Who Killed Immigration-Reform Legislation? (Hint: Not the Obvious Choice)

The San Diego Union-Tribune's Ruben Navarette has an interesting col in which he points the fickled finger of filibustering squarely at Senate Minority leader Harry "I like Harriet Miers" Reid (D-Nev.):

Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin-American Citizens, told me he tried to impress upon Reid's office that it was important to get immigration reform done.

"Apparently, it fell on deaf ears," Flores said.

Reid claims it was GOP hard-liners who killed reform by running roughshod over [Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist [(R-Tenn.)].

Baloney….A deal was at hand that would have offered legal status to some illegal immigrants. It would have made the GOP seem more Latino-friendly, but it would also have infuriated organized labor, which opposes something that was in the mix: guest workers.

After the Senate Judiciary Committee put out a guest-worker bill, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney issued a statement saying: "Guest-workers programs are a bad idea and harm all workers."

That did it. Senate Democrats sided with labor and sold out Latinos. The deal came undone because Reid refused to allow the legislation to go through the amendment process.

Navarette argues that after the Senate bill fell apart, Dems then "rubbed salt" in the GOP's wounds, pushing the idea that "Latinos had no choice but to stay on the liberal hacienda." His kicker: "In a twist on the famous words of one of their icons, Democrats no longer ask what they can do for Latinos, only what Latinos can do for them."

Whole thing, well worth reading, here.

Comments

[smalls]

This doesn't surpise me at all. Dems have always been the party of protectionism.

[Jersey McJones]

" Senate Democrats sided with labor and sold out Latinos. The deal came undone because Reid refused to allow the legislation to go through the amendment process"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!! What a liar!!!!

The Dems knew what was going to happen in conference and wanted no part of it. What a sleazy, stupid, scummy angle here.

The bill died because 6 GOPhers backed off it - the GOP thought they could use the issue for Mid Terms but realized it was a cement shoe.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

JMJ

[matt]

Seems like spoiled milk for republicans.
They've worked in a climate with no minority opposition for so long it's like they forgot there was another party out there.
Spilled Milk Frist Cries
(oh and my personal take is the dems thought no bills a good bill so they were going to kill anything)

[turd]

"Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot."

Yes. Anyone who thinks otherwise can't possibly be as enlightened as you are.

Jack ass.

[Jersey McJones]

Turd, grow up. The Dems couldn't stop molasses up hill in January right now. Get real.

The sleazy cons will blame the Dems for stopping regress, oops, er, I mean "progress," on immigration reform for the consumption of their stupid, ignorant, racist voters. Meanwhile the real reason the bill failed is that #1 GOP funders hated it and #2 latinos vote 40% GOP and that looked like it might fall in the wake of this evil bill.

JMJ

[Josh]

Senate Minority leader Harry "I like Harriet Miers" Miers (D-Nev.)

That's probably wrong.

[Nick Gillespie]

Fixed Reid's name on first mention. Thanks

[Brian]

Now, I'm not a big city lawyer, but it's already illegal to hire illegal immigrants, isn't it? But they don't enforce the law. So the solution is more laws.

[s.m. koppelman]

But wait: isn't the AFL-CIO position on this one of the best out there from a libertarian perspective?

That is, yes on "amnesty"/de facto greatly expanded legal immigration, and no on "guest worker" status.

Or does a freedom-of-capital pro-immigration argument come off the table when immigrants want to join a union?

[Lurker Kurt]

...on immigration reform for the consumption of their stupid, ignorant, racist voters.

I'm so glad we can all post respectful, reasoned comments here and not descend into childish name calling.

[R C Dean]

They've worked in a climate with no minority opposition for so long it's like they forgot there was another party out there.

The Senate now operates under rules that require a 60 vote supermajority to pass legislation. The Repubs lack a 60 vote supermajority.

If there is "no minority opposition" by the party that carries a blocking position on any new law or appointment, then I would take a good hard look at leadership.

[Jersey McJones]

Lurker,

C'mon man, get with it. How the hell do you think the GOP came to political prominence in the first place? They took the ol' Dixiecrat South. The GOP sold it's soul for that. With immigration the GOP is torn in half - the voters hate immigrants but the funders want them. What to do? Blame the Dems for the always-doomed bill and it's a win/win.

Again. Anyone who doesn't see that is a moron.

JMJ

[Peter James Bond]

Navarette, like Hastert and Frist, has seen the handwriting on the wall, and knows that HR 4437 will cost the GOP the Latino vote for decades. So now they're lying, claiming that it was the Democrats who wanted to make unlawful presence a felony and killed the Senate bill.

Total bullshit. HR 4437 was written, sponsored and passed by Republicans. Anyone who thinks that Republicans are so "tirelessly" searching for comprehensive immigration reform is brain dead or a complete GOP shill. If the Democrats let the Republicans disembowl the legislation through amendment - which absolutely would have happened without cloture - THAT would have been a sell out. What happened is that the Dems stood firm on principle, and the GOP can't stand that.

Reason should know better than to endorse such obvious spin from the GOP and its wanker allies. The "kicker" on the Kennedy speech shows where Navarette's loyalties lie.

[Another Lurker]

"They took the ol' Dixiecrat South." JMJ must be nice to be able to dump all of us down here in the South into the same racist bucket. Must suit your needs really well. Help you sleep at night.

You are correct that Republicans took over the South and that is where a lot of their power comes from. I actually agree with you. But you are the fucking moron if you decide to go and paint and entire region with the same brush. Are there racists here, yes. But don't fall into the same dumbass trap of acting like the rest of the US is colorblind. You seem smarter than that, maybe.

[joe]

Clearly, the unwillingness of Democrats to enshrine a caste of sub-citizens into federal law is flagrantly anti-Latino.

No voting rights. No public services. No right to change jobs. Right to stay in the country dependant on the whims of your boss. Somebody here wants to keep immigrants on the plantation, and it's not the people who opposed this indentured servitude bill.

[Adriana]

So, now it is the Democrats' fault. Never mind that Tancredi is a Republican, and he's the one fanning the flames.

The Republicans want to have it both ways, holding on to the base represented by Tancredi (and he's got quite a following now), while looking wide-eyed innocent to their business supporters who desperately want their drug of choice, cheap labor, that will free them from the task of modernizing their operations.

If there were not Democrats, they would have to invent them...

[Jersey McJones]

Ewww... hit a nerve with the Lurker set...

""They took the ol' Dixiecrat South." JMJ must be nice to be able to dump all of us down here in the South into the same racist bucket. Must suit your needs really well. Help you sleep at night.

You are correct that Republicans took over the South and that is where a lot of their power comes from. I actually agree with you. But you are the fucking moron if you decide to go and paint and entire region with the same brush. Are there racists here, yes. But don't fall into the same dumbass trap of acting like the rest of the US is colorblind. You seem smarter than that, maybe."

I was not implying that the whole South is racists, AL. The comment was in the context of the sort of voters that the original House bill was pandering to. That's all.

That said - yes, I think most GOP voters are white supremists deep in their bones.

JMJ

[spurs]

The Democrats were afraid of the third branch within the federal legislature, the conference committee -- they we're afraid that the bill that came out of there would have all the punitive and mean stuff in the house bill and they would be stuck in a corner.

The Dems, at least in the short term have the upper hand in this debate. They've used it to get their claws into the latino voter base a bit more and out-played the republicans -- we'll see in November, but this might be Prop 187 for Republicans on a national level. The Republicans have always had a real chance of gaining massive amounts of Latino support as shown by Bush and others, but this debate and the massive street marches and organizing going on right now is hurting their cause.

There is no real active push amoung American voters for punitive measures against illegal immigrants even when cloaked in fake national security, war on terror rhetoric -- they chose the wrong issue to deflect voters from the mess in Iraq and it may well cost them in the house and senate in November

[Lurker Kurt]

That said - yes, I think most GOP voters are white supremists deep in their bones.

Uh, JMJ, do you have any objective evidence or do you simple "feel" that most GOP voters are kloset klansmen?

IIRC, JMJ, you live in the Northeast (possibly NYC). Do you know anyone who regularly votes GOP?

[Another Lurker]

Well glad you clarified, JMJ.

"That said - yes, I think most GOP voters are white supremists deep in their bones."

Keep in mind I am not a GOP voter but I do know many, as I know many Donkey voters. None are racist, and that statement you made is as ignorant and ill-informed as a Republican saying "All Democrats is just Commies deep in their bones."

Might be good to take the boxes out of your life. Looks like most of your baggage does not seem to be fitting in them anyway.

[happyjuggler0]

Is it just me, or has anyone else realized that Lou Dobbs' position on just about everything that I have heard him talk about is identical to the position of unions? He claims to be a conservative,and I saw him mock a viewer email claiming he is just another typical CNN Democrat.

Immigration, imports, outsourcing, Walmart...I think I'm leaving something out but can't think what it might be.

[Jersey McJones]

Lurkers,

"Uh, JMJ, do you have any objective evidence or do you simple "feel" that most GOP voters are kloset klansmen?"

I don't think it's one of those things you're going to find a lot of data or literature on. You said it right with "Kloset Klansmen."

"IIRC, JMJ, you live in the Northeast (possibly NYC). Do you know anyone who regularly votes GOP?"

Yeah, I know quite a few.

"Keep in mind I am not a GOP voter but I do know many, as I know many Donkey voters. None are racist, and that statement you made is as ignorant and ill-informed as a Republican saying "All Democrats is just Commies deep in their bones."

Might be good to take the boxes out of your life. Looks like most of your baggage does not seem to be fitting in them anyway."

I've been all over this country and have known many, many people. I know as fact that what I said is true as much as I know I have two ears. You may be ignorant of this, you may be in denial, but I know where the hearts of most GOP voters are - and so do most people. It's a dirty little secret that everyone (except Lurkers, apparently) knows. Look at the polling demos. Look at any picture of any GOP gathering. Everyone obviously knows.

I'm in a box? You're in a friggin' cave.

JMJ

[Another Lurker]

"I've been all over this country and have known many, many people. I know as fact that what I said is true as much as I know I have two ears. You may be ignorant of this, you may be in denial, but I know where the hearts of most GOP voters are - and so do most people. It's a dirty little secret that everyone (except Lurkers, apparently) knows. Look at the polling demos. Look at any picture of any GOP gathering. Everyone obviously knows."

Thanks for the clarification, I will henceforth use your logic to paint everyone with the same brush.

It must be easy for you to know how everyone feels without even knowing them or talking to them. I got to learn that, would save me a lot of time.

I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt before and assume you were just making a joke, now I know for certain you are a dumbass.

[Jersey McJones]

""I've been all over this country and have known many, many people. I know as fact that what I said is true as much as I know I have two ears. You may be ignorant of this, you may be in denial, but I know where the hearts of most GOP voters are - and so do most people. It's a dirty little secret that everyone (except Lurkers, apparently) knows. Look at the polling demos. Look at any picture of any GOP gathering. Everyone obviously knows."

Thanks for the clarification, I will henceforth use your logic to paint everyone with the same brush.

It must be easy for you to know how everyone feels without even knowing them or talking to them. I got to learn that, would save me a lot of time.

I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt before and assume you were just making a joke, now I know for certain you are a dumbass."

Another Lurker,

There, of course, is no data to confirm what I said. There can't be. Who the hell would fess up to that? What you've done here is to set up the same sort of straw-man pro-lifers use when they say, "How do you know there were a lot of abortions before RvW?" Of course, you really can't. People didn't advertise it.

There's plenty of data on other subjects. For example, GOP voters have a variety of positions on all sorts of things, from church/state issues, to taxation, to nation building, etc. So, to compare the way GOP voters OBVIOUSLY feel about certain minorities (what, the minorities are just too stupid to know?) with the way they feel about commonly spoken issues is stupid at best.

I may be a dumbass, AL, but at least I'm not a poor excuse for a liar.

JMJ

[joe]

Jersey, no more than a plurality of Republican voters are white supremacists. Even deep in their bones.

happyjuggler, saying that Dobbs' position on immigration is the same as that of the unions, because both oppose a guest worker program, is absurd. Dobbs wants to kill the guest worker program, arrest all the illegals, and deport them. Unions want to kill the guest worker program, legalize all the illegals, and secure equal rights for them, as citizens of this country.

Nice try.

[Lurker Kurt]

JMJ,

Perhaps the GOP isn't chock full of racists, perhaps they grow weary of seeing the their tax dollars thrown down a rat hole for decades with very little, if anything, to show for it (Education/Welfare).

[Silent Lurker Majority]

JMJ- I don't know where to begin in pointing out all the logical fallacies of your argument (fallacies of presumption, fallacies of relevance, etc.), but suffice it to say that your anecdotal evidence and gut feelings about the GOP are pretty laughable grounds for serious debate (even if you do write the word "obviously" in all caps). This is "Reason" after all. For an interesting take on the Southern Strategy, read this recent article:

How the South Was Won

[FatDrunkAndStupid]

And in all fairness, I don't see what the fact that former segregationists folding into the GOP tent has to do with anything unless the GOP actually endoresed any of their agenda. I can't think of a single instance where that was the case. The GOP essentailly moderated segregationists into advocates of a color blind constitution. Now it may be that many of these former segregationsists only came to this position out of desperation. Since the Dems had gone in the opposite direction and the GOP refused to allow segregation into the platform, it may have been nothing more than this being the best they could get. But the GOP deserves to be commended for that, not ridiculed. Especially when you consider the Democrats took the exact opposite approach durring their period of electoral dominance- tacit Federal support for Southern segregation in exchange for Souther votes on social welfare policy.

[plunge]

So.... Ruben Navarette basically BS'ed his way through another article, in other words?

Look, all Reid wanted was assurances that they wouldn't be stabbed in the back in conference, like has happened over and over in the last few years. Since the plan was, as usual, to stab the Dems in the back, Republicans got all pissy. And then Ruben Navarette gets a phone call and tada! A collumn!

[Douglas Fletcher]

JMJ, go home and tell your mommy how you acted today. You should be ashamed of yourself.