by DemFromCT
A reminder: Dems are not running in a vacuum. Immigration is a Republican debacle.
On the eve of nationwide hearings that could determine the fate of his immigration bill, President Bush is signaling a new willingness to negotiate with House Republicans in an effort to revise the stalled legislation before Election Day.
Republicans both inside and outside the White House say Mr. Bush, who has long insisted on comprehensive reform, is now open to a so-called enforcement-first approach that would put new border security programs in place before creating a guest worker program or path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally...
The House hearings begin Wednesday in Laredo, Tex., and San Diego and will continue throughout the summer. In the Senate, Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will convene his committee on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
The meetings will undoubtedly expose the deep Republican rift just as the elections draw near, and some say they are simply a way to stave off legislation until after November. Democrats, eager to pick up Congressional seats, intend to use the hearings to drive home the idea that Republicans have failed to address illegal immigration, a tactic that could further complicate prospects for a bill before Election Day.
Any move to the right to placate the House blows up the bill in the Senate. And let me emphasize the difference between the Ds on Iraq (united for change but unclear on solutions, along with the American public) and Rs on immigration (complete disarray, running away from both Bush and the public, and alienating Latinos in the process) couldn't be starker because of one major fact: Republicans are in charge and are responsible in both cases for the mess we're currently in. In the case of immigration, Republicans (and Bush) are running away from the carefully crafted bipartisan Senate bill that Americans support. Bush is, if fact, running away from his own proposal. That's what happens when you can't govern.
In the '04 election, there was a Sebastian Mallaby column which my father sent me because he found it interesting. My father is a former lifelong Republican (though not active beyond voting) and he knew Bush was a disaster, but Mallaby's column, which compared what Bush and Kerry said they were going to do, made him wonder whether Kerry would do any better. My dad is no dummy, but he'd missed the fundamental flaw in the column, which was that we didn't have to compare Kerry to what Bush said, we could compare to what Bush did.
That is the key point to repeatedly make to our undecided friends for the election this fall -- it doesn't matter what the Republican candidate says; decide based on what they've done, because if you leave them in charge, you're going to get more of the same (and don't think your one Republican, no matter how good a guy he seems to be, is going to be able to change what the top-down leadership decides.)
Posted by: Redshift | July 05, 2006 at 11:30
Oh, and psst! "Republicans are in disarray!" Pass it on.
Posted by: Redshift | July 05, 2006 at 11:31
time for an "Orange Alert", dontchathink ???
ooooh, look at the scary terrorists
look at the scary liberals
just don't look at the clown behind the curtain
Posted by: freepatriot | July 05, 2006 at 14:10