Senate No Amnesty Scorecard: 2nd runners up
If you did not have an opportunity to read the first post on the Senate No Amnesty Scorecard it is back a few posts and the following two paragraphs are from its opening to provide a review.
In a continuing series of posts on the GOP 24 some alterations and adjustments have been made based on events of the last couple of days. The GOP 24 should have been at least the GOP 27 with the information that was available at first. With the recent defeat of cloture on S.1639 in Roll Call Vote 235, a simple analysis was done here.
There were two bills for amnesty in the Senate this month. The first was S.1348, the famous back room deal between the Bush White House and primarily Senators Kyl, Kennedy, McCain and Reid. President Bush and these Senators as well as many others are in favor of amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The bill they offered reflected that desire. The desire to abandon the rule of law and increase the risk to the United States with reckless legislation for political gain.
There has been a post on the 1st runners up so take a look back if you haven’t read it. This is the post for the 2nd runners up. After the strong first group in the scorecard the others are only referred to as runners up. There is no second or third place, etc., and then runners up. You either took a strong position or unnecessary risks. While some slack can be cut for the risk takers in that they may have intended to vote to consider and then debate, the risk of exposing the fight on illegal immigration and security to a full vote for passage on either measure was a mistake since no amount of fiddling with the language would have cured the ills of either piece of legislation. And if the vote to consider was purely political, the effect was equally disappointing. But the luck of the draw saves them from serious criticism as their second votes on each cloture group aided defeat of the bills. So here is the 2nd runners up list.
(R-MO) Bond
(R-KS) Brownback
(R-NC) Burr
(R-MN) Coleman
(R-ME) Collins
(R-NM) Domenici
(R-NV) Ensign
(R-KY) McConnell
(R-AK) Murkowski
(D-AR) Pryor
(R-AK) Stevens
(R-OH) Voinovich
(R-VA) Warner
(D-VA) Webb
Some may have intended passage of one bill or the other and that would be unfortunate and disappointing. Then there is the confusion these votes bring in terms of previously stated positions like that of Bond from Missouri. He claims opposition to amnesty yet did not make a higher list like McCaskill who provided a stronger vote in this battle. McConnell is the GOP minority leader and should know better. He should have been in the winners list. You get the idea. But at least these Senators are not in the upcoming _ _ _ _ lists on illegal immigration and security. And again, there are representatives from both parties on this list. A promising trend for the word bipartisan although it may still be a code word for ‘we are in trouble either way so let’s plan a vote to save us politically’ strategy.
Since the votes, we still need to pressure Congress and the executive branch on enforcement since they now appear to be planning to table everything until the 2008 elections are completed. That is not a good thing and may lessen the positive signs from this Congressional performance.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.