matclone

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070628/...ss_immigration

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called the vote "a victory for fear-mongering and obstruction over a bipartisan commitment to fix our broken immigration system."

Kerry got it right. A sad day for the Senate.

I'm reminded that civil rights legislation passed, barely, in spite of opposition of Southern Senators. I believe there are a lot of parallels between the very contentious civil rights debate (See, e.g., Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate") and today's very contentious immigration debate.

I think the major talk radio shows and the major TV show hosts should get together and fix our broken laws. Oh, can't do it? Don't want to do it? Then get the hell out of the way.

Spider

Just a thought from a non-political guy: do you think maybe the Senate's action was more of an effort to deny GWB a victory than it was a result of objections to the bill itself?

I should ask: was it mostly blocked by Democrats?

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"Love never dies." The Beatles

matclone

I don't think the vote was due to opposition to Bush. I'm not sure what purpose that would serve. Clearly he's lost some clout, however, as he was strongly pushing for this.

There was bi-partisan support, and bi-partisan opposition. On the whole, yes, more Republicans were against it than Democrats. However, I think it's important to remember the bill was crafted by a group of Republican and Democrat Senators and Cabinet ministers from the Bush Administration after weeks of negotiation. It was called "the Grand Bargain"--an attempt to please the different points of view.

As the article notes, which I think supports my theory above, the main opposition was from the Senators from the old South, including Democrats in Missouri and Virginia.

Spider

Okay, then. Just proves I'm not a political guy.

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"Love never dies." The Beatles

matclone

One needn't be a "political guy" to have an opinion or to ask questions. The legislature represents all of us, and all of us should be represented. Otherwise, we're left with only political guys running the show and making decisions.

Spider

True. I have my opinions and vote according to my beliefs and what I know about the candidates from the media, but I don't have the political insights or background to analyze events in depth or read between the lines.

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"Love never dies." The Beatles

UGLY

was this the amnesty bill?

matclone

If that's what you want to call it, yes, this was the one.

UGLY

Did you think that the illegal aliens here deserved amnesty?

FloggingSully

Deserved or not, this bill is probably the only chance to pass any kind of immigration reform for a while. Pass it and somethings will change (I'm not saying one way or the other if these changes would be good) but don't pass it and things will stay pretty much the same.

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There's no such thing as a pretty good aligator wrestler.