Earlier I noted that for the first time since the November election I’ve seen Republicans openly questioning whether they really need to get behind immigration reform. Or, to put it more concretely, whether the politics dictates that they need it to pass. But there’s something else going on too: Senate Democrats need to start seriously considering whether they’re getting played by the Gang of 8 charade.
This morning Sen. Schumer (D-NY) said we should expect to see a bill unveiled this week. But Senator Graham says more like “in the next couple of weeks.” And the crowd around Rubio is chattering that it may well take longer, even as Rubio said a few days ago that the bill itself will only be the ‘starting point’ of the debate.
You start to see what at least some folks are trying to do here. Drag this out, drag this out, drag this out. So as the thing gets bogged down you get the sand kicked in the eyes of the public about who’s on which side and who’s trying to prevent anything from happening. It starts looking a lot like other pieces of legislation that have twirled into the black hole of Senate ‘gangs’ and opaque negotiations so all the public sees is a Senate unable to act.
There’s limited utility trying to negotiate a bipartisan compromise with folks who are trying to scuttle a bill while the legislation itself enjoys broad public. I don’t think this is going to end up happening. The political pressure for action is simply too great. And there are a number of Senate Republicans who genuinely do want legislation. But most want to slow it down as much as possible to see if some opportunity arises to kill it.
Much more of this and it would be silly for Senate Dems and the White House not to just introduce a bill and let the public see who’s for it and against it.
