As yours truly shrewdly predicted (hiding behind Powerline), the immigration bill was defeated in the Senate. The motion to invoke cloture went this way: 46 yea, 53 nay, with one not voting. Sixty votes would have been required to end debate and allow a vote on the bill itself. It is generally agreed that no immigration bill will be acted on again until after the next election.
What killed the bill was the simple fact that most Americans didn't like it, and a lot of Americans didn't like it with a passion. We are, after all, a democracy. I think it was very bad of Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il) to blame the bill's defeat on racism. There was no doubt some of that, but precisely because we are a democracy, the American people can reasonably demand that the laws be enforced.
A lot of attention on the news shows focuses on who will be hurt by this defeat. In some respects, the Republicans are clearly more vulnerable. The President hurt his base by pushing it, and the Hispanic vote will probably see the Republicans as the anti-immigration party. But the Democrats might not want to crow too loudly. Congress under their control has proved unable to legislate on a topic where good legislation was clearly needed. What if they had a larger majority? They would have passed this very unpopular bill, or better yet, a bill even more unpopular.
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