Always A Silver Lining

Today’s defeat of the comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate was, in my view, a victory for the American people. It was also a defeat for the Senate’s Democratic leadership, which tried to push the bill through without committee hearings and without a normal amendment process.
Normally, one would expect most reporters and editors to be disappointed by the failure of a predominantly liberal measure. But on immigration, there is a silver lining: the headline on Yahoo’s main news page reads: Senate Blocks Bush’s Immigration Bill:

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.
After the stinging political setback, Bush sounded resigned to defeat.

Given that 34 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted for cloture, while 16 Democrats and 37 Republicans voted against, the result was primarily a defeat for the Democratic Party. My guess, however, is that the press’s ability to spin it as a defeat for President Bush will cause them to go easier on the anti-comprehensive “reform” forces than would otherwise have been the case.
To comment on this post, go here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses