Ding Dong, the Wicked Witch is Dead!!

No, we're not in Munchkin land, but for a while, I thought we were in La La land with the US Senate trying to pass a bill that over 70% of the country opposed. Today, on a vote of 46-53 on a motion to invoke Cloture and end debate on S. 1639, the US Senate killed Amnesty and the sham of immigration reform until after the 2008 election. President Bush lost the last piece of legislation that he was hoping would be his legacy, but its dead. What we have seen in the last 2 weeks is the power of grass-roots activism still being the tool that affects change. What every politician fears the most is their constituency and the fear of losing. Sometimes, you have to make it painful for them to do the right thing. Politics without pressure is ineffective. I thank groups like ProEnglish, Howard Phillips, American Conservative Union and Lou Dobbs for helping to derail this legislation.

People will try to blame one side over the other, but it was both Democrats and Republicans who fought to bring this down. Democrats said it didn't protect immigrants enough and Republicans said it was Amnesty. In the end, the fragile coalition couldn't keep people in line and were just hell bent on getting this bill passed, no matter the price. Both of my Senators, Webb and Warner from VA voted against cloture today and Webb has not been happy with this legislation for a while. The Big defections for the Dems were Bryd and Rockefeller from WV, surprisingly Harkin from Iowa, Bernie Sanders from VT and Debbie Stabenow from MI. On the Republican side, while Lott, McCain, Graham and Kyl have been on the side of evil, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell from KY, Kay Bailey Hutchison from TX, and Saxby Chambliss from GA, who supported this bill the entire time finally voted right. I knew when Hutchison said she would vote no that the bill was DOA.

I do feel bad that no REAL Immigration reform was addressed, but anything without border security, English only, and other guest worker provisions just cannot be seriously considered.

John McCain suffered 2 big blows this week. First, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of McCain-Feingold Incumbency Protection act (Campaign Finance Reform) and then the immigration bill goes down in flames. When you're on the wrong side of every major issue, you can't be a serious contendor for President of the United States. I'm just glad that the Kennedy-McCain bill failed.

To see how your senator voted, go to thomas.loc.gov and then go to Roll Call votes, then US Senate. You will find it there.