It's BAAAAAAAAACK!
I have blogged, and said on the air again this morning, that illegal immigration is the only issue I've ever seen on which both political parties are so eager to piss right in the faces of overwhelming public opinion to the contrary.
Well, let me revise and extend that observation. It really should come in two parts.
1) Illegal immigration is the only issue on which there appears to be genuine bipartisan sentiment. However, since the Democrats are used to flouting the expressed will of the American people, that's nothing new for them.
2) Illegal immigration is the only issue on which Republicans - ordinarily timid to the point of paralysis, unwilling to even touch any initiative if it goes against related polling in the slightest - suddenly become "courageous" by declaring war against their own supporters - using obnoxious, underhanded liberal tactics and rhetoric in the process, naturally.
So it should come as no surprise that the Bush-McCain-Kennedy-Grahamnesty-Kyl immigration amnesty bill that was supposedly "dead" for this congressional session is roaring back:
Well, actually, Teddy is there to do exactly what he's doing: harvest twelve million new Democrat voters, who will never be grateful to his GOP patsies for the trillions in nice new entitlement benefits the rest of us will get stuck paying for, and ignite a Republican civil war that will decimate organized opposition to Donk hegemony for generations to come. It's the complicity of idiots like McCain and Grahamnesty and Snarlin' Arlen and, most of all, John Kyl that is incomprehensible.
Why shouldn't Dirty Harry be cooperative? If your political foes are willing to stampede themselves over the cliff like Legion in the herd of swine, why stand in the way?
I don't think I'd try to understand this suicidal impulse even if I was a psychiatrist. I can only lament that "senatitis" has become a lethal plague that is wiping out everything the Right has accomplished in my lifetime.
'Tis a crying shame politics doesn't have a re-set button.
[h/t: Big Mac]
UPDATE: The Admiral argues that, ironically, despite the proponents of McCain-Kennedy being profuse in their professions of love for the legislative process ("We're here to get this done!"), it was precisely their arrogant attempts to bypass the process (i.e. the "jam down") that torpedoed (for the time being, anyway) their precious "grand compromise," not the idea of an amnesty that three in every four American citizens vehemently oppose.
Ed also speculates that Harry Reid is dangling the possibility of bringing the bill back up yet again in order to extract some huge concession from a Bush White House that is desperately in search of a "bipartisan" legislative "legacy". The mind reels at what Dirty Harry's price tag would be - agreeing to the Iraq withdrawal timetables Dubya vetoed last month? Repeal of part or all of the Bush tax cuts?
Would the President agree to such things in order to get this hugely unpopular, ruinously expensive, and desperately dangerous measure enacted for his eager, slobbering signature? It's a mark of how low the Bush presidency has plummeted that such a question can even be seriously asked; it's a mark of how close to rock bottom it is that there's such dwindling doubt as to what the answer will be.
Well, let me revise and extend that observation. It really should come in two parts.
1) Illegal immigration is the only issue on which there appears to be genuine bipartisan sentiment. However, since the Democrats are used to flouting the expressed will of the American people, that's nothing new for them.
2) Illegal immigration is the only issue on which Republicans - ordinarily timid to the point of paralysis, unwilling to even touch any initiative if it goes against related polling in the slightest - suddenly become "courageous" by declaring war against their own supporters - using obnoxious, underhanded liberal tactics and rhetoric in the process, naturally.
So it should come as no surprise that the Bush-McCain-Kennedy-Grahamnesty-Kyl immigration amnesty bill that was supposedly "dead" for this congressional session is roaring back:
“Proponents of the immigration bill that stalled in the Senate regrouped Friday, holding strategy sessions and conference calls aimed at salvaging the overhaul.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and other key negotiators said they would return soon to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with a plan to move the bill toward passage.
The challenge is to whittle a lengthy list of amendments down to about twenty, convince Republican critics that they are getting adequate opportunity to air their concerns and spend only two or three days of the Senate floor time to complete the bill, senators said.
Speaking only for myself as a "Republican critic," I'm not interested in "getting adequate opportunity for the airing of my concerns"; I want this bill killed. Dead. We tried amnesty twenty years ago and ended up with four times as many illegals. It's insane to try the same failed scheme again and think there's going to be a different result. Especially when securing our borders is literally a matter of life and death.
And "spend only two or three days of the Senate floor time to complete the bill"? Doesn't that sound like yet another "jam down"? Criminy, what is it gonna take to for 'Pubbies like Kyl to get the message?
I know the answer, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.
“We are not giving up. We are not giving in,” Kennedy said. “The American people expect us to legislate. I think all of us look at the Senate the old-fashioned way: We are here to get something done.”The American people expect you to give up and give in, Uncle Teddy. They want this bill killed, dismembered, cremated, buried, paved over, and salted for good measure, followed by ritualistically jumping up and down on the grave. You are NOT there to "get something done"; you're there to do the will of the people, and the will of the people is NO MORE F'ING AMNESTIES and NO MORE POROUS BORDERS. PERIOD.
Well, actually, Teddy is there to do exactly what he's doing: harvest twelve million new Democrat voters, who will never be grateful to his GOP patsies for the trillions in nice new entitlement benefits the rest of us will get stuck paying for, and ignite a Republican civil war that will decimate organized opposition to Donk hegemony for generations to come. It's the complicity of idiots like McCain and Grahamnesty and Snarlin' Arlen and, most of all, John Kyl that is incomprehensible.
And Reid signaled again Friday that he would accommodate them. “We are ommitted to finding room in the Senate schedule as soon as possible to get this bill passed,” said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley.”
Why shouldn't Dirty Harry be cooperative? If your political foes are willing to stampede themselves over the cliff like Legion in the herd of swine, why stand in the way?
I don't think I'd try to understand this suicidal impulse even if I was a psychiatrist. I can only lament that "senatitis" has become a lethal plague that is wiping out everything the Right has accomplished in my lifetime.
'Tis a crying shame politics doesn't have a re-set button.
[h/t: Big Mac]
UPDATE: The Admiral argues that, ironically, despite the proponents of McCain-Kennedy being profuse in their professions of love for the legislative process ("We're here to get this done!"), it was precisely their arrogant attempts to bypass the process (i.e. the "jam down") that torpedoed (for the time being, anyway) their precious "grand compromise," not the idea of an amnesty that three in every four American citizens vehemently oppose.
Ed also speculates that Harry Reid is dangling the possibility of bringing the bill back up yet again in order to extract some huge concession from a Bush White House that is desperately in search of a "bipartisan" legislative "legacy". The mind reels at what Dirty Harry's price tag would be - agreeing to the Iraq withdrawal timetables Dubya vetoed last month? Repeal of part or all of the Bush tax cuts?
Would the President agree to such things in order to get this hugely unpopular, ruinously expensive, and desperately dangerous measure enacted for his eager, slobbering signature? It's a mark of how low the Bush presidency has plummeted that such a question can even be seriously asked; it's a mark of how close to rock bottom it is that there's such dwindling doubt as to what the answer will be.
posted by JASmius at 12:35 PM
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