (Lott, Voinovich et al.) who have forgotten what their party stands for and who they represent. Happily, the good guys won this round.
The fight will rage on. Hopefully what happened here will be just the beginning.
I get it!!!!!!!! DUH!!!!!!!
he's not a senator... right?
I hope that the majority now realizes that bashing congress at time works. I hope now that every American bashes for a long and high fence along our southern border and the troops to guard it.
>> 4) THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION – I’ve admired this president for a long time, but I’ve reached a point where I’ve had it up to here (my hand is at my forehead) with this administration’s chronic obtuseness and arrogance.
I’ve recently heard a theory posited that has made me re-think this ... though, admittedly, it could be just a liberal-kook conspiracy theory. My question is ... is it possible that George W. Bush threw himself on a grenade for the ultimate benefit of the Party in 2008 and beyond?
There are some that have suggested that this was a move by the Bush Administration to (1) give the Republicans an issue with which to distance themselves from a relatively unpopular President, and (2) spark up the conservative base for the upcoming 2008 campaign.
And - if this theory is true - it just may have worked ... the conservative base is riled up (and, evidently, splitting only from the RINOs, not from the Party in general), and many Congressional Republicans and Republican Presidential candidates have an issue that they can use to distance themselves from the White House.
Could this have been the most brilliant Karl Rove ruse ever thought up? I doubt it ... but its possible, and it would certainly explain why Pres. Bush was so deaf to the concerns of the base.
Hemorrhage
You are an eternal optimist! I wish I could believe it, but Bush has been pretty consistent with his belief on immigration. He's just never tried to push it this hard before.
“It’s the Information Age that’s made it happen. The politicians in Washington are running scared.”
Bingo! See my tag line.
I can’t believe that people still give Karl Rove and Bush that much credit.
They both massively underestimated on this bill. They both massively underestimated the last election.
I think their winning the elections for George Bush had to do more with who was running against him rather than their strategery or genius.
They have become legends in their own minds.
Agreed. I don’t really subscribe to the theory ... I just thought it was an interesting idea.
I DO think that the Republican Party, and conservatism generally, will ultimately benefit from this whole fiasco. The base is unquestionably enthusiastic right now, and they have just demonstrated the power that they wield. Truly conservative Congressmen, Senators and Presidential candidates (i.e. the ones who were against the bill) will enjoy a HUGE boost, and some definite separation from the struggling White House. Some of the less-conservative Senators have pretty much been decimated politically (Graham, etc.)
And, George W. Bush has SINGLE-HANDEDLY destroyed the Presidential Campaign of John McCain (again).
I don’t, however, think it was planned that way.
Hemorrhage
Will the Republican base forgive the administration for its actions surrounding this bill? My guess is no. We’re moving on to finding another leader for the party, and in 7 months or so we’ll have one. In the meantime, thanks to this idiotic gambit, there’s a power vacuum right now in the White House.
I won't forgive the administration and I'm pretty well fed up with Bush but I'll never turn my back on the WOT or the war in Iraq.
This statement is 100% wrong. In pushing for unfettered access for foreign invaders pouring across our southern border, Bush basically exposed the so-called "war on terror" as a complete fraud. He has shredded every bit of his administration's credibility on it, which effectively guarantees that the U.S. military presence in Iraq will be drastically reduced after September.
>> Bush basically exposed the so-called “war on terror” as a complete fraud.
I didn’t realize John Edwards posted here. Or maybe Congressman Kucinich? Noam Chomsky?
Certainly no CONSERVATIVE could utter such nonsense.
H
this is a good article. The quoted language is especially perceptive and sad.
If this makes any sense to you, then you must be smoking some peyote today.
If GWB had pushed SS reform as hard as he pushed this amnesty abomination, and was able to get it through Congress when he had a chance (ie. before 11/2006), he'd be a candidate for Mt. Rushmore. Instead, he's become the lamest of lame ducks.
I still think he has a chance to build a somewhat positive legacy:
1.Drop the 'new tone' and really hit back hard at the 'Rats the next time they try to f**k with Iraq war appropriations - call them what they are - traitors - if they continue to try to surrender to Al Qaeda with any timetable or 'redeployment' scheme
2. Pardon Scooter Libby and the railroaded border agents
3. If a SCOTUS vacancy occurs while he's still in office, bypass the 'Rat-controlled Senate with a recess appointment of a serious originalist justice
4. Prosecute the leakers of classified national security documents *and* the MSM traitors that expose them
5. Promise a veto of any resurrected 'Fairness Doctrine' and vigorously defend talk radio
Doubt if it will happen, but you never know ... he did cave on Harriet Miers and Dubai Ports.
Good blogging by Dean B.
Makes me proud to be a Chowdahead.
“The next step is to immediately push the president to take up his word and enforce security at the border,” said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who help lead the fight against the bill.
>> If this makes any sense to you, then you must be smoking some peyote today.
You’ll be glad to know that nothing you’ve said has made ANY sense ... so I’m “peyote” free.
>> A government that sends troops halfway around the world to install (Iraq) and/or prop up (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) Islamic governments — while at the same time pushing to allow millions of foreigners to pour across its borders — can no longer even justify its own existence.
Sure, there’s a contradiction in the immigration policy and the War on Terror ... though I’m not sure where you’re making the leap that the contradiction means the War is a fraud.
George Bush was misguidedly disconnecting the War and the Immigration Bill ... he was clearly wrong in doing so. However, I don’t think he sees immigration as War-on-Terror-related. He wasn’t intentionally undermining his own foreign policy ... he was, to his mind, granting amnesty to hard-working immigrants in the futile hope that they would become hard-working Republican immigrants.
Again - he was CLEARLY wrong on this issue. But - the War, and the Administration’s position ON the War, is as just and right as it ever was.
H
The illegal foreigners should be encouraged to continue to speak the language of their homeland.
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