Dingy Harry shows his hand (and Durbin reiterates), what the Democrats wanted all along, that is, the delinking of border security as a prerequisite to amnesty, er, I mean ‘the path to citizenship’:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made a move to formally kill an amendment Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) offered to the immigration bill. It would require border security before America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants are granted amnesty.
Reid filed a motion to “table” the amendment, a move that he used to quickly push for an up-or-down vote. A vote in favor of tabling the amendment would kill it. A vote against tabling the amendment would allow it to move through for debate. Essentially, a vote for Reid’s motion is a vote against securing the border before amnesty. Likewise, a vote against Reid’s motion is a vote for securing the border before granting amnesty.
The Senate Reference guide describes a motion to table as: “The motion is used to dispose quickly of questions the Senate does not wish to consider further.”
Most surreal — and a testament to just how out of touch the Republican Party is with its base — is this:
Reid’s motion to table the amendment passed 57-43, with Gang of Eight Republican Sens. John McCain (R-AZ). Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) voting with Reid. Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin and Mark Pryor voted against Reid in favor of border security before amnesty, as did Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). Ayotte had previously indicated support for the Gang of Eight bill.
Bizarro World. Things are upside down, Alice.
With the Grassley Amendment shot down, and the basic premise we were told for the past year (border enforcement first), El Rushbo today weighed in on how Schumer & Co. is ‘playing’ Rubio and the other Republicans voting for the Gang of Eight bill:
The Grassley amendment to the Gang of Eight bill simply said we would gain control of the border for six months before any other aspect of the bill — which is exactly what we were told was supported from the get-go. That’s exactly what we were told the condition was: Border security first, or nothing. Now of course that’s out the window. So is the Grassley amendment out the window with control of the border for six months…
I don’t understand how the Republicans do not understand what they’re doing to themselves with this. I do not understand how it is they do not see what’s happening. I don’t understand how they don’t get what the Democrats are doing, how the Democrats are playing them. I don’t get it.
We’ve talked about this. The Hispanic vote was not even 8% of the electorate. There was a poll out — I mentioned this to you some weeks ago — if Romney had got 70% of the Hispanic vote — and no Republican ever has the — he still would not have won. The Republicans got 37% of the Hispanic vote back in 1984. Then in 1986, they did amnesty. Then they got 30%. They lost 7% of the Hispanic vote after amnesty in 1988 election when George H. W. Bush ran. The polling data is clear: 70% of the Hispanic voters are gonna vote Democrat no matter what. You bring 11 to 12 million new people out of the shadows, and they’re — I don’t know what I’m missing. On the surface, what it appears is — and I can’t believe this. It appears that the Republicans really do fear what the Democrats tell them, that the Hispanics hate you, the Hispanics don’t like you, the Hispanics are never gonna vote for you unless you change your opinion on immigration.
I try to put myself in the position of being a Republican in the House or the Senate. I can’t for the life of me understand it. I don’t understand how they don’t see what this is going to do to their party. For the life of me, I don’t understand it. Nobody has been able to make me understand what I’m missing. What is the secret that we don’t get? What’s the secret that we’re missing, that they know, that we don’t know? Because, on the surface, this doesn’t appear to make any sense.
