When the Senate passes its immigration reform bill this afternoon, Republicans will be left to carry the blame if they can’t, or choose not, to move a comprehensive bill of their own with a pathway to citizenship through the House.

Given the immediacy of the situation, and every indication that they’re going to drop the ball, what they need to do is figure out a way to avoid that blame, or even better to turn it back on Democrats. The problem for them is, see paragraph one. And paragraph one is leading them into amazing displays of public reasoning like this from deputy whip Pete Roskam. Read More

John Cassidy has a piece up at The New Yorker, a sort of j’accuse directed at the media for being more critical of Edward Snowden than defending him. It’s a very interesting piece and I recommend it like most everything else Cassidy writes. But he quotes from my post on Snowden to make a point about differing attitudes toward him. So I wanted to take a moment to respond. Read More

Harry Reid is wrapping up his speech on the Senate floor before the final vote on passage of the immigration reform bill. Voting should begin momentarily. Stay tuned.

The final vote was 68-32. And now all attentions turns to the House. Brian Beutler reports.

Israeli investor/GOP contributor who pleaded guilty in that big New York state pension scandal sets up new hawkish advocacy group with Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown as honorary co-chairs.

Pat Robertson on Anthony Kennedy: “Does he have some clerks that happen to be gays?”

One more note on Brian Beutler’s story about Elliott Broidy enlisting Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown in his new pro-intervention advocacy group.

Broidy’s role in the New York state pension scandal was making some $1 million in bribes to pension officials so his investment firm could win some of the lucrative pension business. Some of the Broidy bribes included payments to take care of the rent of the girlfriend of one state official. Because, you know. She happened to be Peggy Lipton, the actress of “Mod Squad” fame who later married Quincy Jones. One of their daughters is actress Rashida Jones, who is known for, among other things, her run on The Office.

All of which goes to say there are five degrees of separation between Joe Lieberman and Michael Scott:

Joe Lieberman -> Elliott Broidy -> Peggy Lipton -> Rashida Jones -> Michael Scott.

Ex-Senators team up for pro-Mideast intervention pressure group with investor convicted in epic New York pension scandal.

Openly gay Penn state Rep. blocked from discussing the DOMA decision on the House floor because he was speaking “against God’s law.”

I’ve noted a few times now that I think House Republicans will have a hard time passing anything anyone might straight-facedly call “comprehensive immigration reform.” And for that reason I think there’s merit to Chuck Schumer’s theory that a big Senate vote is a predicate to ultimately enacting a bill. Under this theory, at some point John Boehner will face a binary choice between allowing the Senate bill to pass, and saddling the GOP with all of the consequences of killing it, and killing it in an unambiguous way. Real bipartisanship in the Senate both ups the pressure on Boehner and gives him cover.

But at the risk of being a wet blanket, I don’t think recent history provides any real insight into what Boehner will do. Read More