Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Vote Republican Again: They're Bringing Back Amnesty, And This Time, They WILL Pass It

Our victory was short-lived. They're going to push the amnesty bill again, and this time they'll vote for it. The keys? A scheme to spend a paltry $4.4 billion on border security -- borrowed from the Treasury department, for some reason, rather than appropriated -- supposed "first," that is, immediately, and yet they're plotting to pass amnesty before a nickel of this money is actually spent on improving border security. No fence, no computer system finally up and running to track immigrants, no biometric ID cards, no employment-eligibility system operational, no end to sanctuary cities -- nothing. Just more promises.

How many times does it need to be said? Your promises count for nothing when you are merely promising to do what you already could be doing, but flatly refuse to do. The attitude continues to be John McCain's "I'll build the goddamned fence" only if forced to do so.

And the moment their precious amnesty passes -- when we no longer have any leverage or bargaining power -- they won't be so forced to do that which is clearly anathema to them. 1986 all over again -- except this time it's worse, because it won't be forgiven or forgotten.

They're determined to destroy the Republican Party. They really are.

The other thing they're doing is agreeing on a limited number of Republican enforcement-improving amendments to consider. These will almost all be voted down -- but amnesty-supporters like Mitch McConnell, who voted against cloture last time, will now vote for cloture (and thus final passage of the bill) after he gives his Republican colleagues a chance to have their common-sense amendments rejected.

I assumed that Republican Senators had finally "gotten it" -- that they really were opposing the substance of the amnesty bill, but used the unfairness of Harry Reid's one-week-to-consider-and-debate-an-enormous-transformational-amnesty-bill as a procedural pretext to vote against the bill. I was wrong -- they really were just voting against the perceived procedural unfairness of Reid's bull-rush, and were just tossing security-minded colleagues a bone. But the moment they schedule votes on those amendments -- and then promptly vote them all down -- they'll pass the goddamned amnesty.

One small plus: These bastards are going to have it on their records that they voted against common-sense security measures, sometimes two or three times. They're all going to have to vote in favor of giving amnesty and permanent legal status to chronic felons, for example.

Kaus is similarly "paranoid," as he terms it. Chambliss and Issacson, in his read (and mine too), aren't truly against the amnesty now -- they're still very much for it, they just want a fig-leaf of fake security cover for their pro-amnesty vote. And the pro-amnesty forces are going to give them just that -- cosmetic, utterly false "security" measures. Key quote from Paul Weyrich:

In all of the years I have been here I never have known when the establishment really wants something that the establishment cannot obtain it. And the establishment really wants this bill.

Yup. The establishment wants it, no matter what the public wants.

Pot-banging tantrum-throwing Senator Lindsey Graham now says this bill isn't about immigration at all, but about our very ability as a nation to pass piece of shit bills. I'm not sure I'm really sold on the importance of our ability to pass piece of shit bills, but for Lindsay Graham and the media, it's a critical test of the American experiment in democracy.

Fuck Jeff Jacoby: Brands all those who oppose amnesty-without-security as racists, likens border fence to Berlin Wall.

If It's Popular, Why Does It Need To Be Passed So Far Before The Election? From Kaus again:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested to reporters that if the Senate does not act "within the next couple weeks" the bill could be dead for the 110th Congress.

"As long as we can get the bill back up within a very short period of time, there is no harm done," said Chertoff, who said that the Georgians' funding plan was still on the table. "What we can't afford to do is let this languish beyond that period of time."

If America has amnesty fever, it seems to me the bill could be scheduled right up against the 2008 elections, no? Given the supposed popularity it enjoys, that should pressure wavering Congressmen into voting for it! After all, they don't want to vote against such a vital and popular bill and then face "angry voters"!

63% of Public, Including 65% of Republicans, Support "Pathway To Citizehship!" Really? You sure that's not because the media typically asks if an illegal immigrant should be permitted, the same as anyone else, to apply for pemanent legal status, rather than asking them if they think that all illegal immigrants should be automatically be granted such status overnight?

Again: If this all is so damned popular, then I advise the amnesty coalition to take the vote right before the elections, when their political hand is the strongest.

No?

Not going to do that, huh?

I wonder why.

posted by Ace at 02:54 PM

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