Southern Senators kill immigration bill

Just weeks after the much-hyped "grand compromise" on immigration, Senate advocates fell five votes short of reaching cloture and moving the bi-partisan bill forward. The Washington Post today describes the "careful strategy" used to derail it:

Two weeks ago, when the immigration bill landed on the Senate floor, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) voted against an amendment that targeted one of its key provisions: a guest-worker program that President Bush and many U.S. companies have sought for years.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, DeMint returned to the floor and, along with three conservative Republican colleagues, voted in favor of the same measure he had opposed, to sunset the program after five years. Not that DeMint has anything against guest workers. He supports the idea. But weakening the guest-worker program would leave the bill in tatters -- and in the twisted logic of the Senate, that served DeMint's greater goal of derailing the legislation.

"If it hurts the bill, I'm for it," DeMint explained matter-of-factly.

Right Wing News also credits the work of Republican Senators DeMint, Jeff Sessions (AL) and Tom Coburn (OK), with DeMint being the ringleader. These three went on to target four Republicans sitting on the fence, including Jim Bunning (KY) and Elizabeth Dole (NC), who faces re-election next year.

At the grassroots, anti-immigration groups are claiming success -- and credit. GrassFire.org, a right-wing, MoveOn-style outfit, declared today that "The defeat of the Senate "Amnesty" bill last night can be directly attributed to more than one million Senate contacts made by Grassfire team members since the announcement of the "Kennedy-Bush Amnesty" bill several weeks ago."

Given the immense opposition to the bill among grassroots conservatives, why did Bush and leading Republicans go along with it? The Right Wing News writer offers a viewpoint that echoes our recent analysis about the true motivations behind the bill:

First off, there [is] the "Rovian School of thought," which says that passing this bill would capture the Hispanic vote for the GOP for decades to come.

Next up, there's the "Chamber of Commerce" vote. [T]hese Republicans were heavily influenced by business groups that want cheap labor no matter what the cost is for the rest of the country.